Umair Haque / Bubblegeneration

Friday, January 25, 2008

The Worst Ideas of 2007, Or How Not to Revolutionize Marketing

For some reason, the media industry was gripped by a bizarre delusion in 2007 - that consumers (!!) love (!!) brands [insert boardroom high-fiving here].

Obviously, they don't - as Yahoo has discovered the hard way, Honeyshed/Coke/auto guys are learning, etc, etc.

Like I've pointed out many times - there's a simple existence proof that this proposition must be false: if consumers loved brands, brands wouldn't have to advertise.

The point is: media's central challenge in 2008 remains what was in 2007 - to rethink the essence of branding, and create new modes of communication consumers really do love.

-- umair // 2:55 PM // 5 comments

Comments:

This would explain why Netflix's advertising budget is about 1/10th of Blockbusters, while they are twice BB's market cap.

85% of new subscribers to Netflix say they signed up because a friend or family member convinced themselves to do so.

93% of existing Netflix subscribers say they regularly evangelize the service.

By your logic, Netflix customers love their brand more than Blockbuster customers do. So, I agree with your assessment.

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Jared Spool // 8:46 PM

lots of brand devotees in this world, this week in india is a branding convention, and i don't know the answer to "are comsumers loyal to brands" question for sure

but i suspect that one hell of a lot of folks are fed up with advertising, to the point of taking revenge ... if you interrupt me, i will hate you forever .... it has gone beyond ignoring or switching off mentally

advertising is up there with intellectual property rights as things that are a long way from perfect

people innovate without incentive, people do buy things without incentive

the enterprise models based on advertising seem destined to fail, long term

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gregory // 3:26 AM

The idea that brands don't have to advertise reflects a common misunderstanding of how advertising actually functions. You might enjoy digging around in some of the research links on this page.

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Scott Crawford // 8:41 PM

Do you like Football?

I have a branding challenge that involves introducing a disruptive technology to the game (think 'big bertha') and has not built its brand strategy yet. As an investor, i have strong views on the importance of this.

If you are interested in discussing, email me at mark at my URL .com

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Mark Slater // 5:41 PM

consumers love brands that supply them with something! for instance, tools that promote sharing, creation, ego.

dont try and reinvent how a consumer wants to interact with you.

Honeyshed is a joke. period.

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Anonymous // 11:06 PM