When Did We Lose Our Way?
I started to rant about how bad Kroger supermarket sucks, but the teacher in me prevailed. Instead, I thought about how important truth in advertising and marketing is for everyone. Let me explain, Kroger promotes quality and freshness at low prices, but the customer experience is nowhere close—maybe low prices. T-Mobile promotes the widest cell phone coverage, but my fiancée can’t make calls on certain city streets. Moreover, when we travel her phone is useless.
The point is advertising and marketing is not the place for aspirational visions. That’s a corporate vision statement—to be used internally. Advertising and marketing is the public announcement of your promise to customers; what they can expect and what you will deliver. It’s a preview of what they will experience when they buy. Essentially, it is the truth about your brand.
Sadly, some creative practitioners have lost their way; blinding hype, going viral, awards, and creative recognition has reduced them to relying on exaggerations, tricks, and short cuts to dazzle audiences. It may be entertaining, but it’s not your job. Marketing professionals are (should be) charged with smart, thoughtful, and intelligent storytelling about the value, the promise, and the brand experience.
“The most powerful element in advertising is the truth.” – Bill Bernbach.
Creative professionals need to do their job and give clients a chance at winning. There are too many missed opportunities and it hurts everyone.
President and Creative Director at Promotus Advertising
4 年As leaders, we need to wake-up fast. It is “Winter in America” and it has nothing to do with the weather.
President and Creative Director at Promotus Advertising
4 年Many business owners and marketing managers think large companies with multimillion-dollar budgets are the only ones positioned to do incredible stuff. Not true. Small brands have more freedom to be incredible.?
President and Creative Director at Promotus Advertising
4 年Truth in advertising is the valued principle in brand development. Without it, we are all just Snake Oil hucksters.??
President and Creative Director at Promotus Advertising
4 年Connecting the marketing dots is better than ranting.
President/Executive Recruiter at DaMar Staffing Solutions
4 年I agree with both points. Kroger does suck, I have T-Mobile and it sucks, and if brands say things that are not true not even close, we assume all marketing is just hype and lies.??