Advertising and Marketing have to accept there is no way out of their decline.

The rot began when we chose never to take heed of Professor Ehrenberg's statements on

advertising effectiveness! Because nothing has changed despite all the

ballyhoo about Social Media, Facebook et al. Wherever ads appear,

especially on Social Media, Ehrenberg's resolute focus on the facts, what

data actually tells us led him to challenge many a marketing bandwagon

such as loyalty'. You may wish to improve the brand's performance by

improving customer retention', he observed, but without a higher market

penetration it just won't happen. His work on advertising effectiveness

was equally challenging. He argued convincingly that there was no

evidence that advertising persuades anybody to do anything; advertising

can only ever be a weak' force that improves brand recognition and/or

jogs consumers' memories.

The Attraction of Interactive Communication is that it is a return to the

prehistoric human fascination with telling tales!

Since the beginnings of any civilized society the market place was the hub of

civilization, a place to which traders returned from remote lands with exotic

spices, silks, monkeys, parrots, jewels - and fabulous stories. Interactive

Communication, properly executed, more resembles an ancient bazaar than fits the

business models companies try and impose upon it.

People respond to interactive

opportunities because it seems to offer some intangible quality

long missing in action from modern life. In sharp contrast to the alienation

wrought by homogenized broadcast media, interactive opportunities provide a

space in which the human voice would be rapidly rediscovered.

Unlike the lockstep conformity imposed by television, advertising, and

corporate propaganda, interactive communication gives new legitimacy and free

rein to play.

People long for more connection between what we do for a living and what we

genuinely care about. We long for release from anonymity, to be seen as who we

feel ourselves to be rather than the sum of abstract metrics and parameters.

We long to be part of a world that makes sense rather than accept the

accidental alienation imposed by market forces too large to grasp; to even

contemplate.

Remember the market place, of old. Caravans arrived across burning deserts

dates and figs, snakes and parrots, monkeys, strange music and stranger tales.

The market place was the heart of the city, the kernel, the hub.Like the

past and the future it stood at the crossroads.

People worked early and went there for coffee and vegetables, eggs and wine,

for pots and carpets.

They went there to look and listen and to marvel, to buy and to be amused.

But mostly they went to meet each other to talk and interact! Markets are

conversations.

So what went so horribly wrong? From the perspective of corporations, many of

which by the twentieth century had become bigger and more powerful than ancient

city-states, nothing went wrong. Things did change however.

Commerce is a natural part of human life but is has become increasingly

unnatural over the intervening centuries, gradually divorcing itself from the

very people on whom it depends, whether workers or customers. The result has

been to create a huge chasm between buyers and sellers. Advertising's

failure!

Conventional advertising has failed the natural human need for social

interaction. We have created a media society during the last 30 or 40 years

where there is an extraordinary reduction in interaction because of the one-way

and more passive form of information that exists. People desire to be taken

account of, to affect change, learn and personalize their relationships with

their environment. These psychological and sociological factors are part of the

incentive to interact with advertising. However, these tend to be minimized in

the incentive direct response field, there are a phenomenal number of reasons

which cause people to interact which go beyond just giving them things.

The desperate need to restructure advertising and marketing

Only interactive marketing communication will provide clients with the

necessary communicaion and feedback necessary for effective marketing to take place.

For too long, marketing functions have been vertically organised by media

type. This approach is mirrored on the agency side, with rewards based on

discipline-specific models. These must be torn down.

On the client-side Marketing and Brand Managers must involve and lead a

team of colleagues who have the responsibility, vision, understanding and

commitment to engage in a media-agnostic planning process. And this team of

enlightened marketers must be willing to let strategic goals -- not historic

patterns -- drive budget allocations.

Achieving strategic integration requires a top-to-bottom reinvention of the

marketing organisation. Holistic professionals who are system thinkers,

customer-centric believers, innovators and dreamers must lead this

transformation.

These individuals should be cross-trained to understand the entire marketing

spectrum and learn discipline-specific skill sets. And to specifically

understand the real meaning of the word "communication" Increasingly, these

leaders will need strong quantitative skills -- in order to analyse the

data-rich resources and leverage mathematical tools now available, especially if

they are to drive cross-disciplinary approaches that fuse disparate

consumer-engagement channels. Above all, they need to be superior team

leaders who have the insights, talent and passion to take marketing integration

to new heights.

Engaging in conversations with relevant markets (Interacting) will become an

important source of knowledge and innovation, the quality of this market

intelligence has already (and will do so more in the future) proven to be more

accurate than research and will determine market share.

Interactive Communication finally allows the revolution

to commence.

The revolution against one-size fits all advertising; the bland all-knowing corporate voice, the lack

lustre politicians busily furnishing their own nests from our money. The fact of the matter is your

customers, you, me and everybody else, do not trust business. We find it highly insulting to

be treated this way and we mistrust you in numbers far greater than you or your

advertising/marketing people allow for. Dialogue, two-way conversations,

would start to change these hostile attitudes. You really do need to commence

interactive events - right now. And you can do so in existing media.

Before I go on, I must emphasise that on no account let your Advertising

Agency tempt you into spending big bucks on the Web. Already the

Advertising-as-Usual crowd is pouring billions into the Web, however be warned,

as they said in the "Cluetrain Manifesto", "So you advertise on the Internet¦so

what"? If you think you are wasting money on Advertising-as-Usual be very

careful. The Internet, possibly is a bigger waste of money than

Advertising-as-Usual, and, as we all know, right now that is one Mother of a

huge waste of money! "Why?" you may ask "has it all changed from the

safe secure way of marketing in the past". Simply put,

Advertising-as-Usual, together with its handmaiden Broadcasting-as-Usual have

treated us with too much contempt. According to a recent article in the

Times, TV executives commonly think of viewers' phone revenue as "moron tax".

