The Brand is Dead. Love Live the Brand.
Traditional brand advertising is supposedly obsolete, replaced by the “meritocracy” of today’s digital platforms, whereby anyone (or anything) can promote or destroy a product and/or company. We no longer take “advertising” at face value, as we are now clued in that just because a marketer’s message is amplified, it’s not necessarily true. We got wise. We know that “The Season of Giving” was created by some retail lobby and that “Breakfast is the most important meal of the day” was developed by some egg board or cereal company to boost its bottom line.
Product-focused marketing became marketing 2.0, and it was great for consumers. Go online, search for the product or service you are interested in purchasing, research, read some reviews, check the comments, and make your “informed” decision.
Initially, this “organic” content was often a boon for marketers. Consumers wanted to vouch for their favorites enthusiastically, and even the mixed or negative reviews or comments were often reasonable and with merit to which we could respond and make things right. We even boosted our visibility online via SEO, curating positive content for our products and services. It worked until it didn’t, and as the adage goes, “All good things must come to an end.”
People who commented, reviewed, tweeted, and posted slowly became aware that they were suddenly becoming more visible, popular, and even famous. Just about every human wants attention, and so does the craving for more. They also became aware of the power and influence they yielded and had to create their own “personal brand” to remain relevant. Remaining more relevant meant more posting, which led to figuring out the most engaging content: outrage, outrageousness, and ostentatiousness. Today, it’s about one good comment review to nine bad ones, often buried by the curation of which can be seen.
Big media followed suit with its version of clickbait. 24-hour news recycles the same handful of stories with armies of “expert” commentators. Companies followed suit by quietly posting SEO pages vailed as editorials, white papers, and “competitive reviews” that suggested that while the competition was “good,” it led the reader to believe it was unbiased and that their product was superior.
Then, when it was thought it couldn’t be worse, bots, AI, and automation made content generation easier, faster, and cheaper than ever before. The estimates are that 50% of long-form content on LinkedIn is AI-generated. With the advent of chatbots and generative AI, do we believe AI will return an unbiased, monetarily unmotivated query result? The noise now loses the signal, and reputable brands/companies have lost resonance, authority, authenticity, and control.
Now more than ever, the consumer needs to seek the truth, discern between “alternative facts,” and rely on vetted (often paid) sources or information directly from the brand that cannot be manipulated by devious means. Unfortunately, as it exists today, digital marketing struggles to provide the solution. The solution exists by going beyond digital, reimagining brand marketing, and re-engaging the traditional channels that can deliver while controlling the narrative. Conventional direct marketing provides a viable track to achieve this goal.
No one suggests fully disengaging from digital and running away as fast as possible. Digital is where your audience is, and the targeting is incredible. We recommend diversifying into channels that offer scalable audiences with precision targeting, where you can rest assured that what you put out there will have a fair shake. With digital and direct mail/catalog marketing, you can create a “+1 relationship” with your customers.
