As Business Changes, So Will Advertising

TalentZoo.com | Flack Me | Digital Pivot | Beneath the Brand

Archives | Categories

By: Dwayne W. Waite Jr.

If advertising is the language of business, and the way of doing business changes, it is only logical to think that advertising would change as well. If you were in an environment where you spoke only English and jumped into a bilingual community, you would want to learn the second language, right? In order to be successful in your new environment, adapting your ways would be necessary. Like learning a new language, advertising needs to learn how to properly conduct itself in the new environment that business finds itself in.

Amanda Mackenzie, president of the UK's Marketing Society, was privy to the conversations at the World Economic Forum in Davos and gave our industry the heads up in Marketing Magazine. She described the shift of business focus in two words: social value.

Yes, she described the top discussions in Davos to be about emerging markets, ageing populations in developed economies, and the income gap between rich and poor among nations around the world. Worldwide, the middle class is disappearing, and heads are starting to rely more on enterprise to solve the problem. Business must not only start to partner with governments to deal with these issues, but Mackenzie puts it that business must develop ways to boost emerging economies and create an environment of sustainable living.

As the messengers, the marketing and advertising community should be taking notes on what its future project entails.

In order for businesses to tell the consumer to practice what it preaches, the advertising community must be able to accurately and effectively tell the consumer what the business is practicing and preaching. No change in consumer thinking will happen unless the advertising is effective.

Which means cause marketing will increase substantially.

If Mackenzie's takeaways are accurate, the world will see a cause-marketing blitz in the next coming years from businesses and governments like never before. Finally, globalization has reached its zenith and will continue to improve the world we live in.

Right?

As we watch the upcoming Super Bowl commercials, the ads that will have one of the biggest stages of the year, look at the messages those businesses are sending. Which ones note on sustainability, and the fact that we, as global citizens, are in it together? Which advertisements show that the creative and business focus is not on the bottom line of the income statement, but the bottom line of the quality of life? Which creative gems will show the world that advertising doesn't have a purpose of "getting people to buy as much as possible as often as they possibly can"? Now, businesses need to look at developing long-term relationships with their customer base and sending messages that are not just important for that night, but important for their lives in general.

Hopefully a few got the message.

blog comments powered by Disqus

About the Author

Dwayne W. Waite Jr. is partner and principal at JDW: The Charlotte Agency, a marketing and advertising shop in Charlotte, NC. He enjoys consumer behavior, economics, and football.

Beyond Madison Avenue on