Why Advertisers Still Don't Get It

It's time to remember that advertising needs brands more than the brands need advertising. A good product creates its own relationships

by Marc Gobé

In the last month or so, the branding world has been buzzing about the merger of two wireless companies with different cultures, the resurrection of a dead man's body to sell popcorn, and the launch of a mobile phone by a company whose brand is known by the color white.

These stories about AT&T (T), Cingular, Orville Redenbacher, and Apple (AAPL) provide interesting and contrary cases of survival, all based on those brands' ability to build consumer relationships in an emotional way.

Take the case of the merging wireless brands. Wall Street and the financial community are truly excited—imagine the fees! In speaking to the business press, meanwhile, Cingular and AT&T executives focus on the financial impact the merger will have on the new company. They talk about "industry leadership," "great plans," and "investors' enthusiasm." In the same breath, they emphasize the biggest growth opportunity: the additional revenues generated by mobile advertising crammed into every corner of the consumer interaction.

Dominating Data

Where's the customer in all this? What about our privacy and our choice not to be hounded by brands we don't care about? Where's our benefit, beyond potentially lower costs? (And will that really filter through to the end user, anyhow?) The brand promise in this mega-merger is mostly opaque, and there's room to wonder what kind of benefit to consumers will be delivered by the management of those two generic stars. The missed opportunity is to use the media coverage of the merger to talk about consumer benefits.

People are the reason those companies exist and the key to their future success. Yet financial data dominate the dialogue, when the right brand message would increase loyalty and attract more users. AT&T and Cingular should focus less on the bottom line. The hysterical conversation about dropping the name Cingular is unnecessary, the focus should be on providing an inspiring future for people.

Inspiration is also missing from another recent campaign, this one from hot Miami ad agency Crispin Porter & Bogusky. No stranger to controversy, CPB has built its reputation on making advertising work in new media. It was one of the first companies to understand that people were spending more time in front of their computer screens than they were fast-forwarding through—let alone watching—commercials on TV.

Resurrecting Redenbacher

Remember the subservient chicken that reached millions of hamburger enthusiasts—as well as plain-folk looking for a good time online? Now, bizarrely, Crispin is stretching its famous formula for buzz to prop up Orville Redenbacher popcorn. The "chock full of popcorn" campaign revives quirky company-founder Orville Redenbacher, who died no less than 11 years ago. But here he is, in 2007, hawking his wares again.

The thinking behind the dramatic idea for this plain supermarket product was to create new appeal for the brand—and thus revive sales. It's a neat demonstration of how frustrated marketers are with the slow growth of their brands and how far they will go in their belief that advertising will solve the problem.

But for all the campaign buzz and blog-talk, nobody seems to care about Redenbacher's revival. One might even wonder if, by becoming the reborn star of his commercial, Orville might attract too much attention to himself and none to his product. The hype surrounding the communication might fail to draw new enthusiasm for the product itself. I wonder if this commercial isn't a sort of subconscious metaphor for how we keep propping up the lifeless tool of advertising, which is no longer the insipration it used to be.

Emotional Disconnect

Then, in the midst of all this brouhaha, Steve Jobs shows up. In his jeans and black turtleneck, he holds the MacWorld audience rapt with pure drama. Standing before his admirers he raises his hands, in his palm the product that within minutes will shake the world.