Brand promotion: Why must 50% of advertising costs be wasted?

Is it necessary to make every penny of advertising count? Maybe it’s not necessary. Half of the advertising budget needs to be “wasted”, and appropriate waste can play a better role.

1. Advertising is becoming increasingly ineffective

There is a famous saying that has troubled advertisers and brand owners for more than 100 years:

“I know that 50% of my advertising dollars are wasted, but I don’t know which half.”

This is the "Goldbach Conjecture" proposed by the famous advertising master John Wanamaker.

This kind of advertising waste is happening every day now.

Read the news, browse Taobao, watch TV series, variety shows, chat on WeChat...

Our lives are occupied by various apps, and we are exposed to fragmented text, pictures, links and other advertising information every day.

In the past, the media was single-minded and focused, with little information. All advertisers need to do is bombard the audience with advertisements using traditional media and the results will be as expected.

Today's media is fragmented and there is information overload. Users have too many media choices, which leads to serious fragmentation of time and lack of concentration.

At this time, business information is also prone to disappear in fragmentation.

Ads are ineffective and brand owners are wasting budget on invalid traffic.

In this era of media fragmentation, there is not much time left for advertising.

2. Is precision marketing really right?

Ultimately, people think that advertising is ineffective because they feel that the money has been spent but they cannot see any actual results, and the money has not been spent on the right things.

Faced with increasingly ineffective campaigns, advertisers are increasingly hoping to get back the 50% of advertising dollars that were wasted.

In order to prevent advertising from being ineffective, the industry has provided everyone with a "precision marketing" solution, but is precision marketing really right?

not necessarily!

The core purpose of advertising is to build a brand. Brands use advertising to attract attention, guide demand, and promote sales. Precision marketing is aimed directly at target consumers and sales - providing the right products to the right people at the right time.

Superficially speaking, choosing precise media and targeting precise audiences to place advertisements will naturally be very popular among advertisers. In this way, we can save money on advertising and give full play to the professional value of the media, so that we can be targeted and effective.

But the reality is: the more you pursue precise advertising, the more ineffective it will become.

None of the century-old brands we are familiar with, such as Coca-Cola, Procter & Gamble, and Wanglaoji, as well as the now popular Luckin Coffee and Guazi Used Cars, have built their brand awareness through precision marketing.

Advertising requires appropriate waste. Without waste, there will be no effect.

3. Advertisements should be widely publicized

The purpose of advertising is to inform the public.

Building a brand requires a strong voice in order to promote your brand and products and let more people know about them. The volume of advertising determines the volume of the brand; and the coverage of the media determines the volume of advertising.

The most typical example is none other than luxury brands, which are increasingly focusing on brand voice.

Luxury goods are naturally for a minority of people. Only a few people can afford them, but everyone aspires to own them. It represents an identity symbol and satisfies the needs of wealthy people for the division of social status. Our perception of people who consume luxury goods is also built on society’s perception of wealthy people.

Therefore, luxury goods advertisements are not just shown to the target group, but to everyone so that everyone can know about them.

Therefore, luxury brands also need to engage in mass communication and have brand voice.

• Only "advertising" aimed at the general public can effectively help a brand build its voice.
• "Narrow advertising" targeting specific groups cannot create brand voice due to insufficient communication coverage.

Just like what Sun Tzu said in the Art of War, "If you have ten of them, surround them; if you have five of them, attack them; if you have twice as many of them, fight them; if you are the enemy, divide them; if you are fewer than them, defend them; if you are not as good as them, avoid them."

Only by creating a strong voice and maintaining one's own competitive advantage can one distance oneself from competitors and penetrate the market where the brand is located.

The result of being evenly matched is a situation where one "kills 800 enemies but loses 1,000 of one's own", making it impossible for the brand to create influence.

4. Strong media empowers advertising

There are skills to placing advertisements, and choosing the right advertising media is equally important.

Advertisements are messages that promote products.

Since it is product promotion information, in addition to considering the target audience, another very important thing is: making consumers believe that the advertising information is true and effective.

