It’s a direct path to marketing with zero business impact!
Too often, I see marketing departments with tight deadlines, rushing to develop and execute campaigns that have no real chance of driving business results.
A marketing effort can, in principle, generate two types of business effects:
- Increase sales
- Build a stronger brand
When neither of these goals is achieved despite the hard work in the marketing department, I call it pseudo-marketing.
Pseudo-marketing is marketing that appears polished and professional on the surface but lacks the edge and creativity needed to capture attention, spark curiosity, shift perceptions, and build new relationships.
Pseudo-marketing often stems from one or more of the following approaches:
- Simple product presentations without focus on customer value (just “Buy more, please buy more”).
- Visually attractive marketing with no clear, benefit-oriented messages (just some beautiful pictures we had taken of our products, now out to work).
- Self-promoting presentations of the brand without “proving” customer benefits (customer perceptions are not a buffet to pick and choose from).
- Marketing concepts that are safe, clean, and inoffensive, where you’re sure not to offend anyone (we certainly don’t want issues with competitors or reprimands from the board).
- Marketing activities that meet budget, timelines, and agreements but don’t consider whether they can capture even a hint of attention (just ticking off all the boxes on the marketing plan).
All of this leads straight to marketing without any business impact whatsoever!
Can You Ask a CEO to Play the Role of Danny DeVito?
In 1999, the charter travel company Bravo Tours launched. Back then, travel catalogs were the essential marketing tool, and it was good business for the advertising agency I was part of.
I was fortunate to write the prestigious page 3 intro for the new charter company, under the headline “Personal Charter Service.”
Twenty years later (in 2019), I was invited to work on a new brand strategy for Bravo Tours.
It was sorely needed, as the charter industry was facing tough times. Bravo Tours was nearing bankruptcy, and the COVID-19 crisis, as we know, only made things harder for everyone, especially the travel industry.
My simple suggestion to create brand differentiation for Bravo Tours was for them to embrace the role of the "vacation-joy facilitators."
Realistically, the only way to differentiate the brand was through Bravo Tours’ extraordinary culture of taking responsibility for customers' travel experiences. The destinations, hotels, and airlines were the same as those used by competitors.
This idea of being the “vacation-joy facilitators” naturally inspired a marketing concept focused on exaggerating how much Bravo Tours would do to make customers happy.
I proposed that CEO Peder Hornshøj should star in their commercials alongside the company’s guides, going all out to bring joy to their guests.
I showed a poster from the movie Twins, with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito side by side.
I thought the commercials could feature a demanding guest, played by the tough Danish actor Kim Bodnia (Arnold), with Peder Hornshøj (Danny DeVito) as the guy who instantly brings joy.
Denmark’s top advertising agency, Wibroe, Duckert & Partners, later developed the final concept and the rebranding, With You All the Way for Bravo Tours, where Peder Hornshøj still stars in a series of fantastic commercials.
Here’s Another, More Challenging but Impactful Marketing Brief
Bravo Tours reported a profit of around 22 million DKK in 2022 and 32 million DKK in 2023.
There’s no doubt that post-COVID-19 travel demand has been a crucial factor in these results. But I’m also certain that the courage to pursue a more creative branding approach was instrumental to their business success.
If you want a business return on your marketing investment, you need a more creative, mission-driven, and bold approach.
Here are three questions to ensure you’re on the right track with your next marketing brief:
- What unique mission, identity, and clear customer benefits will you base your marketing around?
- How can marketing build credibility around this unique brand identity and customer benefits in a charming way?
- What core idea can simultaneously capture attention, highlight the brand’s unique identity, communicate customer benefits, and win market goodwill?
Never forget that the “safe” (dull) approach is the most ineffective in marketing.
What works is:
The new.
The different.
The entertaining.
The provocative.
The inspiring.
The bold, eye-catching approach.
That’s what has a real chance of building a stronger brand and increasing sales of your products.
