Why So Many Marketing Campaigns Are Just Boring, Boring, Boring
When was the last time you got excited about a Tide detergent commercial? How about Sunlight? Pampers maybe? Ah, depends. Nope, not them either. How about a Sony TV...hmmm, maybe a little. The prospect of a new Apple product, like the predicted actual television set everyone is drooling in anticipation for? Ah, now we're talking...So much marketing is boring. I think it's because of two reasons:
Fear of Success: Once a company reaches a certain size it likely has a lot of shareholders and stakeholders. It can reliably predict a certain annual volume of sales. As more people are involved, process trumps everything else. The product must be produced. Apple bucked this trend, so has Samsung (the only company pushing and nipping at Apple's heels, which is good for innovation) ah! And that comes to the second reason marketing campaigns become boring...
Innovation: The company grows so large it is afraid to innovate. Not just in its products and service, but all aspects. Once a process is established and systems are in place, innovation becomes evil. Innovation might disrupt. Steady process means predictable ways to manipulate for cost-controls and margin maximization and other complex corporate-speak words. Innovation stops. Small, tiny, incremental innovations might happen. Might.
Apple, Samsung, Benetton. These are brands that innovate in different ways. Even Google has found its innovative soul again with it's products...not that it really stepped away, but it was. Schmidt is an excellent CEO - when you need to focus on process and being boring. Certainly it may be that sometimes a company needs to focus on boring stuff. But when innovation is lost across the board...everything becomes boring.
I always used to cringe when I would hear a client say "we want to be like our competitor, to look like they do..." well, why not just sell your business to your competitor? That way you'd make more money in the short term. If you sound like everyone else in your space...well, how is anyone ever going to know your better or different? If it walks like a duck...
I suggest the main drive of all companies it to innovate. Not just with products. But right across the board...innovate your hiring practices, innovate production processes...just, innovate. Especially your marketing. Please Tide...get with the times. it's 2011 and men do laundry now too. And when you innovate, customers get interested in whats next and employees enjoy their work more as well...
