I’m a firm believer that the best marketing is based on education. This goes for branding. Give people information that stimulates and is new to them and they will retain it. Of course, that information must be about brand value, brand function, brand discernment and personal utility. Not necessarily all at the same time. Hee hee. As a smart branding mentor once said, make deposits in the brand bank.

I am not a firm believer that the best marketing is based on decorating. Decorating attempts to gather attention through beauty or other creative means and build off that attention with an often hidden and or/shoehorned sales message about the product. Attention is important, don’t get me wrong. If you are not being scene and referred, you are not likely to be considered and purchased. But you don’t want to be all hair gel and no hair.

The best approach to marketing is not to decorate for attention, then sell as an afterthought. The best approach is to establish a brand strategy, which you only need to do this once, then use your marketing budget to educate your way to preference.  Sadly, I’d estimate 80% of marketing and advertising budgets are spent on decorating.

We need to flip that equation.

Peace.