Product, Product, Product

Question: Is advertising effective in the information age?

Ok, wrong question. Let's take an example. Apple's iPhone is growing market share and running a brilliant TV advertising campaign. So advertising works right?

Let's dig deeper into this issue before we arrive at an answer. The iPhone is a truely innovative and amazing product. The web capability, screen, applications, and novel navigation methods (flip, pinch) is "Jobsian".

Jobsian (adjective) - ingenius, particularly in the area of usability.

The iPhone crashes, the email can take a long time to download, the keyboard is challenging. Despite these issues, the iPhone is an outrageously, awesome device.

The Right Question: How does advertising work in today's information age?

Consumers consult multiple sources prior to making a purchasing decisions. Information on the web provides a quick fact-check for shoppers. The web is particularly strong at providing quick side-by-side comparisions. So a consumer sees that the new t-mobile g1 is being released. The customer sees a cool ad for the g1 and thinks - maybe I should finally make the plunge into the smart phone market. Does she then go down to the nearest shopping mall to talk with a sales rep regarding the feeds and speeds of the g1?

Nope. She goes onto Google and types in "google g1 comparison" and then sees the various articles from PC Magazine, Walt Mossberg, etc. She then write on her Facebook wall that she is thinking of getting a g1. A few friends rave about their iPhone and ask her why she is not going down that path. After reading a few product reviews and blogs, she soon finds that although interesting, the iPhone is still considered the top choice for smart phones. In this case, the phone is considered good, though not as good as the iPhone. She may or may not reconsider the g1 and go iPhone, but she surely is not going to risk being teethered to this new phone for the next 2 years before doing her homework. A worse scenario is when the product being advertised is DOA. The results of the advertising campaign will not be pretty.

With the availability of information, strength of social networks, and rise of citizen journalism; great (let me repeat this - great NOT good) products are able to grow rapidly with little advertising. So why should Apple advertise if it has such an amazing product?

OK, finally we are back to the question we asked initally. You don't see Apple advertising AppleTV or even much of the Apple Air anymore, but if you have your TV on for more than 23 minutes, you most likely will see an iPhone ad. The reason is that Apple knows they have a winner and they are successfully using a massive advertising campaign to create awareness of this game-changing product. Even advertising good products can deliver a decent return of investment. The problem comes in the merely passable product that is heavily advertised. These ads become so much noise to a consumer as the limitations of the products are discovered and spread quickly. The US auto industry is falling victim to this trap.

The uninformed may think... "hmm, Apple is growing their market share with their aggressive advertising. That is the reason they are winning all these new customers. If I want to sell tons or products, I should advertise too." Wrong. It's the product!

So for those looking to retain TBWA for a new product launch, you might want to take an honest look at your product offering and figure if it is better to hit the production studios or go back to the lab for further tinkering. Now more than ever, if the emperor has no clothes, the world will know in the time it take to punch out a 26-character tweet.