Brands Must Embrace Alternatives To Advertising

Geoffrey ColonOctober 12, 20162 min

Advertising seems to be much of the role of a marketer in this day and age because advertising helps connect with people. Or does it?

What creative and innovative new instruments should brands be using, not replace their advertising spend, but complement it so it goes much further? Here are three that represent the replacement of advertising as we’ve known it.

1. CRM. Customers aren’t looking for more advertising. They want less of it. Way less of it. But what they want to replace that is something very hard for marketers to understand which is customer service channels. Not the form to lodge complaints, but offer feedback both positive and negative on what they want more out of a brand. I find it incredulous that in 2016 the only format for brands to connect with customers is the inhuman survey. Customers are becoming more demanding and rightfully so and it will take an innovative brand to set up what what will ultimately be a real time feedback loop.

2. Experiences. I want to figure out if a couch will look good in my living room. Can you, the furniture brand help replicate this in a manner where I can see it in my own living room? Virtual and augmented reality are here to make these experiences come to life. But beyond allowing me to visualize this experience can I also Skype with a customer service rep who is an interior decorator and then ship to my house and make an appointment on my Google calendar of when I’ll be home to receive the product? This is a whole new area of marketing coming at the angle from a customer experience. While the scenario envisioned sounds like it’s still a few years away the behavior of thinking like a consumer is not.

3. Events. The best forms of digital marketing now take place in the physical world. That’s because all action is captured and shared by participants using mobile cameras, video editing software and the ability to upload in real time to social sharing platforms. Stop thinking that everything must occur on your website or on social media only. Connection with customers in life is what they want more of and is a way to meet them in the physical domain. This is an area that resonates much more in our over-digitized world.

Learn how to keep your brand relevant in the 21st Century in my new book Disruptive Marketing.

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