Seth Godin - Hating On TV Advertising
Why do word of mouth marketing folks hate on traditional advertising? Today Seth Godin writes:
This is why the Journal’s report that Google is flirting seriously with a big advertising buy is so troublesome. Once you start buying TV time, you just added another tool to your marketing belt. Now, plenty of your development and marketing team will say, “Oh, we’ll just buy ads. People will use it!” Suddenly, you don’t focus so much on building word of mouth and remarkability into your products, because now you can easily use TV to spackle over less remarkable products.
Think about that for a bit. Here’s what I say, that’s freakin ridiculous. Sure, running bad TV spots won’t work but a good strategic integrated branding strategy will. What these Kool-Aid drinking word of mouth marketers never seem to understand is the impact of a strategic integrated branding approach. One tactic lifts up another, they work hand and hand. They all leverage the brand identity. Bingo, it all works.
But, if you do crappy stuff you get crappy results. Don’t hate on any one tactic it’s just shortsighted. Word of mouth marketing can be fantastic, I agree. But great TV ads (insert Mac vs PC here) can also do great things and Apple’s TV ads certainly hasn’t taken away from their word of mouth marketing, has it?
Last week I defended direct mail when word of mouth marketing company Brains on Fire dismissed the entire tactic (read about that here). Today I defend TV advertising. I do this if and only if it’s part of an integrated, strategic branding approach. Focusing on just any one tactic is not something I will ever recommend to a client.
I would be wary of any marketing company that only promoted one tactic, because it’s most likely the tactic they’re selling. Brand Identity Guru is not tied to any tactic, we only use the tactics that are best for the client based on their brand identity goals. BIG difference.
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