And this attitude of utter contempt pervades the executives of advertising and

Broadcast-as-Usual, and expresses itself in all the offerings of a rip-off

culture, from government to TV companies. And bear in mind that

Advertising-as-Usual and Broadcast-as-Usual hold Clients in great contempt as

well. They rejoice in removing large chunks of your Marketing Budgets, to then

waste them in rip-off ventures that only worsen the publics' contempt for you,so

in effect they are spending your money to get you into a ever worsening

situation. Trust is a must have asset. You now must harness

interactive communication to get the trust, and results, because if you don't

somebody else will and they, in turn, will drive you out of business. Trust based relationship

lies between the extremes of command and control and empowerment in business.

Interactive marketing communication, using existing media, is a practical way of reaching

out and building up a powerful relationship, and trust, with every single person you need to

make your business successful...

Barriers to Great Advertising

Advertising testing could provide a reliable feedback loop and lead to much better advertising, but many obstacles stand in the way. The first great barrier to better advertising is self-delusion. Most of us believe, in our heart-of-hearts, that we know what good advertising is and that there is no need for any kind of independent, objective evaluation. Agencies and clients alike often think that they know how to create and judge good advertising. Besides, once agencies and clients start to fall in love with the new creative, they quickly lose interest in any objective evaluation. No need for advertising testing. Case closed.

Strangely, after 40 years of testing advertising, we cannot tell you if a commercial is any good or not, just by viewing it. Sure, we have opinions, but they are almost always wrong. In our experience, advertising agencies and their clients are just as inept at judging advertising as we are. It seems that none of us is smart enough to see advertising through the eyes of the target audience, based purely on our own judgment.

A second barrier to better advertising is the belief that sales performance will tell if the advertising is working. Unless the sales response to the advertising is immediate and overwhelming, it is almost impossible to use sales data to judge the effectiveness of the advertising. So many variables are beyond our control, as noted, that it’s impossible to isolate the effects of media advertising alone. Moreover, some advertising works in a few weeks, while other advertising might take many months to show positive effects, and this delayed response can confound our efforts to read the sales data. Also, advertising often has short-term effects that sales data might reflect, and long-term (years later) effects that most of us might easily overlook in subsequent sales data. Because of these limitations, sales data tends to be confusing and unreliable as an indicator of advertising effectiveness.

You call this working?

Why Traditional Interruption-Based Advertising Doesn't Work Anymore!

Traditional advertising doesn't work well anymore for a

very simple reason - there's too much of it. There are too many companies

interrupting consumers to try and sell them something. There's so much ad

clutter and noise today that the latest studies show the majority of consumers

ignore companies that bother them with too much advertising. In addition, techonolgy provides

 consumers with every manner of ad blockers, including TiVo, VCRs and DVD recorders, to

cable and satellite TV, to MP3 players and downloadable music, and now satellite

radio. Consumers are paying billions to AVOID ADVERTISING, which is why they

like it even less if you actually manage to break through and interrupt what

they are doing.
But we can change all that and, at the same time, reduce your horribly expensive marketing budget by up to 50%
Contact: paulashby40@yahoo.com

Interactive Solutions

And now…A word from your Customer!


1. Personalization is the key to success!


Interactive Solutions immediately starts to re-personalize the communication process.

2. Mass Marketing needs to incorporate Direct Marketing techniques!

Interactive Solutions incorporates all marketing disciplines including Direct Marketing Techniques.

3.To achieve "Personalization" we need to humanize Mass Media.

The very nature of Interactive Solutions ensures that all Mass Media is personalised by the solicitation of individual opinions!

4. Your customers want to commence a regular dialogue with you.

Shopper's Voice appears regularly allowing your customers to participate, become "vocal" and allows you to respond to their comments and questions.

5. Nowadays it is necessary to empower your customers by giving them a perception of control!

Interactive Solutions, through Shopper's Voice, informs your customers that their opinions are important to you and that you will listen to what they have to say and, where possible, you will act upon what they have to say!

6. You must give your customers plenty of choice for each of your products!

Interactive Solutions, through Shopper's Voice, allows your customers the opportunity to select which of the multiple product attributes is right for them, this provides them with the right reason to go and buy your product(s) over your competitor.

7. You must give your customers far more information to enable them to make the correct choices!

Interactive Solutions, through "programmed instruction" ensures that your customers have sufficient information available to make the right choices to go out and buy your brand(s)!

8. Your customers want to make connections with your brand(s) and to personalize their relationship with these brand(s)

The very nature of Shopper's Voice ensures that your customers connect and then personalize their relationship with your brand(s) thus ensuring ongoing and repeat sales!

9. Shopper's Voice allows you to understand what is important to your customer on a one-to-one basis allowing you to create long lasting partnerships!

Through skilful interpretation of the feedback provided by Shopper's Voice, you will have a data base rich in individual comments and needs, thus ensuring that you can create long lasting relationships with each and every customer.

10. And the beauty of Shopper's Voice is that it is totally accountable, highly flexible and is category exclusive!

More than £5 millions have been invested in independent research with reputable research companies over time. This research has established that one exposure to Shopper's Voice is far more effective than traditional advertising alone.

Finally…

Your customers' feedback creates a content rich database, whereby you are able to segment your retail market on the basis of shopping behavior. The aim is to facilitate stronger relationships with your end user, using the power of "two-way conversations" with your customers, together with the re-personalization of your relationship with your shopper!

This makes your current advertising and marketing more responsive and more effective and starts to re-personalize the communication process.

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