Is Quality, Sustainable Marketing the Key, or Is Bigger Better?

Is bigger better? That’s a question being asked a lot lately; not only by marketers, but in almost every sphere of our existence. “In a digitally distracted mediascape of fragmented attention — engagement is the name of the game for publishers now. Whether it is deepening direct connections to consumers, delivering real impact for advertisers, or building trust in your brand — quality matters now more than quantity.” Or so proclaims MediaPost. There is a plentiful cornucopia for thought in that well-crafted come-on. We are certainly increasingly "digitally distracted." How can we not be, with a smartphone in hand, WhatsApp, LinkedIn, Facebook, and the toxic Twitter — binging and buzzing with notifications of everything from "the boss wants you in his office right now" to Aunt Mary reminding you of her birthday? There are endless and equally compelling "bits and bobs," all demanding attention, preferably immediately or ASAP. There certainly ought to be an app — there probably is one or more that I don’t know about — which sorts through all that incoming traffic, assigns each a priority — based on some measure of quality — and only passes on the ones that matter. The app would pass on the ones which make my digital distraction worthwhile, the ones that truly engage. It may seem simplistic, but perhaps there is a good reason people get engaged before they get married. But could an app be clever enough to identify quality, or even define it? Quality definitely has something magical about it, the same ephemeral, but indescribable quality which inspired Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart’s memorable definition of hardcore pornography, “I know it when I see it.” Some years ago, at a ceremony thanking an American Ambassador for her support of a local NGO, she was presented with “a small gift.” Looking at the little blue box, the Ambassador smiled, thanked the giver and exclaimed: “You men really don’t understand. There is no such thing as a small gift from Tiffany.” She was instinctively crafting what could have been a great slogan for the store: It’s not the size, it’s the Tiffany that counts. Since forever, commerce has been driven more by growth than quality. How few have been the examples of CEOs' quarterly statements praising the company’s reducing revenue, even when accompanied by increased profits. It certainly goes against our capitalist cultural mainstream. “But will it scale,” ask the moneybags in evaluating whether the newest idea will become a unicorn? Perhaps something really is changing which will deliver the ability to "engage" to the forefront, rather than simply being able to "attract." Then the unicorns of tomorrow may no longer be measured just by size. We all know that almost any amount of attraction is for sale at so-much-per-thousand. Simply by spending more and more on marketing, we can even become household names. If there has ever been a particularly obscene example of this, one need look no further than the mega billions being spent on the 2020 U.S. election campaigns. In an age of "fake" news, will all of this expensive attraction be the best investment politicians can make in suspending voter disbelief and establishing a meaningful engagement with voters? How much of that spend will promote the truth and how much believed? Will the engagement be strong enough to be sure the prospect will vote the "right" way, whichever way that is? Like what is in the Tiffany box, one of the rarest of gems existent today is the truth. In a thoughtful column here a week or so ago, provocatively headlined: ‘The Truth Is, There Is No Truth — Let Alone in Advertising,’ Jeanette McMurtry wrote: One thing we marketers need to also face is the how the “truth” we are putting out there is being received … If anything has come out of the “fake” news movement, it's that we are learning not to believe hype and claims that can’t be substantiated ... Marketers can overcome this jaded vision of the world and brands in business today by addressing truth firsthand. You can do this by creating more interaction between your brand and consumers online and in the real world. Let customers experience what you are all about — your products, your persona, your values — more than reading your carefully crafted statements. Despite existing technology that lets us truly interact one-to-one from great distances, something still seems to be missing. It's the magic piece of the puzzle that moves us from attraction to engagement, that wants us to comfortably spend time together. That "something" may be the "quality" of truth, in its broadest sense. If quality and truth are not synonymous, they are at least comfortable bedfellows. As Jeanette says, the truth about “your products, your persona, your values” is much more likely, in these changing times, to lead to the kind of engagement which will generate better (although perhaps not bigger) profits. If we look around us, sprouting like spring flowers are small, specialized retailers and e-tailers, none of which is ever likely to rival Amazon or Walmart in size. But they're much more likely to establish that magic sense of engagement, which comes not only from being able to parse all the data out there; but, far more importantly, to fashion enduring customer relationships grounded on a firm foundation of truth.

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Is Quality, Sustainable Marketing the Key, or Is Bigger Better?

Peter J. Rosenwald

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Peter J. Rosenwald