Welcome to the 1st edition of Marketing Mondays for 2010 - its going to be a great year, I can feel it!
Living, working and travelling across the world has given me exposure to all sorts of marketing. To put it simply, marketing is everywhere!
They say that the average American takes in over 3000 marketing messages in a day (Source: Superprofile)! The enormity of this number amazes me but the scariest thing of all is that it is not that much of a surprise either
Yesterday, I was in Jerusalem and my experience there made me realise how true this figure actually is. As I boarded the bus I saw advertisements spread across the walls and on the bus itself. As I entered the ladies toilets there were ads on the bathroom doors and on the stall walls. Even when I visited one of the most holiest sites in the world – the Western Wall – I saw billboards and ads en route to the Old City.
This experience prompted me to write this blog as it demonstrates how mass marketing has evolved to become a part of our culture in the 21st century.
Most of us walk past these images without really realising the significance that they have – we, essentially, have been desensitised to them. I know I have been. I’m sure if our forefathers saw ads in places like this they would, at minimum, think it was strange. The point I’m trying to make is not to criticise the existence of these images in this particular place – it’s to use this as an example of the times we live in as consumers and marketers. I’m sure those who read this now can think of other special places in the world that demonstrate something similar.
So what does this tell us?
For me, it says how much mass marketing has become a part of our world. But...if there are so many messages out there, as marketers, are we really able to communicate effectively? Or are we in the situation of risking quality for quantity?
The enormity of messages out there presents a plethora of challenges for the marketing world – lack of differentiation, communication confusion, poor brand awareness – to name a few.
However it also offers us opportunities.
Yes, we do need to mass market our brands in order to be a player in the ever growing competitive landscape. But we also can start to be more creative with joining up our mass marketing tactics with other integrated marketing activities that will differentiate us.
Not only are our customers bombarded with too many messages, they also have less time to digest them. In this new decade, I can only see the messages increasing and the time becoming scarcer.
As marketers, we need to realise that an advertisement seen en route to the Western Wall for that juicy hamburger will unlikely make the sale. We need to focus our efforts on taking the awareness we’ve raised in that ad and team it with other marketing tactics (loyalty schemes, developing brand value through social networking, etc) to sell that meal deal.
In my view, this is the key to breaking through the explosion of messages that are out there – creating brand value and loyalty.
I hope you enjoyed the 1st Marketing Mondays of 2010! Please feel free to share stories of your interactions – I’m sure the holiday season brought its fair share to you all!
Happy Marketing,
Miriam Berger
AppleCrisp Marketing Solutions
Living, working and travelling across the world has given me exposure to all sorts of marketing. To put it simply, marketing is everywhere!
They say that the average American takes in over 3000 marketing messages in a day (Source: Superprofile)! The enormity of this number amazes me but the scariest thing of all is that it is not that much of a surprise either
Yesterday, I was in Jerusalem and my experience there made me realise how true this figure actually is. As I boarded the bus I saw advertisements spread across the walls and on the bus itself. As I entered the ladies toilets there were ads on the bathroom doors and on the stall walls. Even when I visited one of the most holiest sites in the world – the Western Wall – I saw billboards and ads en route to the Old City.
This experience prompted me to write this blog as it demonstrates how mass marketing has evolved to become a part of our culture in the 21st century.
Most of us walk past these images without really realising the significance that they have – we, essentially, have been desensitised to them. I know I have been. I’m sure if our forefathers saw ads in places like this they would, at minimum, think it was strange. The point I’m trying to make is not to criticise the existence of these images in this particular place – it’s to use this as an example of the times we live in as consumers and marketers. I’m sure those who read this now can think of other special places in the world that demonstrate something similar.
So what does this tell us?
For me, it says how much mass marketing has become a part of our world. But...if there are so many messages out there, as marketers, are we really able to communicate effectively? Or are we in the situation of risking quality for quantity?
The enormity of messages out there presents a plethora of challenges for the marketing world – lack of differentiation, communication confusion, poor brand awareness – to name a few.
However it also offers us opportunities.
Yes, we do need to mass market our brands in order to be a player in the ever growing competitive landscape. But we also can start to be more creative with joining up our mass marketing tactics with other integrated marketing activities that will differentiate us.
Not only are our customers bombarded with too many messages, they also have less time to digest them. In this new decade, I can only see the messages increasing and the time becoming scarcer.
As marketers, we need to realise that an advertisement seen en route to the Western Wall for that juicy hamburger will unlikely make the sale. We need to focus our efforts on taking the awareness we’ve raised in that ad and team it with other marketing tactics (loyalty schemes, developing brand value through social networking, etc) to sell that meal deal.
In my view, this is the key to breaking through the explosion of messages that are out there – creating brand value and loyalty.
I hope you enjoyed the 1st Marketing Mondays of 2010! Please feel free to share stories of your interactions – I’m sure the holiday season brought its fair share to you all!
Happy Marketing,
Miriam Berger
AppleCrisp Marketing Solutions
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