March 5, 2009

Brand Aid: Is traditional marketing damaged beyond repair?

Mar. 5, 2009 at 01:28 PM | By Dan Obregon | Comment Count

A study conducted recently by Jupiter Research shows that many senior marketers believe that traditional branding is broken. According to MarketingVox, the survey finds that 62% of marketers feel that traditional advertising is no longer effective in attracting new customers. This means that advertisers are under increased scrutiny in a down economy to prove a return on investment for their efforts.

The top priority for half of all marketers surveyed was to demonstrate measurable results of their marketing efforts. This could mean they are cutting their spending in traditional media, such as print and television, and increasing investments in online channels like email, social media and search engine marketing. This clip sums up the challenge in 60 seconds.

Sound familiar?

The results of a study published last month by mStoner find that higher education marketers are also being held accountable for their expenditures and looking for ways to cut costs. So how are institutions balancing the need to deliver their branding and messaging while lowering marketing spend?

According to one survey respondent, “We’re having to be very critical about where we spend each dollar.” Specific tactics including comparing prices and renegotiating; publishing communications online to save money on printing and postage; fine-tuning advertising placements; and using student workers to complete tasks previously handled by regular staff.”

Meanwhile another respondent to the mStoner survey wrote “Tracking current efforts to show the benefit of our efforts thus far, and using our incoming research to support an expansion of those efforts, as well as encouraging ‘buy in’ from the administration.”

So does this mean the days of brand advertising (i.e. big glossy view books and full-page advertisements, Saturday afternoon TV spots, etc.) are over? Not necessarily, but institutions should be prepared to demonstrate the impact those traditional channels have on the bottom line.

In a world where you must cut your higher education marketing budget without cutting performance, or even cut budget and INCREASE performance, it becomes a lot harder to justify that which you can’t measure.

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