An Idea to Market is an Idea to Fail

Straight to the point title? Yeah it is, but that’s what we need to do in life, what we need to do in business, we need to make sure people know what we are talking about, we need to make sure people see what’s behind the words.

Failure Is An Option… It’s the Last One

When businesses look to market, whether they are small niche website like this one, or they are a corporate giant like Coca-cola, they have to consider the possibility that if the marketing goes wrong, it could lead to failure. I don’t want to be too blunt, but it’s so true and many companies have failed just because they have done their marketing wrong or created the wrong advert. Below are a few examples to scare you into believing me;

Calvin Klein: Kids Bodies

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZVk21Pco-c

This ad was a bit crude, it featured children in skimpy outfits, of course they were Calvin Klein cloths, but this didn’t take away the fact that it looked like a creepy home-video made by a paedophile

Blockbuster: No Late Fees

Blockbuster announced that they would not have any late fees on their movies, however they did, and they were just in store credit instead, so not only were they lying, but they were also missing out on cash which customers would have been giving if they were late.

Benetton: Shocking Truth

Benetton have a marketing strategy to shock and to do this they have include people dying from AIDS in their ads, a bloody, unwashed baby and people on death row. These adverts have worked, but haven’t been short of controversy.

What Can We See

These companies above are massive, and are still doing well, but what would happen if you were a starting out business and you did an ad campaign similar to any of the above? You would probably get shot down, although you wouldn’t be short of press from the adverts.

There is a fine line between making an marketing campaign which works, and making one which fails and because of this there is a lot of money at risk. Advertising can cost a lot of money.

Plan carefully.