by Terra L. Fletcher

Created on: July 29, 2010

What is Post-Modern Advertising?

There is a new marketing environment. The rules for the four P’s (right product, promotion, price, and place) have changed. Coming up with the right promotion in the new marketing environment seems nearly impossible. As mass media continues to splinter into smaller and smaller niche markets, demographics and psychographics are scrutinized. Data for zip code targeting, and POS information overwhelms us.

With increased media delivery options and the dizzying quantity of activity, marketing has changed its game, too. The jury is still out as to whether the marketplace and advertising has naturally evolved to reflect the new marketing concept or if post-modern advertising has cast aside technique, for art. Some wonder if advertisers have simply “given up.”

Either way, things have changed. Companies cope with narrower consumer segments and new media as the demand for higher ROI continues to increase. Advertisers fear they cannot promote products solely on benefits. Consumers believe there are few significant differences between products, anyway. Consumers are often so rushed that they buy based on brand image rather than taking the time to compare labels, or research facts.

The question that has risen is whether “likeability” can outweigh “persuasibility.” Researchers from “Advertising Age” studied the two ideas separately to gauge effectiveness. The results were hard to measure. Large consumer-goods companies (able to reach large audiences with a variety of messages, numerous times) make it hard to isolate and measure the true effect one campaign has on sales.

David Ogilvy’s long-held approach acknowledges principles and guidelines that make some campaigns successful, while others fail. Another approach, loosely coined the West Coast approach, focuses on relationships between people and products. The result is a focus on creativity and talent. There is a new focus on building “likeable” campaigns. “Likeability” is a difficult concept to grasp, let alone, teach.

Like post-modern art, post-modern advertising questions convention and rationality. The ongoing debate is that people buy for irrational reasons and that advertising need not be rational. Steve Hayden (Ogilvy and Mather Worldwide) believes this is the case.

Rationalists cite that creative, post-modern ads are grossly inefficient. These are the things ad agencies showcase in their portfolios

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