What is more important, ideas or targeting?

  by Nigel Hollis

Listening to a recent radio interview once again reminded me of the power of message over targeting. Brands will never get the conscious deliberation that a political campaign might, so it is far less about ‘messages’ and far more about creating ideas that evoke a positive response from the target audience. But it is the idea that still matters the more than targeting.

Two political strategists John Brabender (Republican) and Bob Shrum (Democrat) joined Here & Now’s Robin Young and Jeremy Hobson to discuss the week’s news in politics. Acknowledging that both parties had a serious interest in collecting personal data to better target their appeals Bob Shrum stated,

“Everybody is always attracted to the latest bells and whistles…and the Clinton campaign really focused on data analytics, to the extent, for example, that it did not poll in the battleground states in the last two weeks. That was a terrible mistake. And one thing that I think endures is that message matters. McCluan was wrong, the medium is not the message. Donald Trump won the election, I think, because in those critical rust belt States he won the message war.”

In what both agreed was a rare moment of bi-partisan agreement John Brabender agreed with Shrum’s assessment.

“Campaigns are always looking for the secret sauce…when it really does come down to message.”

In this regard I cannot help but feel that there is a huge similarity between the world of politics and marketing, both a struggling to resonate with an increasingly disenchanted audience and are grasping at straws in order to succeed. But better targeting is the wrong place to start. Simply spending more or targeting better will not produce the disruptive returns necessary to grow over the long-term.

What is required is a clear assessment of the best way the brand might grow needs to be coupled with a deep understanding of why people might change their behavior. Whatever the solution – a useful app, a purpose-led program or celebrity-led Instagram campaign – it needs to resonate with the target audience. Tailoring the idea and execution to specific audiences and channels will be important to optimize the return, but if you do not start with a compelling idea then growth success is likely to remain elusive.

Most marketing today seems to be stuck in a world of incrementalism, optimizing targeting and spend while the biggest growth opportunities go unrecognized or unaddressed. Demands for quick returns and to do more with less, coupled with the apparent certainty of behavioral data, have lured marketers and consumer insight practitioners into a dead end street where incremental gains are easily countered by competition and start-ups grab the biggest growth opportunities. Too harsh? Please share your thoughts.