Our Take On Ad Age’s Five Revolutionary Changes in Marketing
Ad Age recently published an article listing five revolutionary changes in marketing since the turn of the century. Our team found the information insightful and passed it on to our President and Chief Strategy Officer, Mary Verdin, to hear her expert opinion.
The whole Ad Age article can be found here. Here are Mary’s thoughts on its five main points:
1. PR is more important than advertising.
“I think PR has always been the most important thing; it just wasn’t recognized as such. There is no better marketing than a third party endorsement. But now, with skepticism of the public increasing and this thing called ‘fake news,’ it’s more important than ever.”
2. The category is more important than the brand.
“The category is so important that sometimes the brand becomes the category, as the case with Kleenex (as in “I need a kleenex”) and Google (‘I’m going to google something’).”
3. The name is more important than the strategy.
“Don’t forget that the name IS the brand. Whatever name you select to represent your product needs to resonate with your audience. Pay attention. Do you remember Chevrolet’s massive failure when they tried to market the Nova in Mexico (‘no va’ means ‘no go’ in Spanish…)?”
4. The visual is more important than the verbal.
“I keep saying that people don’t read anymore. I read news blurbs online and leave wanting more information. Because of the bombardment of information and messages, which is only increasing, visuals provide context and motivation to actually spend the time to read something.”
5. Multiple brands are more important than single brands.
“I guess this could be a new way of looking at the solution to the pitfalls of brand extension. It seems like it’s forever been known as a bad idea, but well-established, successful brands keep doing it. This acceptance of multiple brands could mean smarter strategic choices.”
We can only expect that these trends will continue as media becomes more fragmented and companies compete even harder for consumer attention. For Mary’s insight on your brand, start the conversation at [email protected].
