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Advertising Cannot Beat the Market

By: Dwayne W. Waite Jr.

The advertising industry is in the business of helping organizations gain awareness so consumers know about their products and services. That's pretty easy to understand. However, as we crawl the hundreds of blogs, news articles, and studies, advertising's place in the business cycle seems to be over-exaggerated, misunderstood, or totally ignored.

There are dozens of pieces about "protecting your brand online," "6 ways to create quality content," and "10 reasons why your online marketing sucks," and others about ways of doing advertising and improving creativity. Professionals understand that good advertising, offline and online, is needed for organizations in the for-profit and non-profit sectors to succeed. But in much of the writings we find, no one is talking about the flip side; good and profitable businesses and organizations that advertising arms choose as partners.

Advertising, as we discussed in part before, is not in the business of choosing winners and losers. That is up to the consumers. Like the men and women who helped create AdLand have said, the best advertising in the world cannot save a bad product. It's true; in fact, one would think that good advertising would bring a bad product to ruin faster, since more consumers would find out how bad it is more quickly.

There are plenty of examples of where this mindset is missing, but the one we are going to focus on deals with the beer industry. Miller Light has been facing some tough times as of late. It shook up its advertising agency roster, changed its design, and even had the CEO throw the CMO under the bus, saying that advertising was the issue with the declining revenue. To a point, the advertising wasn't the greatest, but the problem goes deeper. Perhaps the product (in this case, Miller Light) was deemed unsavory by the audience they were trying to target. If the advertising isn't working, there are multiple reasons why, but the main two are: Is the advertising sending the right message, and is this the right audience for the message and product? We firmly believe that Miller Light's strategy is ultimately flawed, and until the strategy changes the advertising will continue to deliver under-performing results.

But that is only one example. Other professionals believe that organizations are being left behind because they are not adopting the latest and greatest in advertising practices. But then those same organizations hire agencies and still do not succeed. As a result, they blame the agencies. Of course, as service providers in a cutthroat industry, agencies are put in a hard spot: If the business has a terrible product, it can tell the business that and be subject to poor referrals or swallow the criticism and take a blow to its talent. Either way, it's not a fun position to be in.

How can advertising agencies, consultants, CMOs, and the like avoid this? How can we make sure that good advertising ultimately shines through? Listen to the market. Pair up with businesses that have a good management team, that engage in upstanding business practices, and know the importance of product development and research. Pair up with those businesses who honestly care what the consumer wants, versus what products and services they can sell. Although advertising is not in the business of picking winners and losers, it can certainly help consumers find them.

Companies who love providing the best products and services to their customers will be the ones that will produce the best advertising.

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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.

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