Who Are the Experts Now? A Commentary on “Trust Us, We’re Experts”

Lauren Marchi — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 20:03:16 +0000

Traditional advertising is not seen in a positive light with most GenY consumers. This generation doesn’t watch much TV or read many hard copy books. They ignore in-your-face advertising and block pop-ups on their computers. But, most of all GenY consumers hate to be told what is “cool”.

So how do advertisers reach the 71 million “Millennials” in GenY that spend over 200 billion dollars annually and will soon replace the baby boomer generation as the largest percentage of the workforce? The answer: Advertising can no longer be a group of old men deciding what is best for consumers.

According to the book, Trust Us, We’re Experts: How Industry Manipulates Science and Gambles with Your Future, Sheldon Rampton and John Stauber attack the 20^th Century model of marketing and public relations for misusing their power as “experts” in the eyes of the consumer.

Products and services used to be validated using this “third-party technique”, where an industry would purchase the services of so-called independent experts (a.k.a. advertising agencies) to promote a message that would monetarily benefit a specific industry. The advertising spin-doctors would then shape a message to flatter the product or service, while simultaneously discrediting or attacking the competition. Sometimes they would even go so far as to suppress or manipulate problematic data about the product or service to make it “sell-able”.

But advertising has taken a turn – consumers no longer rely on the experts. Not only do they not want to be told what to buy, they don’t want to be pushed into what to think, who to vote for and how to raise their children.

Today’s advertising is about the consumer deciding what they want to see and buy. For example, according to a national survey from Arbitron and Edison Research, 48 percent of Americans 12 years and older have a profile on one or more social networking sites. On Facebook, the most visited website, consumers can “like” a note or post a page. Advertisers code the site to recognize those favorites and use this information to target the needs of consumers. All of the sudden on your Facebook page there is an ad for your favorite band on tour in your area or a new restaurant to try on your street. No more pop-up ads flashing shiny letters and “experts” selling you catchy phrases and manipulated data.

Advertisers finally realize that it’s not about how much spin they can put on a product or service to increase sales – it’s now all about YOU.

We don’t “network” anymore, we “incorporate social marketing”

Patrick Belding — Sat, 16 May 2009 18:48:23 +0000

I’ve come to the realization that in my 25 plus years in the graphics and marketing/advertising world that the more things change, the more things remain the same. We can do so much more now, in less time and for less dollars than we could ever have imagined in the marketing world of yesteryear. However there are basic principles of business that even the “old guys” are finding to be not only acceptable, but vital – and this is regarding the new networking. Again, I’m sounding old, but it wasn’t long ago when designs, contracts, referrals and many facets of business were conducted in a restaurant on a bar napkin! That face-to-face time, along with an extended lunch allowed for enough time to determine the character of someone to see if he or she was worthy to work with. That cocktail napkin is now the blog, being tagged on Facebook, being connected on LinkedIn or any of many other social marketing sites where we expose ourselves for all to see. Sure some of the initial closeness may be gone, however we can scale our presence to be in front of thousands of people instead of just a few. and those who trust us can stand up for us for all strangers to see and “friend us”, “endorse us” or whatever else is needed to show their vote of confidence. So there is no reason for ANY business or any person not to incorporate social marketing in to their mix of ways to increase exposure.

The Belding Blog» networking

Who Are the Experts Now? A Commentary on “Trust Us, We’re Experts”

We don’t “network” anymore, we “incorporate social marketing”