Tom Asacker: Is the advertising industry still relevant?

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Is the advertising industry still relevant?

There's an old saying, "Be careful of giving advice. The wise don't need it and fools won't heed it." I try really hard to follow that sage advice.

I'm exposed daily, like most of you, to a lot of noise emanating from the media and the blogosphere. Most of the babble causes me to shake my head from side to side. Some of it causes me to bite my lower lip. But every so often I'll read something that is so far off the mark that I feel compelled to respond. Today is one of those days.

I'm sure you've been following the fate of Detroit's automakers. It's all over the news. After their underwhelming appearance before Congress a few weeks ago, the CEOs of GM, Ford, and Chrysler were told to come back with viable plans if they want a government bailout. They turned their plans in today, and GM said it will run out of money to pay its bills this month unless Congress gives it access to $4 billion . . . immediately.

Well now AdvertisingAge magazine, through one of its columnists Al Ries, has chimed in and has attributed GM's downfall to . . . get this . . . poor "messaging." That's right. If only they had chosen the right slogans and tag lines and ads, they'd be fine. Here's a taste of the advertising industry's logic from Al Ries' column:

Responding to a recent Wall Street Journal article that attributes much of Japanese, German and Korean automakers' competitive advantage to building alliances with American workers, Ries writes:

"It's nice to have happy, intelligent, productive employees, but to credit them with building a successful car company is stretching it a bit.

It seems to me that the fundamental nature of Japanese competition is their ability to build brands. Toyota stands for reliability. Scion for youth. Prius for hybrid. Lexus for luxury."

What? Who does he think was responsible for designing and manufacturing the cars that took on those particular attributes? Madison Avenue? Ries does go on to point out, however, that GM, Ford and Chrysler really did try to create desirable cars (brands):

"It's not for lack of trying. In 2007, the U.S. automobile industry spent $4.6 billion on advertising. That's 3.3% of total U.S advertising spending and 5.9% of total U.S. network TV spending."

Must have been bad ads, huh? Here's some more:

"America invented marketing. America invented branding. America invented the production line, which made the automobile affordable for the majority of the population."

Yes Al, and America ignored W. Edwards Deming. And the car companies spent more time lobbying to protect their short-term interests than they did innovating for long-term growth. Instead of adapting to new economic and environmental realities, they denied the existence of global warming and ignored the calls for national health-care reform, among other strategic blunders. But the advertising industry says, through its spokesperson Al Ries, that the real problems of U.S. industry are caused by the disconnect between the smart folks in marketing and the folks at the helm:

"There's a growing disconnect between U.S. management and U.S. marketing. Management wants to build a business. Marketing wants to build a brand. The two are often diametrically opposed. To build a business, you tend to 'expand' the brand. To build a brand, you generally need to 'contract' the brand.

Huh? It's no wonder that the advertising industry is rapidly losing clients and credibility with executive management. Are they really that far out of touch?

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Comments

I think it's a stretch to say Al Ries speaks for "the ad industry" today. There are now countless voices, and no one definitive place to turn for ad news and commentary.

Posted by: David Burn | December 03, 2008 at 03:15 PM

David, does AdAge speak for the industry?

BTW, I prefer my ad news and views from AdPulp.

Posted by: Tom Asacker | December 03, 2008 at 03:26 PM

Finally, you're taking on a player. It's good to see. I thought I was the onoly one around to take on anyone.

Al Ries is considered a branding legend. He has some valid points but the big problem is they made cars NO ONE wanted to buy. And the unions made it hard to compete.

A simple SWOT analysis would have showed a threat to SUV's...c'mon.

But Al does have a point in that none of the American brands have a clear brand identity. But that's not what did them in.

Posted by: BIG Kahuna | December 03, 2008 at 04:35 PM

As always, great post, Tom! Thank you, we refer to your posts often on our site Unbound Edition. Just like you and BIG Kahuna I had the same reaction as soon as I read Ries' article: http://www.unboundedition.com/content/view/9174/54/

Of course he makes some good points, but the fact that brand experts like Ries constantly refer to traditional advertising as we talk about brands and don't go deeper than that causes a misunderstanding what brand really is and consequently a lack of it in the C-suite.

Fortunately that is changing automatically as most advertising proves to be irrelevant and noise. Nowadays brands need to listen and deliver instead of just making promises.

And with brands I mean businesses, Mr Ries.

Posted by: Jacco de Bruijn | December 03, 2008 at 09:55 PM

Tom, indeed, the advertising industry in its traditional configuration is grossly irrelevant. It is a model for information exchange between provider and consumer that is dead, only waiting its memorial services.
Advertising was a great idea when Frank Barnum invented it – a way of presenting products in dramatic fashion to capture people’s imaginations and transport them out of the dailyness of their lives through vicarious connections between their idealized self-images and the authentic images of their lives. Win through More Beautiful Hair… More Beautiful Skin… More Beautiful Teeth … etc. Be Smarter. Do Better than Your Friends. Raise Smarter Children. Get a Husband, Keep Husband Live Longer. Love Longer

The young buy into fantasy. Advertising was born in the neuronal landscapes of fantasy. And the wizardry of graphic technology freed fantasy from virtually all limitations. Today, though, the juvenile world of fantasy no longer dominates the zeitgeist. With the adult median age now pegged at 47, undeveloped minds no longer define demand and response. Al Reis and his kind do not understand this. They still see the world through the lens of make-believe. They don’t understand authenticity – only fantasy.

So customers started talking to each other. Guess what? They discovered authenticity in their own conversations among themselves.
Last one out on Madison Avenue, don’t forget to turn off the lights.

David

Posted by: David Wolfe | December 04, 2008 at 01:00 PM

i've just lost three minutes of my life attempting to understand the intent behind that last quote about contracting brands and expanding businesses being diametrically opposed.

wait . . . .another three minutes gone.

nope. still nothing.

Posted by: peter spear | December 05, 2008 at 07:10 PM