All Products Need Marketing, A Dialog Of Engagement
Products don't need much advertising - Every purchase we make is at the very moment of decision, based on emotions. Even the most mundane purchase has an emotional component. We can see this by tracking neuropeptide releases during the buying decision. Marketing when used effectively is designed to create a relationship with these emotions. In the deepest sense of the concept, marketing for a company, product and service should never end. Marketing reaches through to the customer and creates a dialog and engagement. And when done correctly it is priceless, to the consumer and to the marketer.
At Apple Marketing Never Ends And Is Always Evolving
The mission of every company is to create, project and protect the dialog it creates with the customer. If this mission is successful they have understood and perhaps anticipated the customer needs, and through the dialog of marketing, informed the customer. Sometimes marketing is designed to establish an ethos for a company using an emotional connection to a rather know public figure (more here: by marketing genius, Ken Segall http://kensegall.com/branding2.html):
Marketing done correctly will create an experience that delights the customer. We see this in Apple products. Apple is one of the most recognized brands in the world today, yet they still spend Hundreds of Millions of Dollars to constantly shape and craft the Brand image of the company and it's products. They market, they really do not advertise. They will never stop this process it is part of the company's DNA.
July 2011 Apple iPhone 4 Marketing
Even the best brands must continue to create new marketing environments or face the forces of entropy. The best brands, become the best brands because of the marketing dialog and engagement. These brands never stop marketing and in some cases the marketing takes on a dimension on its own as in the case of Apple and its product announcements. Here are the most obvious examples of great brands that are endlessly marketing even though it seems that they are so well known that it would not be required:
Apple
Mercedes Benz
Volvo
Lexus
Virgin Air
Walt Disney
Prada
Gucci
Viking Stoves
Boeing
Four Seasons Hotels
Tiffany And Company
It is easy to assume some of these brands do not need to do anything, they are already well known. This is not at all the case looking out from these companies. These companies have gotten to the Iconic level because they understand marketing in very profund ways.
There is no doubt that the marketing changes during the life cycle of a product or service. The message must continue to stay relevant. These brands have a common element in that they all appeal in an obvious way to our emotions. This not only allows them to continue the ethos of the brand but to command a premium over other brands.
The classic Sales funnel fueled by marketing
Everything Gets Old
As a brand or service gracefully ages so will the original core customers. It is rather important for the brand to make a choice to follow these consumers on their life journey or to capture the imagination of a never ending market of a particular age segment.
1980s Cadillac Seville became a Grandma car in that era. (I sort of like it today in a retro sense)
In 1980 Cadillac Became Your Grandma's Car
In the US the best example of a brand that grew old with its customers is General Motor's Cadillac Brand. The car was synonymous with luxury for a great deal of its early life cycle. There is a point where the balance shifted from the car of a successful person to something else. As the Brand entered into the late 1960s through the late 1980s the marketing became aimless or non existent as it tried to appeal to an increasing older audience. So much so that many would place bets on how ancient the driver of an approaching Cadillac would be (extra points if the steering wheel height was above the height of the driver!). The brand hit its final blow when it became the Grandma car in the 1980s. The brand sunk to its lowest sales in this era. It was not until the Cadillac brand created a marketing engagement to a much more vibrant and younger audience that it began to regain its luxury image. This was helped by courting some of the most popular Rap music performers an getting the brand featured in endless videos and song lyrics.
The Hottest Startup Today Will Be Old In 24 Months
Thus far there are not many Internet brands that have aged well. Example, do you want a HotMail account? Not too long ago in relative time just about everyone who was "in" did. Now it is your Grandpa's email address.
Today the speed of adoption creates an accelerated aging cycle. It is so rapid that an Internet startup can create a product or service, it can become wildly popular and then collapse before the company even has a chance or the insight to create a Brand (eg. Myspace).
To Become Iconic Takes Time, Don't Rush It
On the other side there are some companies that go too far to establish a Brand and the ethos that a great brand needs to have too early in the product cycle. This too is fraught with the potential of massive consumer entropy issues. The art and science of brand image building and marketing requires much more then emulating the marketing of great companies.
I suggest to Internet brands, do not become too iconic, too early-- but also do not fail to create the path that allows for the brand to become iconic. But by no means should you ever think you do not need to market your company or your brand, no matter how popular you may be today, that would be the definition of immaturity and you will be left with very little after the initial popularity wanes. And just like the sun will set initial popularity will wane, this is a 100% guarantee.
In the end we all know when marketing works, we just feel it. It is a language that engages with us and continues to speak to our emotions. And we just love it.
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