Advertising has been around for a long time. By some recordings, written advertisements made an appearance more than 5,000 years ago. In that time human society has come a long way—we have invented air travel, electric cars, and even space travel. With all of these advancements, you’d assume we would have solved something as simple as how to effectively market and advertise to consumers.
Yet, we routinely see failed advertising efforts from aspiring and established brands alike. Indeed, for some, advertising seems like a void that threatens to envelope one’s profits. What makes this all the more surprising is, as a professional who has interacted with businesspeople from aspiring entrepreneurs to successful CMOs to self-made billionaires, a lot of talent exists in the industry...
Why is advertising so hard? Truly answering that question cannot be done in a single article. However, here, I share four observations around the challenges of advertising: shifting markets, swelling tactics, impetuous decisions, and certainty fixation. In addition, I talk about the needed strategic shift that is long overdue.
Shifting Markets—One problem with advertising is that our targets are rarely static. Put simply, they do not exist in a vacuum. Our targets often shift as people’s tastes and preferences change. Even if the demographics hold fast, psychographics almost inevitably change. This creates a challenge because brands must maintain a pulse on the consumer. Brands want the simplicity of targeting the consumers that fell in love with them to stay the same, but the story doesn’t always go that way; people change, and we have to realize our messages and executions must change and evolve with them.
Swelling Tactics—In the past, it was challenging enough to think about basic print, radio, television, and out-of-home advertisements. Now, we have witnessed an explosion of tactics in the modern era of advertising; we have an ever-growing suite of digital platforms. The problem is the growth of tactics has led brands to jump into waters they don’t know how to navigate. They don’t understand the depth of the waters nor even the mines that float on the surface. This lack of understanding creates various problems related to proper tactical execution, efficient media spent, and attribution to sales.
Impetuous decisions—Brands want to move quick and to be agile; I hear this more and more when interacting with executives. Indeed, this need is likely influenced, in part, by the rise of social media which allows for real time conversations with consumers—real time conversations that can be very visible to the community. The problem is that the availability of rapid conversations doesn’t always lead to meaningful commentary or brand building. Brands find themselves making impetuous decisions that are either ineffective or, worse, that they regret.
Certainty fixation— As a contrarian point of view to impetuous decisions, I have also observed what I call ‘certainty fixation’. Brands want to be absolutely certain about an effort before they take any action. On the surface, I love the commitment, it is great to carve away as much ambiguity as we can before launching a campaign. The problem isn’t with the desire to reduce uncertainty; the problem is becoming obsessed with reaching absolute certainty. We never have absolute certainty. Part of this is because of the fact that consumers change. Part of this is because the competition takes actions. Part of this is because of unforeseen environmental events. Thus, brands have to walk the line between taking impetuous actions and taking no actions at all.
With all these forces weighing down effective advertising, the temptation might be to simply give up. That certainty strikes me as an easy decision to execute. But, what would this really mean? Would it mean shifting all the resources from advertising to product development? This could be tempting, but even with better products, we would be faced with how to communicate and help consumers understand their value. Without the order that proper advertising can bring, we are left with a chaos that threatens to strip marketers of any purpose. Fortunately, it does not have to be this way. To me, all of this should be a reminder that strategy is a very real part of advertising.
On the one hand, the idea that I would suggest strategy is a solution is hardly surprising. On the other hand, if one looks to shifting markets, swelling tactics, impetuous decisions, and certainty fixation, the threat each one brings is that it lures us away from strategy.
- Shifting markets can lead us to focus solely on the consumer and lose sight of our broader brand strategy.
- Swelling tactics can lead to an obsession with new product content with no strategic rudder to steer it.
- Impetuous decisions invite quick actions that can bypass the difficult strategic thought.
- And, certainty fixation can lead us to focus too much on solving an unsolvable problem instead of putting together an actionable strategy.
The upshot of this discussion is simple: we need to get better at strategy. Strategy needs to be more than an overly utilized word; it needs to be at the heart of how brands train their employees, it needs to be infused into organizational decision-making processes, and it needs to be a central part of how we evaluate success. Let’s be clear here: strategy does not guarantee flawless execution. On the football gridiron, strategy is a huge part of the success, but how we execute and how we respond to changes in our opposition matters a lot. However, the danger at the moment is that we become fixated on tactical execution which risks players going in the wrong direction and success being dictated by randomness and chaos. Let’s change this.
