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Making a difference through marketing.

“Chess is as elaborate a waste of human intelligence as you can find outside an advertising agency. “

Raymond Chandler

We are an industry that generates waste at an astonishing rate, both in terms of our product – which exists solely to drive greater levels of consumption – and, in our production which seems to exist solely to sustain the paper mills and media outlets.

Because of this, we are in an enviable position; we can make a dramatic difference. Here are some thoughts on how:

(i) We can develop strategies that replace or reduce consumption. I think this is wide open territory for a host of different household products, think shampoos that let you wash your hair less often, makeup that allows you to put less on. Because it is unexpected it can also be quite disruptive. Purina did this with Dog Chows, showing how feeding your dog less could extend its life up to two years.

(ii) We can think like Web 2.0. Instead of building identical functionality which competes with something else that’s already been built why not build on top of it? For example, social networking seems to be at the heart of every companies’ digital strategies these days, but great social networks already exist. So, instead of Walmart which tried (unsuccessfully) to create a competing network think like Target which built a very successful program on top of Facebook.

(iii) We can recycle brand ideas and iconography instead of rushing to invent new ones. Most companies have assets which they’ve invested lots of time and effort into. Most of these assets have a strong connection to the company, they may just have a weak connection to culture. Often, all that’s required is a simple re-contextualizing of the asset to fix that. Lots of people have done this, just don’t do it like Uncle Ben’s or Orville Redenbacher.

(iv) We can stop making popular or viral communications that have absolutely no impact on the popularity or adoption of their brands.

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This entry was posted on Monday, October 15th, 2007 at 9:23 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

  • David Esrati
    Or, you make advertising that is worth keeping- useful, beautiful, interesting.
    For example:

    I like ads painted on buildings- they last, they cover up the wall- and they can serve 2 masters: the building owner who needed his building painted, and the advertiser who paid for it and needed the publicity. Unfortunately- local governments think all outdoor ads are bad...

    or, that billboards make the landscape ugly. Only if the ads are bad.

    All of this roots back to Howard Gossage: "People don't read ads, they read what interests them- and sometimes it's an ad."

    Make advertising useful- and beautiful and merge the brand into the social landscape- and all of a sudden- ads don't have to be bad or wasteful.
  • sk
    Fair enough, but I guess I'd argue--as a liberal--that within our society, the alignment of business interests with civic needs and responsibilities is the role of government, though our government has often abdicated this role to serve other interests.


    As many people more involved in the subject than me have pointed out, some of the biggest successes in creating thriving markets in alternative energy sources (in Germany and Japan) have been created by policy and legislation. You don't have to be scholar in American History to know why our government hasn't been able to pass similar measures. While all these progressive values are great, it generally takes the power of the law to get the worst offenders to balance economic gain with social good. Especially when the question of social good is so debatable, at least from the other side of the aisle.
  • Adrian
    HI Scott,


    Good to stay grounded on this, of course you're absolutely right, there are different ways to make a difference.



    However, I'd argue that the biggest offenders can deliver the biggest impacts if they can be reformed. I think that letting marketing off the hook is wrong. Business and the survival of our planet have to be aligned. They can't be separate activities.
  • sk
    And/or we could leave the profession of marketing altogether, and work for a non-profit devoted to some form of social justice (full disclosure: a job i've turned down in the past because I have 3 kids and like visiting Italy). My own politics are aligned with these progressive sentiments, Adrian, but I'm equally uneasy about making such Utopian claims about the role of marketing as a form of social transformation. There are far more direct ways to impact the social good than getting people to buy different kinds of stuff--though you tend to make less of a good living doing them. Please take this comment in the spirit of inspiring a civil debate, Adrian, but there are times when I think we are trying too hard to disguise our role as an engine in a capitalist consumer economy which is designed to and depends on generating more consumption. Should we be a little more skeptical about our role and motivations? Or did I misunderstand your intent here?
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