It is time Business Management Schools started studying their own agendas, as Marketing Management to day seems to be bogged down in sleazy fakery, thus turning out Graduates who have no idea of the damage they are doing with their huckstering behaviour on TV and elsewhere!
With the many billions spent annually on Marketing Communications, the TV programme fakery together with the 'phone in scandals means that most of this colossal expenditure is wasted because of a very serious issue – a declining lack of trust on behalf of your customers!
And all the advertising in the world can't help you if you don't have trust.
The BBC and the commercial networks are not the only organisations that have suffered a breakdown in trust recently.
Northern Rock, GMTV, Mattel, Bernard Matthews and Cadbury Schweppes have all, recently, be weighed in the balance and found wanting.
Levels of trust in the West are in long-term decline – authority is something to be challenged.
So how have we come to this state? Perhaps it all started as stores and communities grew larger and the personal bonds of trust and loyalty that used to be enjoyed by the local trader who knew his customers wants and needs, disappeared.
In today’s marketplace, time, attention and trust seem to have become the scarcest resources and companies that fail to recognise this fact are bound to suffer problems. As a result it is becoming more and more important to ensure that there is a strong ‘what’s in it for me’ appeal to the consumer.
With so many demands on their time they will only spend quality time with those products and services that are clearly offering them something of direct personal relevance and value.
Research published recently by Beyond Philosophy, a UK company specialising in customer attitudes, claims 82 per cent of people never believe their experience of an organisation will match the image promoted by television advertising. Beyond Philosophy concludes that television advertising may actually be harming, rather than enhancing, companies' relationships with their customers.
Similarly, research by the Henley Centre has shown that while nine out of ten people will trust their spouse or partner and eight out of ten their children, fewer than a third (27%) trust retailers or manufacturers, while just 14% trust either the government or advertisers!
Marketing appears to have cottoned to the fact that apparent intimacy enhances trustworthiness. There's no denying that for business, being seen to be your trusted intimate pays.
There has been a loosening of emotional ties between business and society. Indeed with the growth of new technology most transactions with consumers are with faceless entities – be it banking, our grocer or our car insurer.
In the past we did business with people you knew, so trust was given in the interactions.
In to day's world you have to assume you can trust your bank – it counts on a leap of faith that wasn't there before.
Only one form of communication can help overcome this lack of trust…that of interactive communication.
Current conventional mass media are weak conductors of knowledge and comprehension. This is because of a number of factors, however the main reason is; they are non-interactive communications vehicles, in other words ‘conversations’ cannot take place.
Interaction can be defined simply as straightforward communication between two parties. Presently we are in danger of losing the real meaning of interaction, as we tend to focus discussions on the emerging technologies and neglect the communication process itself. With an understanding of the real meaning of Interactive Communication, existing media can be made interactive, and subsequently far more cost effective.
Communication research shows that interaction raises a communication’s learning effectiveness.
Interactive communication, properly executed has none of the woolly theorising that lies behind the arguments about various forms of so-called interactive communication using direct marketing and electronic media (most of which involves at best the minimum of true interactivity).
It is also practical, down-to-earth, and uses a readily comprehensible and verified mechanism to expand the relevance and salience of advertising and other forms of marketing communications. It can be applied to all major media and to various other forms of communication, including new media.
Trust absolutely sells, hence the urgent need to understand and then implement interactive programmes. With interactive communication you can go a long way to creating, and maintaining, a trusting customer. Remember, trust is an end product, it is the consequence of other things – you cannot mandate it, you have to earn it – and you earn it with a rigorous understanding of, and then implementation, of interactive communication.
Social Media – An epic tulipomania in the making!
The Internet is not an advertising medium, people log onto the Internet to go somewhere, not see advertisements!
Have you heard the one about Super-bowl Ads?
How much longer can Clients go on paying $3 million for a 30-second spot that doesn't wotk?
Rethinking Marketing Strategies: A Call to Chinese Entrepreneurs
In an era where the Chinese economy is making remarkable strides, it's crucial for Chinese entrepreneurs to critically evaluate the effectiveness of traditional advertising methods. The Western world's advertising industry, often perceived as superior, is increasingly being challenged by evidence suggesting that advertising may not be as effective as once believed. This article delves into the pitfalls of conventional advertising and explores the need for innovative communication strategies in the 21st century.
