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ans Serif">Trying to build your brand with advertising?
Then don't!

ans Serif">Attempting to convince your target audience of your brand's claims through paid space or time lacks a key incredient vital to success - credibility.

ans Serif">What do you believe - what's reported on the evening television news, or the advertising which precedes and punctuates it?

ans Serif">As customers we're cynical, suspicious, and cautious. We see the majority of advertising as biased, self-serving, and company-oriented rather than consumer-oriented. So we turn to independent, authoritative, third-party sources for recommendations and advice - friends, relatives, neighbours, and the media. When we've made up our minds, advertising serves as a reminder.

ans Serif">Some business people say they rely on "word of mouth" marketing, leaving that process to its own devices. Others feel the outcome for their bottom line is too important to leave to chance. In simple terms, public relations applies research, creativity, and planning to assist the third-party brand perception-building process.
Advertising doesn't build brands. Public relations does. You should use advertising to defend your brand against competitors once it's been built, and its credibility established, through PR.

ans Serif">That's the main conclusion and key piece of advice in "The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR", a book just published by US-based marketing guru Al Ries. Ries, with Jack Trout, wrote "Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind", a long-time marketing classic based on a series of articles the pair wrote in 1972 for "Advertising Age". In his latest effort, Ries collaborates with daughter and business partner Laura.

ans Serif">"The Fall of Advertising and the Rise of PR" will be launched in New Zealand next year. (Ed:  But you can get a copy shipped hot off the press within 10 days, or pre-order your copy to be delivered in February right here in the HomebizBuzz Shop).

ans Serif">This book is going to upset a lot of people. As they say, "some of my best friends" are advertising people, but sorry guys, what Ries has to say needs to be said.

ans Serif">Things like:

• ans Serif">"Advertising has no legitimate role to play in brand building.
  Advertising's role is defensive in nature. Advertising can only protect a brand once it's established." This is Ries' central thesis which he illustrates copiously with case studies.
• ans Serif">Agencies often sell advertising to clients on the basis of their own creativity.
  "Creativity wins awards, but does it also win sales?" asks Ries. He has chapters of evidence to the contrary.
• ans Serif">"Advertising agencies do almost no advertising themselves.
  Instead, they rely heavily on PR techniques to build their own brands." True again.
• ans Serif">People tend to judge the value of a discipline by its numbers and ad budgets are invariably bigger than PR budgets.
  But more money doesn't necessarily mean more effective.