Branding Buzz

A Look at Advertising and Promotional Marketing Trends –

Even the savviest executives need to understand the complex issues causing advertising and marketing campaigns to fail today.

• Consumer spending is decreasing, and the savings rate of American households is increasing, brands are failing faster than ever. Annually more than 156,000 products debuted in stores globally – 75% of these failed. Success or failure of a brand introduction is now determined in just 12 to 18 months.
• In an effort to compensate for the drop in consumer spending businesses are increasing their advertising expenditures. The amount of money spent on advertising each year may have increased, but the number of customers gained has not.
• What does all of this mean for the marketing budget? The message that doesn’t get through is a waste of time and money.
• As John Wanamaker put it in his age old adage,
  "I know half my advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half"
• The total wasted advertising dollars annually is over $167,767,000,000.  

• It used to be easy to reach a target… In 1965, 80% of 18-49 year-olds in the US could be reached with only three 60-second TV spots. To achieve the same result today, it takes 117 prime-time commercials.
• In 1970, the average person was exposed to about 500 advertisements each day. In the early 1990s, it was 5,000. Today people are exposed to close to 30,000.
• In 1965, consumers recalled 34% of commercials they had seen. In 1990 that number had dropped to 8%, and by 2007 consumers could barely name 2 commercials that they had seen in a given day.
• Companies are under increased pressure to connect with their target market. Most industries today face more competition than ever making it harder to keep market share and things like clutter and consumer apathy create a critical barrier. Wasted advertising dollars mean that it costs much more to reach each individual.