Good Marketing Should Be Invisible

I'm always pleased when Brad leaves a comment.  His analysis is brutal but provocative and he doesn't disappoint with his latest comment on my post about the problem with advertising in boxes:  "It occurs to me, as both marketer and hater of ads and all of consumer culture - I surprise myself sometimes - that advertising is not simply dead in the sense of radically altered - but is quite literally dead. It just doesn't know it yet.  Advertising is the product of a broadcast world. The world is a lot less broadcasty now, and even the broadcast bits like TV don't work very well in the age of DVRs.  What do I want if I hate ads so much? I want marketing of relevant products at a relevant time presented in a natural fashion, ie. like from a friend. Someone I trust. I think the goal of marketing is to become almost invisible, and the goal of advertising is to be terminated with extreme prejudice. (That's a euphemism for string of obscenities that amount to "Die! Die! Die!")"  Go Brad!

Comments

[Will]

I've been thinking about this. I can't help but wonder about marketing utility, and how, of all the forms of marketing communication, PR will continue to flourish - because it aids the 'branded invisibility' Brad talks about.

Be interested to hear your thoughts James.

[James Cherkoff]

Hi Will.

Ooooh, it's tricky. FWIW my thoughts are:

Lots of PR techniques are as shouty as anything else.

The role of listening and how that is done at scale is interesting.

Is there any greater utility than brilliant customer service?

The willingness of people to trade personal information with brands in return for value of some description could also become important. All of which could become the role of an intermediary...as per Esther's Dyson's article on this page.

I really liked Brad's friend description. Could brands ever act like this? What do you think?