advertising

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been writing about lessons and takeaways from the current crisis. This week, I’m channeling a post I wrote years ago called Do We Care About Brands?, which I shared again recently on social media. After re-reading that, it had me asking, “What about brands? Do they really care about us?”

People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.

-Theodore Roosevelt

CVS is going to make sure the products it sells aren’t promoted with images that have been “materially” altered. It’s a great start.

The announcement earlier this month read, in part: “We want our beauty aisle to be a place where our customers can always come to feel good, while representing and celebrating the authenticity and diversity of the communities we serve.”

CVS is going to put a logo on products it deems authentic.

Marketing used to be pretty simple. To promote your brand, you used mass media to reach large audiences and create widespread awareness about your product or service. If you crafted a powerful message, the approach could work wonders. Most of the great brands of the 20th century were built that way.

Content, in theory, should be a boon to marketers. The Content Marketing Institute says that “consumers have shut off the traditional world of marketing“ and touts content as a “strategic marketing approach that can attract and retain audiences” and “drive profitable customer action.”

This analysis from Nielsen is amusing.

The global survey found that trust levels in advertising have remained consistent across earned, owned and paid formats over the past two years.

One of the advantages of being in the age business for so long is that you have seen most business models and joint-ventures come and go.

So it is with AARP's new venture in advertising. This is what it says about itself:

(NOTE: I originally wrote this article in 2005 and was reminded of it this morning while surfing the net and dealing with autoplay videos. One more way that we try to capture, not captivate, the audience. And worse, they usually make them very hard to stop or turn off the sound. That little 'x' is so hard to tap, that you end up opening the brand website and I'll put money on the fact that their agency calls it a win. 

Are you delivering a great customer experience - or are you just relying on advertising to create awareness and sell your products? 

On the eve (sorta) of the biggest day of the year for the advertising industry (OK, for commercials... we love to watch the Super Bowl commercials), I thought I'd share some thoughts on the common disconnect between advertising and the customer experience.