Start in a different place

When solving marketing and communication problems, are we starting in the right place? Are we asking the right questions?

At a recent media week conference Les Binet, who knows more about effective advertising than pretty much anyone else in the UK, proffered a check list on how to make sure things work.

This is a really useful list so it's worth repeating some of the key pillars ....

• Set clear and detailed objectives
  If you start by spelling out the hard business objectives, payback is increased four times
• Focus on profit
  Most people think the job of advertising is to sell more stuff, so they focus on increasing sales volume, but the most profitable campaigns are the ones that make people pay more
• Engage the whole market
  Increasing brand loyalty has become the main goal for many campaigns - but advertising has hardly any effect on brand loyalty
• Touch the heart
  Rational messaging campaigns are the least effective. The best campaigns make people feel things about a brand - emotions are more profitable than messages
• Create ripples of influence
  The most effective campaigns take emotional bonding to the next level. Be newsworthy, go viral, or do things that people talk about in the pub - go beyond the private sphere
• Harness the power of integration
  Convert fame and buzz into sales. Integration doubles effectiveness, so communications must make brands desirable while also pacifying the rational brain with reasons
• Beware of using only one metric
  The campaigns that perform the best move all the measurement dials, whereas the campaigns that only shift one measure under perform

Now, I'm sure we can all find examples where these aren't true. But broadly most campaigns would be improved by adopting these principles.

But what about the questions that need to come before communication?

1. Should I be using communication at all? Too often we rush for the crutch of ad spend when product, distribution or service issues lie at the heart of sluggish growth. Knowing when it does and doesn't have a role is fundamental to effectiveness

2. What role does communication play within the client organisation? Will it motivate teams, can it act as a unifying force? Initiatives that span silo's are what really accelerates growth

3. How is 'talkability' hard wired into the product or service? Too often advertising is tasked with spin. The combination of inbuilt word of mouth features and strong advocacy friendly brand stories, amplified through communication, is what super charges brands.
OK .... so this sounds like hard work. Maybe it's beyond the remit of marketing. But then again look at this example .......

http://www.longlivealex.com/ . The clear role for comms is to bring the (very long term) brand benefit to life. The idea generated can act as a unifying rallying call as to why the business exists and in a non cheesy corporate type of way. Finally it generates ingrained talkability and on-going content which many FMCG brands feel is beyond them. Inspired.



It doesn't contradict the 'rules' of effectiveness. But by starting in a slightly different place it takes it to another level.

By the way, I am the 2,391,052,000 oldest man in the world.