Why are some people willing to spend money to hire experts, invite celebrities, and buy authoritative awards just to endorse the trust of their products?

——Because without trust there is no business.

In addition to solving the problem of consumer reach, strong media also has another benefit: it possesses the media’s inherent trust. The larger the media, the more consumers it reaches; the more authoritative the media, the greater its credibility.

And this media effect will directly empower advertising information. The larger and more authoritative the media is, the greater and more empowering it is.

For example, the small rental advertisements posted on the outer walls of a residential community can be said to be 100% targeted at the target audience. But many people are still accustomed to looking for houses on platforms such as Anjuke and Beike because they feel safe and secure.

5. Make advertising a topic of conversation, not a means to boost sales

The focus of advertising is not to promote sales, but to become a topic of conversation among users.

Human beings are social animals, and their social attributes determine the division of social status. The commodity itself is the materialization of "personal character", representing a person's taste and label.

When we choose a brand or a product, we are choosing our own taste and lifestyle.

Each of us also builds our perception of others and forms our own circle based on their food, clothing, housing and transportation.

Take buying a mobile phone as an example, we can see different circles:

• Most of the “Mi Fans” who choose Xiaomi phones are Internet programmers;
• Most of those who choose beauty picture phones are girls who love beauty;
• Apple fans choose Apple phones because they like the smooth Apple system and because it satisfies their desire to show off.
• The reason why "Huafen" chose Huawei mobile phones may be because they have a complex about domestic products.

…

When people interact with each other, they need things to talk about. Only when they have topics of common interest can people easily chat with each other.

The attributes of products can become a starting point for conversation.

Every consumer plays four roles: audience, buyer, experiencer, and communicator.

The most critical role of the communicator is to actively discuss your brand and products after consumption. Advertising topics are also generated in this link.

Once your ad is released, it only serves to trigger consumers. Regardless of whether the audience has consumption needs or not, they will watch your ad.

When everyone has real consumption needs, most will refer to other people's purchase suggestions to assist in consumption decisions. At this time, people who have heard of your brand from advertisements are likely to recommend your products to others.

So many times, consumers don’t pay for advertising, but for the brand, and this brand awareness mostly comes from topics of conversation.

6. Advertising is a long-term investment

If you advertise just to see results in a short period of time, then I advise you not to advertise!

——Because you may not have figured out what the purpose of advertising is?

Take Coca-Cola and Wanglaoji as examples: Why do these brands with a century-old history continue to advertise until now?

This requires a deep understanding of the role of advertising.

The first function of advertising is to remind old customers to repurchase and make them remember you; the second function of advertising is to awaken new customers with demand to make purchases. The third, most important and most easily overlooked function is to implant product information into the minds of potential consumers - when they have needs, they will think of us first and may choose us.

Today's consumers are also the accumulation of brand owners' past advertising effects; advertising now is also a long-term investment in potential customers - if these potential customers become your consumers in the future, advertising is an effective investment; if not, advertising becomes a waste.

Therefore, the waste of advertising is necessary.

When placing advertisements, we should not be short-sighted, nor should we excessively pursue immediate results.

If the amount of advertising is too small or the advertising frequency is too low, it will be difficult to accumulate brand awareness, let alone occupy the minds of consumers.

Sun Tzu said: "First win the battle and then go to war."

Success or failure does not depend on momentary market sales, but on the minds of potential customers.

VII. Conclusion

The purpose of placing advertisements is not to make immediate profits; the purpose is to attract attention and spread the brand’s voice.

Don’t let advertising become narrow advertising. Advertising needs to be wasted appropriately. Whether it is media investment or time investment, sufficient frequency can bring voice to the brand.

Another thing is that advertising is a long-term investment - it is nonsense to expect results in a short period of time. Only long-term and stable investment can bring returns.

Finally, I beg all advertisers to stop pursuing so-called precise delivery.

Author: Yang Yang

Source: Advertising Creativity (ID: idea1408)