It pays to advertise . . . sometimes.

Most would agree it can pay to advertise. When a campaign works, it not only reduces the cost of selling paying for itself and the agency, it also empowers a strategic marketer to reach for and dominate the top of the niche. When advertising, promotion, or public relations work – do what they’re supposed to do – it’s a good investment. When they don’t work, it’s an expense.  Ideally, strategic marketing reduces the costs of selling.

Countless studies have shown that less than 15% of most industrial advertisers don’t really know why they advertise. The reason most often given is that they are afraid of what might happen if they didn’t advertise. The blind leap of faith on this issue is staggering. And, expensive. 

The key to campaigns that work is good information; strategic information that empowers you to see where your competition stands and where your opportunities lie. Competitive strengths, weaknesses, brand positioning, market share, product parities, pricing, etc. – your brandscape – let you see what you need to become and do to dominate your niche. Yes, innovative strategies based on good, sound information consistently provide a door to great campaigns, without which there is no way to measure purpose or potential.

Today's 2.0 Web based interactive and viral strategies are closing contextual loops now that offer marketers and their customers to bond through a legacy of transactions. As Baby Boomers grow older and as Generation X procreates less, marketers have come to realize that – especially with these new online media – it is much less expensive to keep a customer you've got than to replace a customer you've lost. Lifecyles, the new media, and online affiliations with other marketers, now make it possible to keep the customers you've sold to by selling them what they need next . . . even when what they need next isn't something you are known for.

Customer Relationship Marketing (CRM) moves marketing to the next domain. New strategies not only track customer interest and purchase histories anticipating next relevant needs in real time at a time when your customers are most ready to buy, but they also make it possible for you to leverage peer-to-peer affinities with word-of-blog discussions among those affinities in real time. Web logs among special interest groups (SIGs) tell the real story on brands and markets, dynamically and in real time. Now, for the first time in history, there is a "participation medium," where marketers and customers share in a dynamic consensus on companies, products, services, brands, applications, and marketers, etc. 

Will it pay for you to advertise, promote, market smart? Show us your information and strategy for dominance – or let us find it for you – and then we’ll tell you what we think.