Apg Rant At The Mrs Conference 2004

The Brand Dream is going sour because we are less and less able to connect with consumers As an industry, Marketers we are becoming less able to connect with consumers. There is a tug of war going on. On our side we are pulling against consumers as we resist change and continue to do the same old things we have always done. On their side consumers are becoming far less willing to play our game. So the marketing industry is resisting change. Consumers are resisting classification. Firstly, let’s consider the industry. I have long been a believer that things are changing in the world of brands and communications. In fact I would go as far as to say that the traditional approach to brand building so reliant on interruptive advertising like TV is past it’s prime. Today’s more cynical consumers have a quite different and more realistic sort of relationship with brands. They know the game. Brands are no longer a mystery. How often have you sat in a research group where respondents have played back the strategy? But, we hardly register on their radar UNLESS they are getting some benefit. This could be the functional benefit of the product or service or some added value

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they might get from involving themselves with our marketing activities. They are asking themselves ‘What’s in this for me?’, ‘Is this entertaining?’, ‘Am I getting anything in return for listening, watching or reading?’, ‘Are the people who produced this ad any good?’, ‘Do they really understand me?’. Of course this is on the presumption that people actually see our brand marketing.

The trouble is that people are not seeing most of the communication that we put out. People are bombarded with more and more commercial messages and they are actively trying to avoid them. Some of the figures are shocking. Billets claim that 41% of TV viewers don’t see any of the break. The newspaper society say that only 5.7% of readers notice the average display ad. 94% of listeners cannot spontaneously recall a heavy radio campaign according to the Radio Advertising Bureau.

But it’s OK. We have an explanation. Low involvement processing means that people don’t actually have to recall advertising as it has an effect anyway. Now if we are being honest we would much rather people did remember our communications than not. But to get people to remember they have to consciously engage and getting people to engage consciously is more and more difficult.

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This is why I have begun to believe and work in more experiential media like events, Interactive TV, the web, the telephone etcetera. I believe that if people consciously engage in the communication they will be much more likely to listen to the message and build a relationship with the brand. We are likely to have stronger opinions about those things which we have in some way experienced than not. And this is what draws me to the permission marketing model. If people go to an event, visit a web site or press the red button on their TV remote, they are entering into a contract. They are giving their permission to be marketed at. They are consciously engaged. When they are in this mode it is no longer a battle between us and them. There is no longer a tug of war. We are in it together. Brands which recognise this will command more respect from consumers than those who hit and run.

Now of course I am not the only one saying this. For a start agencies working below the line have been saying it for years and to quote Niall Fitzgerald soon to be retired CEO of Unilever

’advertisers must adopt new ways of engaging customers ....the interrupt and repeat model is in decline’

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So I have been working with and learning about the more experiential types of communication. And this is how I have come to believe that the Ego’s of Brand Managers, Agency’s and Researchers are getting in the way of our ability to even connect with consumers let alone fulfil their dreams. Our ego’s are preventing us from embracing the change that we need to see in the industry. This is because there is an established hierarchy in the communications industry with Advertising at the top and everything else falling somewhere underneath. Those agencies at the top of the tree tend to have the most influence over clients. This is resulting in inertia. Most advertising agencies still just want to produce advertising and win awards. Clients want to work on brands which advertise. Researchers still want to be involved in the next famous campaign or the next big product launch.

So why do we persist in maintaining the status quo? It can’t be because it is successful. Perhaps it is because of our ego’s.

If we are producing or researching a big campaign we can tell our mums about it and they might remember. We can talk with pride to

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our friends about it. But if we take an alternative approach using actors in a shopping centre in Gateshead then the chances are our London friends won’t be overly impressed. Our ego’s perpetuate the status quo. Our ego’s perhaps get in the way of developing the new model. So as an industry we are structured to resist change. But consumers are also resisting. Let’s think about what it’s like for them.

The 21st century consumer is fearful. There is a sense that we are always being watched. Our online behaviour is monitored. Our mobile phone calls listened to. We have to be careful what we say and to whom. We are even afraid of admitting things to our doctors for fear that it will increase our insurance premiums. What things about you would you be reluctant to divulge to a researcher? Would you really want to share your dreams or would you fear being seen as a fool.

Now there are some people who reveal too much, who are happy to talk to anyone about anything. I was in a pub the other week waiting for a meeting with a client. A guy at the bar was heard to say ‘Do you know I have got such a hairy arse that I just can’t get it clean. I have to use my wife’s wet wipe things. I leave skidmarks on my

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sheets’. Whilst this may be great insight for a toilet paper brand, your average normal sober bloke isn’t going to have that sort of conversation with a stranger. The question is are the people who are prepared to engage in research of a particular type or are they truly representative of the population?

I believe there are a rising number of people in today’s society who are resisting classification. They don’t want to be known for their purchasing habits or their opinions. There is a sense that if ‘Big Brother’ knows too much then that weakens me. So people are closing down. This leads me to believe that there is a lot of behaviour out there which isn’t being picked up. Behaviour which if it were picked up might challenge the status quo and lead us to a different understanding of how to deliver the brand dream. But it is not in the interest of the researchers to delve too deep because it could highlight flaws which ultimately devalue their role.

And there are many things which are going unnoticed. For example I believe that children’s TV viewing is going unrecorded. They are watching late night TV quietly in their bedrooms unknown to parents and unrecorded by people meters. Or else they are watching with their parents who don’t want to register

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their presence to the stranger outside because they fear being seen as a bad parent. But nobody wants to hear this. The TV companies don’t want the regulators to know that children are watching ‘unsuitable’ programming. Likewise advertisers don’t want any more reasons not to show their advertising after 9pm. The research industry doesn’t want to highlight a flaw in the methodology.

Another set of unrecorded behaviour is the use of illegal drugs. Which middle class senior manager would admit to a stranger that they get stoned every night at the weekend and every now and then have a line to spice up the sex life? Drug use within our society could have a profound effect on business and communications strategy. Cannabis smoking is shifting the balance between the on and off trade as more people socialise at home. It has probably effected the merchandising approach in 7 Eleven as they appeal to people with the munchies. Here again though people don’t want to know. We can’t admit to being interested as clients or people who service clients because we don’t want to be associated with illegal behaviour.

It is the unseen things which are really interesting. The things which we are not told. The things which we cant count because people

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aren’t prepared to tell us. The problem is that there is more and more that people want to keep to themselves. Sub culture is becoming mass culture. And here lies the problem.

As researchers we can’t admit that this is happening in society as it would be tantamount to admitting that research doesn’t work as well anymore. And that is no way to get the nice projects with the sexy clients and boost our ego’s. So what does this mean for the future of the research industry? If the only people we can research are people who are willing to be researched or people who aren’t prepared to tell us the whole truth, then our findings are unlikely to be helpful. Perhaps the answer is to get closer to consumers, make friends with them and remove the threat.

Whatever the answer, as researches and planners we should be behaving differently. It feels to me as if we have our heads stuck in the sands while the sands are shifting. Clients, Agencies and researchers are not facing up to the fact that there are some fundamental changes happening. Consumers are changing their relationship with brands and marketing. They are closing down and resisting classification. The traditional techniques we use to build our brands are increasingly failing.

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So, we should be challenging the status quo and trying to uncover consumer’s dreams whether that is a dream that someday there will be no advertising or a dream that someday they will be able to order their coke online for next day delivery.

We should be exploring the un-sexy and unpopular. We should be upsetting the apple cart. In short if we are to regain our connection with consumers we should be less driven by our ego’s and behave more like revolutionaries.

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