Articles and News

New York, NY—In a year where seemingly all marketing news is focused on digital, author David Baker of mediapost.com made the most astute observation of all in his blog this week: that amid the deafening noise, we’ve somewhat lost sight of what advertising is supposed to do, and that’s communicate.

Baker estimates most Americans will spend 15 hours or more per month on Facebook—more than many will spend helping their kids with homework—and he acknowledges that Facebook, along with YouTube, Google+, Flickr, Twitter, and Wikipedia have forever altered the consumer landscape.

The barrier to consumer attention is constantly being raised higher and higher, yet the point of it all still remains to communicate. That means not only getting your message in front of the right audience, but also making sure the message engages the audience right.

People are busy, but they’re still human. And if there’s one thing humans crave, it’s being appreciated and getting real personal attention from another person. Online algorithms can easily place what they have identified as “relevant” ads based on a user’s search and click patterns on the Web, but that’s not really personal and in truth it feels a little too Big Brother to me.

Here’s a case in point: I recently bought some new boots. Not having a lot of free time to browse, I did a lot of searching online. I will admit it was nice being able to tightly narrow my focus and quickly search out only boots of the color, style, and heel height that I wanted, rather than trudge from store to store hoping they had tobacco brown knee-high riding boots in a size 8.

But for a month afterwards, ads kept cropping up for the same boots I bought. Does this make me feel like those merchants know me or care about me? No, it makes me feel like they think I’m a centipede.

But when I get a call from a salesperson because a new style of my favorite brand of boots comes in, that’s different. That feels like someone’s taken the time to get to know me as a customer and who generally knows what I like. Even though they’re obviously hoping to sell me something, at least it’s a relevant conversation and I know they’re not going to keep trying to sell me 50 more of the same boots (or jewelry) I already bought.

There’s good news in Baker’s observation. Research shows consumers enjoy engaging with jewelers, and luxury jewelers are pros at personal engagement. You already know your best customers. You probably see them a lot in the community. You know what they like. You know what they don’t like. And you know they’re going to buy—if not this year, then next, or maybe not till the year after that, but they will come back and buy when they’re ready. When you pick up a phone or write a note or even engage on Facebook, you know you’re offering something that’s relevant to the customer’s life. That is what breaking through the clutter really is all about, not just coming up with the latest or most outlandish way to get attention.

Despite the finger-wagging digital pundits like to do at our industry (yes, we know we’re a bit behind…), they give credit where it’s due for our high engagement factor with our customers. So we’re clearly doing something right—and better, I might add, than an algorithm that hasn’t yet figured out that humans only have two legs.

It doesn’t mean we can ignore the digital realities, of course. The world is going that way and we need to go there too. But it’s nice to know that we’re ahead of the one thing the digital world is still figuring out: that the creatures who are using the tablets, smart phones, and Facebook are real live humans.

Top image: Sodahead.com