Why big brands constantly opt for visibility; a lesson to learn!

[CTO114]

Why do big brands constantly advertise? Probably because they understand that being known once is not the same as staying chosen. Visibility is not a one-time achievement, it is a habit brands can't afford to break, and the moment a brand goes quiet, someone else quietly moves into the space it left behind.

Here is a number that would surprise most people; even in the United States, Coca-Cola's biggest market on earth, roughly 45% of households still do not regularly drink it. So Coca-Cola is not advertising to remind people it exists. It is advertising to remind the millions who still are not choosing it yet, and to make sure the ones who already do, keep doing it out of  habit, not just memory.

Nike does the same thing, Adidas does the same thing. Not because people forget what a Nike shoe looks like, but because a large chunk of consumers are not loyal to one brand at all. They wear Nike some days and Adidas other days. The drink Coke sometimes and Pepsi other times. Advertisement is not aimed only at strangers who have never heard of you. It is aimed at the undecided middle, the customers still choosing between you and your competitor every single time they shop.

There's a theory researchers at the University of Chicago call "memory jamming". The idea is simple: people are not lacking information about Coca-Cola , everyone already knows what's inside the can. What they are lacking is a reason for the brand to stay at the top of their mind at the exact moment they feel thirsty. Advertisement is not there to teach, it is there to remind, repeatedly, until the brand becomes the automatic choice.

The lesson for smaller businesses is simple. If billion dollar brands, brands everybody already recognizes, still refuse to go quiet, your business definitely cannot afford to either. Visibility is not something you achieve once and move on from. It is something you have to keep earning over and over, or someone else will be happily take the space you left empty

[Y3shot]

Advertising is also part of the business as long as the business exists, and becoming a big brand doesn't mean a brand needs to cease doing advertisements. The market is all about competition, and generally, people like comparing.

It is what you tell people about a brand and what they see about the brand that mostly convinces customers to try a brand. If a brand stops advertising, people may assume the brand is lacking in many ways since it is just quiet. Marketing a brand is consistent, and when there is a stop, it is just a way to totally shut down a brand.

[Faisal2202]

Thanks for giving us the brand marketing 101 haha, I did not needed it, but thanks for sharing. Advertising works in ways that I learned about their logic, and it always blows my mind. I think you mentioned Dove before in one of your topics, like how it gave peace and confidence to women (mostly) by showing them inner beauty matters most. They ran a few ads on it too.

Anyway, I am trying to think how it relates to crypto. I believe here the case is entirely different. The more they advertise, the more fishy it is. That's what I have seen.

Can you give a quote for the memory-jamming report?

[Fortify]

There's a slightly different aspect to think about in this situation, let's continue talking about Coke where the actual product (a syrup, combined with water either through bottling planets or on premise by different businesses) actually has marginal cost in comparison to the end result. Hundreds of millions of people can be drinking it on any single day and it starts to get interesting when you start breaking it down you realize - 5 cents might be the actual product cost, 10 cents might be spent on marketing, 10 cents might be a margin given to the bottlers, 5 cents might be worldwide staffing costs, etc. If you are selling hundreds of billions of servings a year, those numbers start to add up to billions as well. Coke will do a degree of marketing that it funds, but one of the most important things it needs to nurture is a relationship with the biggest retailers, from McDonalds to Walmart, right down to the local corner shops - they all need to get a product with enough margin on it that it makes sense for them to not go with a different cola brand. It's popularity is a big magnet and draw, customers like familiarity as they know what they're getting, but it's a big balancing act and constant negotiations around price must be happening all the time.

[Cryptomultiplier]

Smaller brands looking for visibility may have to dedicate more of their resources to doing constant marketing across different platforms and media and that's a huge budget then most can afford that's why rich competition always stay on top while the smaller brands struggle to survive or be out of business entirely.

Sometimes even smaller brands operate in the wrong places and do their marketing to those who don't need the service they render, so it becomes a challenge to function in a place where they struggle to do business and market their business at same time, that's why it is advised to always relocate small business to urban areas with more crowd and better infrastructure that may cost less in the broader spectrum of things so that marketing campaign is smooth and direct to the people who need it.

