Be Rebellious

Be Rebellious

By:


In order to get consumers (whether they are retail or service customers or business-to-business audiences) to notice an advertising message, many companies resort to loudness and one-upmanship. Neither of these tactics works in the long run.

If your competition is talking loudly and you decide to yell louder, what do you think they will do? Yep. Theyll start to scream. Nobody wins a shouting match when it comes to advertising. And usually youll find you even lose a few customers in the process because they cant stand the noise.

Its the same with one-upmanship. If you have to compete on more and better coupons or more and better discounts, giveaways or incentives unrelated to your core product, your revenue per sale decreases as well as your number of sales.

Customers see these types of games as gimmicky, fake and disingenuous; and they leave. The ones who do stay now view you and your competitors as commodities with no difference except your price. That is a dangerous place for a company to find itself.

The answer to clutter is not more clutter; its finding who wants to hear you and speaking to them. So how do you compete if you cant out shout or out discount your competition? You get rebellious and radical with your advertising.

Do those words scare you? Thats okay. Remember, youre being courageous now. You can handle it. Besides, rebellious and radical arent dirty words. They will help you draw attention away from your competition without resorting to screaming and insulting your customers.

Its not about being outrageous just to get attention; its about being remarkable. An advertising campaign with a strong rebellious strategy is, by its very nature, different from anything your audience will find from your competitors marketing efforts. Its unexpected. Its surprising. Its effective.

There are two keys to creating a successfully rebellious advertising campaign. The first is the big idea. This idea comes from a strategy that is derived directly from your customers and their relationship with your brand. You arrive at this idea through a discipline called account planning. Well get into the details of both the big idea and account planning in later articles.

The second key to a successfully rebellious advertising campaign is attention. You cant gain attention if you dont learn to identify and then steer clear of the norm. It doesnt matter how great your product or service is or how large your potential market, if your target audience doesnt pay attention to your message, your ad budget has been wasted.

Think about these two keys while you flip through the newspaper or a magazine. Ponder them while you watch TV. You should notice something almost immediately. Most ads today dont seem to be based on any big idea. Many are so boring that you flip right past them without noticing them. Others get your attention but the ads dont have much to do with the product so you quickly forget the brand the ad was supposed to sell you. What an opportunity for your brand!

Now, there is a caveat to being rebellious. Your ads should never be different just for difference sake. The difference should be derived from your brands uniqueness.

This article introduced the second of twelve steps. Challenge yourself, your staff and your ad agency to revolutionize your advertising program. If you missed the first step, contact the author for a complimentary copy. And, remember, every revolution begins with just one step.

Jeff Berney is a freelance idealist, brand evangelist and writer. He can be reached at jeff@jberney.com

2006

About the Author:
After more than a decade in the business, Jeff Berney offers more than a passion for prose. Above all, he is a strategic thinker, an idealist, a brand evangelist. The articles posted here are from his collection entitled, "Twelve Steps to Creating Breakthrough Advertising Campaigns: A creative philosophy to help companies recover from years of playing it safe." You can view his work or read his blog at http://www.jberney.com



Article Originally Published On: http://www.articlesnatch.com


Tags: , , , ,

|

Loading...
Related....
Videos...

Recent Advertising Articles

Comments

Still can't find what you are looking for? Search for it!

Loading

Site Navigation:

Copyright 2005-2011 ArticleSnatch, LLC - All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy | Terms of Service.