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I thought it would be appropriate to start of with a topic often hotly debated, that is off course the war between general advertising agencies and direct marketing agencies.
It’s often said that at times like these with impending recessions and low consumer confidence, that the first budget to be scaled back in a company is marketing.
This begs the question – given direct marketing’s generally high level of accountability, should this be included in the category of general marketing spend? And should an accountable and measurable method of advertising directly leading to sales ever be cut?
Firstly, it’s important to address what most people in advertising know about – the ongoing debate between brand advertisers vs immediate response advertisers.
This conflict is typified by misunderstandings rather than reality. Both general advertisers and direct marketers have, through trial and error, developed their own set of rules which when followed, increase the chances of providing effective advertising.
So what are the differences and similarities between the two?
Firstly, general advertising is usually based upon a ‘big idea’. The big idea can launch a brand into the stratosphere, with it’s own personality, a big idea can make people fall in love with a product and help to distinguish it from its competitors. Take Apple for example. They have furiously followed the mantra of simplifying products to a very user friendly model, then building upon that technology. Apple’s customers ‘love’ of the iphone is one clear example.
In direct response, success does not come from the big idea. It comes from the intelligent, disciplined use of proven direct response techniques. These include the use of benefit driven copy, strong demonstrations and most importantly a hot offer which when a potential consumer is watching is the single most exciting thing that they have seen that hour. In direct response, focussing on one big idea, usually ads up to one big mistake.
The second difference is what each of the different advertisers focus on. In a 30 second commercial, advertisers know they have to find the most compelling benefit of a product and hammer it home. The focus is purely on the core benefit of the product/service, focusing on anything else and the message trying to be communicated won’t come across.
In a direct response commercial, you want to give the viewer every possible reason to call and overcome typical objections to your product or service. Direct response works by building a comprehensive and convincing case for purchase explaining benefits then repeating the key features again.
Direct marketers generally think in terms of a “cost per lead” or “cost per acquisition”. And it’s often thought that general agencies are more interested in winning awards than producing effective advertising. General marketers, in turn, often think that direct marketers don’t understand brand equity and wouldn’t know a good creative if they saw one.
The truth is we have a lot to learn from each other. And the first step to learning is to acknowledge what the other group brings to the party.
General advertisers undoubtedly make up the vast majority of advertising today. No, it doesn’t all work and yes it is hard to distinguish the wheat from the chaff. But the fact remains that general advertising has been the single most powerful force in creating consumer demand for products and services.
It’s also necessary for brand advertisers to understand that there are other, equally effective ways to sell other than what they are familiar with; ways that are extraordinarily powerful despite the fact they defy all the accepted rules of brand advertising.
By understanding the techniques that go into making both direct marketing and brand advertising work, we gain a better understanding of how to motivate the consumer to action. Which of course is ultimately what our clients pay us to do, no matter what we call ourselves.
Max Compton.
