Three facts that marketers consistently overlook
Three things are consistently forgotten by marketers. Okay, not always and not with all advertisers. But there are enough marketers, enough of the time, to matter. sufficient to muddy the waters.
First of all, marketers frequently overlook the fact that consumers don't care about or even like marketing.
There is marketing all around us. Advertising is everywhere. Without sponsorship, nothing is performed. Logos are trendy. It's simple to assume that others care as much as we do. The effects of ads and nudges are small, if not nonexistent, many people deliberately mute or click through ads, habits or friends—not ads or influencers—have the biggest influence on what people buy, according to our own data, which also shows that most ads are forgotten, those that are not forgotten are typically misremembered.
So, marketing resistance is our main operational difficulty.
Second, marketers frequently overlook the fact that entertaining, non-intrusive marketing is the most effective.
Demands are made on individuals via marketing. We really desire people's time and focus. That is an expenditure. It should come as no surprise that individuals expect to see a profit on their investment. However, we also want to see a return on our marketing investments, so we have a propensity to increase frequency and touchpoints rather than quality and originality. However, a poor or tedious advertisement doesn't become better with time. Sure, we can make our points so forcefully that no one will be able to ignore us, but that only brings up the first item we forgot. Our communication dilemma is therefore an overpowering underexposure.
Third, marketers always forget that there is no such thing as a consumer.
Marketing is a lens on the world. A commercial lens. It is a way of seeing the world but it is not the world. Everything related to marketing—viewing, searching, browsing, shopping, buying, etc.—is but a small slice of people’s lives. People often see themselves as consuming, but never as consumers. That’s an artificial marketing construct. Nobody wakes up in the morning and says to themselves, “Oh, what a great day to be a laundry detergent consumer in a high-value consumer segment about to go on a consumer shopping journey with visions of ads dancing in my consumer head.” So, that’s our strategic challenge—people are people.
Marketing, in my opinion, is a calling. Every day, we assist people in finding answers to challenges large and small in their lives. What could possibly be more satisfying than that? But I also feel that if we didn’t continuously forgetting these few fundamental principles, we would be able to effectively carry out our mission.