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With the explosion of online marketing and social media traditional advertising — or the “A-word” as I call it — has become quite unfashionable. Additionally, many small businesses have dabbled with it, with questionable results. As a result, more and more people are asking if advertising really works. If you listen to Internet Marketing gurus like Gary Vaynerchuk (who I’m a big fan of btw), the answer is pretty clear. “No.” They say that if businesses want to be smart they should stop pissing away their precious dollars on traditional advertising (TV, radio, print, outdoor) and start using Twitter, Facebook and Blogs.

Well, that kinda depends.

There’s a company called GEICO — maybe you’ve heard of it — and they seem pretty happy with their advertising — maybe you’ve seen it. GEICO spent 483 million on (mostly TV) advertising in 2006. I can’t find their ’07 — ’09 numbers, but considering that I see their ads everywhere I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s more than 483 million now. So, if advertising doesn’t work you have to ask why GEICO would be throwing away that kind of money year after year.

Another company you may have heard of, Apple, is also big believer in advertising. They continue to run heavy print, TV and outdoor ads with great success.

And, it’s not just major national brands that benefit from advertising. I’m about to begin the 12th consecutive year of an ad campaign for a small client with a limited budget — a New York City church. We’ve run ads on the NYC city subways for 12 years, and it’s not inexpensive for a small client. So, last year because of the economy they told me that they (reluctantly) had to stop advertising after a successful 11-year run. But, after doing some research, they learned that the ad campaign — which has been covered in The New Times, USAToday and TIME — was more effective in attracting people than all their other marketing initiatives combined. They cut spending in other areas and continued the successful advertising with a good ROI.

Is the world (and world of commerce) rapidly moving more online? Yes. Should you be leveraging social media as part of your marketing plan? Definitely. But, to broadly claim that traditional advertising doesn’t work, or isn’t as cost-effective as social media, simply isn’t true. It really depends on what you’re selling and who you’re selling to. And, any advertising effort that isn’t as effective as it could be probably has more to do with product, client, or agency, that’s doing it.

Contrary to popular belief, traditional advertising (print, TV, direct mail, etc) is still a highly effective way to sell products and services if it’s done right.

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From your prospects’ POV, Perception is Reality. Your prospects’ perception of you (company, product, or service) is what they’ll be basing their buying decision on — regardless of the truth. Therefore, it’s critical to make sure that every prospect touch-point clearly and convincingly convey the right brand message and product benefit. That involves your branding (company/product name, logo, tagline, design and tone), online presence (website, blog, videos, articles, G-cred), off-line presentations, and all your marketing and advertising initiatives.

The past decade saw a seismic shift in marketing communications as blogs, podcasts, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter led the media evolution. It’s an exciting time. Yet, with this cool evolution the focus on a clear, compelling company or product message has often been devalued. In many cases the over-reliance on media and technology has shifted the focus away from the resolving the key (and usually tough) marketing issues necessary for growing a successful business.

The most successful companies and organizations (Apple, Google, Team Obama, etc) work with top, independent marketing firms and experts to help them develop and maintain a strong brand message realizing that the media and technology is only a tool to help them get their message out.

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It’s Not about having a Great Product or Service.

It’s about having a great product or service and repeatedly convincing many people that you do. How you do that depends on your particular product or service, your target, your specific marketing goal, and your budget. It also depends on how visible, likable, informative, engaging, creative, memorable, and smart your message is.

Examples
Results

The past decade saw a seismic shift in marketing communications as blogs, podcasts,  online video, and other forms of Social Media led the media evolution. It’s an exciting time. And yet, with this evolution, the focus on “message” has, too often, been lost. In many cases, the over-reliance on new media and technology, has sacrificed the focus on development of a compelling, creatively engaging, message.

The most successful companies and organizations (Apple, Google, Team Obama, etc) work with marketing experts to help them develop and maintain a strong brand message realizing that the media and technology is only a tool — a tool to help them get their important message out.

More

“G-Cred“, a term coined by John Follis in ’05, has become part of the Web 2.0 vocabulary. What exactly is it, and why must every product, service, professional person and business have it? Listen to the interview and read the ADWEEK article.

When logo design prices range from 50 grand to 50 bucks (for a cheesy prefab logo) it’s no wonder business owners are confused about logo cost. The answer lies somewhere in the middle with independent designers and design firms offering logo services for every price range. So, the question besides price is: “What’s a ‘good’ logo?”

For many business owners that answer is: whatever floats their boat. However, a truly good logo must be right for your business from a marketing/communication standpoint. Some key considerations are:

<> It must be a simple design.
<> It must work equally well in both color and black & white.
<> It must look good small.

Most importantly, it must represent your business or product and communicate your “brand essence.” So, what does that mean? Check out these examples.