Comments on: Hating On Traditional Advertising http://www.brandidentityguru.com/wordpress/2008/09/hating-on-traditional-advertising/ Branding Opinions From Our Fearless Leader - Scott White Wed, 07 Jan 2009 18:01:00 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: Branding Blog Branding Company Corporate Internet Brand Image Strategy http://www.brandidentityguru.com/wordpress/2008/09/hating-on-traditional-advertising/#comment-3598 Branding Blog Branding Company Corporate Internet Brand Image Strategy Sat, 04 Oct 2008 15:09:15 +0000 http://www.brandidentityguru.com/wordpress/?p=949#comment-3598 [...] direct mail when word of mouth marketing company Brains on Fire dismissed the entire tactic (read about that here). Today I defend TV advertising. I do this if and only if it’s part of an [...] [...] direct mail when word of mouth marketing company Brains on Fire dismissed the entire tactic (read about that here). Today I defend TV advertising. I do this if and only if it’s part of an [...]

]]> By: Branding Blog Branding Company Corporate Internet Brand Image Strategy http://www.brandidentityguru.com/wordpress/2008/09/hating-on-traditional-advertising/#comment-3585 Branding Blog Branding Company Corporate Internet Brand Image Strategy Thu, 02 Oct 2008 15:24:03 +0000 http://www.brandidentityguru.com/wordpress/?p=949#comment-3585 [...] make sales. If you’re looking for a marketing company to help support your efforts try and find one that doesn’t have any bias against specific tactics. A word of mouth marketing?company will obviously promote word of mouth and most likely will not [...] [...] make sales. If you’re looking for a marketing company to help support your efforts try and find one that doesn’t have any bias against specific tactics. A word of mouth marketing?company will obviously promote word of mouth and most likely will not [...]

]]> By: Erik Deckers http://www.brandidentityguru.com/wordpress/2008/09/hating-on-traditional-advertising/#comment-3565 Erik Deckers Tue, 30 Sep 2008 13:38:54 +0000 http://www.brandidentityguru.com/wordpress/?p=949#comment-3565 Me again. I decided to post a response to you and to Robbin. You can find it at <a href="http://www.visiondirectmarketing.com/blog1/direct-mail-isn%e2%80%99t-a-marketing-silver-bullet/" rel="nofollow">Direct Mail isn't a Marketing Silver Bullet.</a> Me again. I decided to post a response to you and to Robbin. You can find it at Direct Mail isn’t a Marketing Silver Bullet.

]]> By: Erik Deckers http://www.brandidentityguru.com/wordpress/2008/09/hating-on-traditional-advertising/#comment-3564 Erik Deckers Tue, 30 Sep 2008 12:53:36 +0000 http://www.brandidentityguru.com/wordpress/?p=949#comment-3564 I work in the direct mail industry, and like everyone else, I cringe every time someone mentions the normal 1 - 3% return rate on mail. But the biggest difference between direct mail and other traditional advertising is that we know what our response rate is because we measure it, traditional methods have no idea. So they can snort and derisively point at our low response rates, secure in the knowledge that no one can make a similar claim about them. TV & radio, newspaper, billboards, vinyl covering on vans, no one knows how well they do. Those methods are the proverbial spaghetti on the wall: throw it up there and see what sticks. These methods don't have a high success rate either (not everyone watches/listens to that station, reads the paper that day, drives past that billboard, or was at home when the van drove by). And you have the added problem of reaching people you really didn't want to reach. The only other method that can easily be measured is email, and they're going to start having their own problems soon enough. I wrote a blog entry about how <a href="http://www.visiondirectmarketing.com/blog1/forrester-research-email-marketing-forecast-misses-the-mark/" rel="nofollow">Forrester Research said email traffic will reach 840 billion pieces per year by 2013.</a> My contention is that it's going to be so overwhelming that email marketing is going to take a big hit, despite its relative ease and low cost. Your thoughts? I work in the direct mail industry, and like everyone else, I cringe every time someone mentions the normal 1 - 3% return rate on mail. But the biggest difference between direct mail and other traditional advertising is that we know what our response rate is because we measure it, traditional methods have no idea. So they can snort and derisively point at our low response rates, secure in the knowledge that no one can make a similar claim about them.

TV & radio, newspaper, billboards, vinyl covering on vans, no one knows how well they do. Those methods are the proverbial spaghetti on the wall: throw it up there and see what sticks.

These methods don’t have a high success rate either (not everyone watches/listens to that station, reads the paper that day, drives past that billboard, or was at home when the van drove by). And you have the added problem of reaching people you really didn’t want to reach.

The only other method that can easily be measured is email, and they’re going to start having their own problems soon enough. I wrote a blog entry about how Forrester Research said email traffic will reach 840 billion pieces per year by 2013. My contention is that it’s going to be so overwhelming that email marketing is going to take a big hit, despite its relative ease and low cost.

Your thoughts?

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