[gracreavix]

OP you are comparing big businesses with small businesses. Just big businesses are constantly advertising doesn't mean small businesses should. They have to think of cost of so many things before considering advertising. I am not saying they shouldn't, all I am saying is that the way the big guys advertise, the small guys can't do that. They have to do calculated advertising or they may run out of funds to stand when storm comes.

[Botnake]

Advertising is also part of the business as long as the business exists, and becoming a big brand doesn't mean a brand needs to cease doing advertisements. The market is all about competition, and generally, people like comparing.

It is what you tell people about a brand and what they see about the brand that mostly convinces customers to try a brand. If a brand stops advertising, people may assume the brand is lacking in many ways since it is just quiet. Marketing a brand is consistent, and when there is a stop, it is just a way to totally shut down a brand.

With all the newly existing competitive brands these days, advertising is a must. Otherwise, people will start to forget the old brand and get convinced to try out the new ones because its the one they often see in the big screen. Although its not necessary to create highly impressive advertisements, but the consistency of doing it will leave a huge impact to the people, not only they get reminded, but they will also get used to eat or drink it every time they get hungry or thirsty.

Business creates high market competition. And one way to get ahead of the other is through consistent advertising so that people will constantly think of the product and buy it all the time.

[uneng]

Who isn't seen isn't noticed. Big brands want to stay in evidence, so people don't forget them, decreasing the chances they are going to be replaced by some brand else which provides similar services or products.

However, solely visibility isn't enough. Success is complex and involves different factors. Affordable prices, quality are also essential, as it doesn't make sense to have a visible brand which at same time is too expensive or doesn't provide quality experiences to customers.

[r_victory]

There's a saying: "Out of sight, out of mind." Just because a brand is big doesn't mean it doesn't need to advertise anymore. There's always someone who doesn't know about it yet. Just yesterday, I saw a YouTuber who didn't know about McDonald's annual campaign here in Brazil (McHappy Day), and I thought, "How does he not know about this?". Well, he didn't, and I'm talking about a globally known brand. The same applies to small businesses: "advertising is the lifeblood of business".

[Smack That Ace]

The lesson for smaller businesses is simple. If billion dollar brands, brands everybody already recognizes, still refuse to go quiet, your business definitely cannot afford to either. Visibility is not something you achieve once and move on from. It is something you have to keep earning over and over, or someone else will be happily take the space you left empty

We cannot compare our small business context with that of major brand. Coca-Cola have vast financial resource. And their competition is primarily for minds of their consumer. Scenario is completely different for small business. Number of customers here is also limited.

Moreover, if startup were to run advertisement like Coca-Cola then a significant portion of its business funds would be spent on doing so.
If they spend excessive amount on advertising right at start, and their customer base fail to grow for any reason then sustaining business will become difficult. Therefore, for small businesses, extensive promotion can actually make thing worse.

[alani123]

This is not necessarily true and it's actually a big assumption. In terms of corporate speak advertising spend being big compared to competition is actually a big disadvantage. So these issues really need to be approached in a multi disciplinary way otherwise it's not even worth it to discuss. It's just a straw man to say that brands want to spend on publicity because simply not all brands are the same. At all.

[Ziskinberg]

I think its not limited to big brands only, much more for newly created brands that need high exposure and visibility.

However, to answer your question, being a big brand today does not mean it will stay big tomorrow or the next days, months and years. A big brand should never stop advertising to maintain or increase the demand, and to let people see the fact that there's no other brand that can compete or take an edge because its made for high quality which the people deserve. And that as long as there are continuous advertisements, there are high chances that their top position in the market will never be replaced.

[Gozie51]

The lesson for smaller businesses is simple. If billion dollar brands, brands everybody already recognizes, still refuse to go quiet, your business definitely cannot afford to either. Visibility is not something you achieve once and move on from. It is something you have to keep earning over and over, or someone else will be happily take the space you left empty

It is same as the phenomenon of how rich people still keep working. They don't stop working because they are rich rather they keep multiplying in diversification.

