Are all marketers dumb?

We hear a great deal these days about the latest "buzz" effort, viral ploy or over-the-top publicity stunt to get a brand noticed. Are marketers dumb? Do marketers stress the importance of style at the expense of substance? Maybe.

The marketers who resort to using tricks for a one-time sale are the dumb ones.

Consumers are very sophisticated today and good marketers not only realize and accept that fact but they embrace it.

Marketers know that they must demonstrate the value of a brand in front of very smart and very sophisticated consumers who will quickly buy an alternate brand if there is no compelling reason not to. And what if a consumer tries a brand and it does not live up to the marketing hype? Then kiss that customer goodbye--and count on them telling dozens if not hundreds or thousands of others about their bad experience with the brand.

Marketers need to be extremely knowledgeable about their product or service and know what value it represents to their target market. Beyond that they must know how to clearly and articulately communicate that value to consumers. Smart marketers set out to build a powerful brand, not make a one-time sale or simply boost short-term sales performance.

If there is no compelling value to offer consumers and one must resort to tricks or intrusive advertising gimmicks, then it should be a warning sign to the marketer that he or she must go back and modify the product in some way to ensure there is superior value to sell to consumers on an ongoing basis. The only way to do this is by having very good market intelligence by understanding what consumers really want.

Are all marketers dumb?

No. Just some of them.

2006 Brand Keys Brand Loyalty Leaders

For the second year in a row I'm pleased to report on Brand Keys study of brands with the most loyal customers.

The Top Ten (with last year's ranking in parentheses):

1. Avis (2)
2. Google (1)
3. L.L. Bean (24)
4. Samsung mobile phones (5)
5. Yahoo! (3)
6. Canon office copiers (8)
7. Land's End (74)
8. Coors (13)
9. Hyatt hotels (12)
10. Marriott hotels (10)

It seems the price of gasoline had an impact on the way people shop as we see two catalog retailers skyrocket into the top ten this year which makes me wonder if these brands really have the most loyal customers. Will their "loyal" customers stick around if the price of gas drops? Have they truly added loyal customers who will stick around with them over the long haul or have they added customers who are loyal out of economic convenience?

I guess we might find out next year.


Last year's Top Ten list at http://davedolak.blogspot.com/2005/11/high-tech-brands-enjoy-greater-loyalty.html

Z-List marketing bloggers

Mack Collier at The Viral Garden has started an interesting project.

He's come up with a list of "Z-List" bloggers who are bloggers who write very informative and insightful blogs about marketing and who are worth reading but who do not rank highly in terms of traffic. He is attemtping to get marketing bloggers to take the list below, add their own favorite blogs on the topic and post it to their blogs in an attempt to spread the word about quality sites about marketing and branding that might otherwise go unnoticed.

Here's my iteration of the list:

Shotgun Marketing Blog
BrandSizzle
bizsolutionsplus
Customers Rock!
Being Peter Kim
Two Hat Marketing
The Emerging Brand
The Branding Blog
CrapHammer
Dave Dolak's Marketing & Branding
Drew's Marketing Minute
Golden Practices
Viaspire
Tell Ten Friends
Flooring the Consumer
On Influence and Automation
Kinetic Ideas
MSCO
BrandTrellis.com
Buzzoodle
NewsPaperGrl