Cutting through the noise

Prior to the advent of digital, advertising was a big-ticket item on the business budget. The advent of search advertising, social media and online software such as Canva changed that: most could now afford to advertise.

The idea of ‘noise’ emerged in the late Eighties and early Nineties. What was observed was that advertisers were competing for audience attention with other advertisers in their own categories and in other categories. An ice cream manufacturer would compete with other ice cream manufacturers but also vehicle manufacturers. The proliferation of advertisements and media channels were also an issue.

Switch to the current status and the noise becomes far more intense and complex. Large brands have to compete against a massive number of smaller brands, inboxes are crowded with spam, social media algorithms are unclear and search advertising is proliferating albeit in in an unsettled environment.

In addition, in the evolving environment of the brand, consumers are also weighing in with their own voices, interest groups and brand advocacy.

The brand and / or marketing manager has a complex task bringing the message home. So how do you cut through the noise? The answer lies in new marketing and branding approaches and, counterintuitively, rationalization of effort.

In the past, marketing relied on the 4P mix to generate sales through take-it-or-leave-it physical products offered scattershot to almost the entire market. The new approach is to identify the segment of the market that will find value in a product. This value will not only be physical attributes and benefits but will also contain elements of individual transformation and social (tribal) identification and belonging.

This segmentation is possible through rapidly developing AI and social media (if only development of and communication to look-alike markets on the basis of an early segment). The segmentation must be viewed as a niche. Unlike earlier iterations of marketing, the doctrine of growth hacking indicates that you don’t need to reach the entire market with your message: your ideal market is only those that will generate revenue. If you adopt this approach, you will have the basis for elimination of many extraneous channels and participants in those channels that add to the noise.

This is the point at which you can rationalize your efforts. A smaller market means that you spend less on reach. That smaller market will drive your volumes with less wastage of product and lower costs. In other words, you will sell more for less.

The next step is to identify in which channels you will compete, and against which products or brand. At this point, you will want to spend time with your position and differentials. If you are operating in a competitive environment, you will want to revisit the idea of what led you to compete in the first place. If your position is sound, you have the potential for a large share-of-voice on the basis of the differentials.

The third step is to build community in a channel which is controlled by you. The three important things are to leverage the purpose which will be the major draw of your niche, to highlight the transformation that the brand brings about and to provide and environment in which tribal belonging is nurtured.

By using these three steps, you will have substantially reduced the noise in your communication environment, and you will also have obtained economies of scale.

Use it or lose it.