Ad Insider - Dec07

What do you mean, "We've got to sell"?

Has our bold crusade to change attitude clouded our focus on the end goal - which must surely be to shift product?

Whenever new junior staff arrive at the agency to begin their journey in communications, I ask them what they hope to achieve in their careers. Aside from the banal, "To meet hot chicks/guys" and the ridiculous "To make lots of money", I consistently get "To build great brands." Admirable intentions, indeed.

When I ask the same question to more senior people, the banal and ridiculous emerge again, as do the brand building ambitions. These are supplemented with "To provide greater relevance between brands and consumers" - planners; "To develop creative that cuts through" - creatives; "To engage consumers" - digital specialists; and "To influence consumers through editorial" - PR people.

So what happened to selling?

Rosser Reeves, the man behind the USP and a foundation partner of Bates had this focus and inspired a generation of ad men, including David Ogilvy, who eulogised Reeves with this quote, "He taught me that the purpose of advertising is to sell the product".

The success of our clients' businesses and the profitability of our relationships with them depend on their sales. Consumers need to have a knowledge and understanding of brands to develop an affinity, but ultimately top-of-mind awareness and brand imagery scores don't necessarily translate directly into sales.

Research indicates, particularly for FMCG brands, up to 70% of purchase decisions are made at the point of sale. This means more than half of consumers who intended to buy one brand left the store with a different product in their shopping bag. While this proportion differs by the demographics of the consumer and also the channel in which they shop, something must have happened in-store that made them change their minds.

This can be put down to many factors. Perhaps the preferred brand wasn't stocked or was out of stock. Perhaps a competitive brand had a better price or promotional offer. Perhaps one of the sales staff or even a promoter persuaded the consumer. Whatever the reason, it highlights a critical breakdown in the way we might have traditionally viewed the path to purchase. It also highlights a breakdown in the way that agencies and clients view their sales/marketing functions.

Whether agencies or clients were the cause may never be known. But the truth of the matter is that marketing and sales functions are too often viewed too separately.

On the client side, these are often distinct departments who meet only for the sales team to complain that there are not enough promotions, and for the marketing team to complain that sales are not selling in enough in-store visibility to retailers.

On the agency side, too often our campaigns are considered complete once the TVC is in the can and the FA has gone to the printers. Before the campaign launches, we're already onto the next project, and our agency KPIs are based solely on brand awareness and brand imagery.

Both agencies and clients need to view the sales/marketing processes and functions as a whole. For clients, sales teams need to be engaged during campaign development to ensure that the messaging and tactics are appropriate for their channels and the consumers and sellers in those channels. For agencies, we need to really understand what motivates consumer behaviour, push the right buttons at the point of sale and be accountable for selling our clients' products.

Craig Mapleston

General Manager

141 Worldwide, Singapore