So likewise the big businesses, they understand the greatest goal of any business is to make profit and making profit is through sales. You don't make sales without being in people's face, that is number one factor. Another exposure to this is that they know that they are in competition as they are the brand to overtake. So they keep running adverts and jiggles to attract more customers that are new, Even customer's from their opponents brand. The point is that the business world is highly competitive and every business strive to outsmart the other either to overtake or retain their status quo.

[Rruchi man]

There's a theory researchers at the University of Chicago call "memory jamming". The idea is simple: people are not lacking information about Coca-Cola , everyone already knows what's inside the can. What they are lacking is a reason for the brand to stay at the top of their mind at the exact moment they feel thirsty. Advertisement is not there to teach, it is there to remind, repeatedly, until the brand becomes the automatic choice.

Out of sight can be out of mind, and the big brands are aware of this, hence the reason why they are persistent in marketing to ensure they are always at the top of the minds of their customers.

Big brands understand that feeling relaxed after gaining the attention of customers can be something they quickly regret because there are many other brands in the same business, competing for the same attention of customers. Any laxity on their side can mean that these brands lose customers to the other brand prioritizing marketing to maintain visibility.

Marketing maintains visibility, and to maintain visibility means maintaining sales.

[Sanitough]

The market is changing as there are competitions here and everywhere. So if you own a big brand, you don't want to feel confident and do nothing just because your brand is already on the top. Of course, constant advertising is the key. Aside that the people will often be reminded that your brand is still on the line, the competitors as well will find it hard to compete with the current big and leading brand in the market.

Visibility is not enough, people should be highly convinced and stick to the brand. And non-stop advertisements are definitely a big help in business, most particularly for those who are still trying to get noticed in the market.

[mirakal]

Advertising is also part of the business as long as the business exists, and becoming a big brand doesn't mean a brand needs to cease doing advertisements. The market is all about competition, and generally, people like comparing.

It is what you tell people about a brand and what they see about the brand that mostly convinces customers to try a brand. If a brand stops advertising, people may assume the brand is lacking in many ways since it is just quiet. Marketing a brand is consistent, and when there is a stop, it is just a way to totally shut down a brand.

Yes, advertising makes a good marketing. Big or small, this applies to every business that aims to thrive in the business market. Now if one big brand stops advertising because its already highly known and popular to the people, the chances are, people will tend to forget it and prioritize those brands that never stop advertising.

That's why having a business is expensive, because marketing itself through advertising requires a big budget in order to convince the people from time to time. Its not unknown to us that those who never fail to advertise their business will always have a place to the people's choice.

[Obim34]

~snip

Ever heard of the phrase "Snooze, you lose"? If you don't market and promote your brand, brands who know the importance will go full throttle on creating visibility for their own brand, and you will watch them make sales than you, whether you have top-notch quality over your competitor, won't matter.

Coca-Cola still does marketing, spending billions of Dollars per year on marketing, why should any brand stop marketing? Same with Pepsi, which is the biggest rival to the Coca-Cola business, as long as the company exists, there must be a compulsory annual budget for brand visibility.

Small and large business/companies needs marketing, new casinos launch here, same with big companies that have already lasted for years. There is no end to marketing, the better awareness, the more customers, big companies know this, that is why they keep spending huge amounts on promotions.

[Hamza2424]

Coca Cola did a lot of branding, but one single move by Ronaldo fucked all of them. Now every single time Coca Cola comes to the screen, I only think of one thing, that it is sugar and water is better. I can't forget that moment even if it was years ago.

They faced billions in losses just because he said water is better. Bro, that kind of advertisement and independence means you don't give any fucks about how big the brand is and what your actions could do. He just did what he thought was right. Anyway, I am going off topic, but you got me. The first thing that comes to my mind is that cold drinks are unhealthy.

I still drink them though haha. Small businesses usually stop advertising once they are out of funds, so they manage their finances and give advertising the lowest priority.