The Problem w/American Marketers
There’s a fundamental obsession with control and aggression in American marketing. Nothing epitomizes this better than the obsession with celebrity influencers and influencers standing in for persuasive messaging from a place of humility.
Celebrity-driven growth does happen, but it rarely attracts American marketers because it promises the easiest way to drive trial – affiliate your thing with some famous entity so that consumers fantasize about merging with the celebrity through your brand.
This month on Startup Confidential, I have a two-part interview with Dr. Emmanuel Probst of Ipsos. Here’s a great excerpt of the first part from Episode 97, dropping tomorrow!
“What has been wrong with American marketing is this relentless intention to force-feed people with more products, more brands, and more advertising for products and brands they don’t need. It has been wrong for several years. That programmatic advertising and social media put on steroids is blasting people with advertising messaging every two seconds of the day.
And in that process, we forget what is really important to people. We forget that most people don’t care about most brands. And most people don’t seek more products. In that process, we also forgot to make a positive impact on the world.
…We have the opportunity to [make a profit] in a more responsible fashion, to take people from who they are to who they want to become. That’s what I mean by “transformative brands”…I want the brand to transform me…and I want the brand to help transform around us and the world at large.”
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