It’s up to us to punish brands for their annoying marketing, not reward them for it.
What’s your decision-making process when it comes to electing where to spend money?
Some people just stick to the shops they know and trust – if Tesco is nearest, then that’s where they’ll spend the money, German discounters be damned.
Others are a bit more savvy, looking to compare prices and shop around before deciding who gets their business.
Perhaps inevitably, this often leads to them purchasing online, since so many online retailers are able to undercut their high street rivals. It’s one of the reasons our high streets are in such a sorry state.
Perhaps there are other factors you consider too, like the opportunity to get rewards through things like loyalty points, or if you’ve had a positive experience in terms of customer service.
But there’s another issue that I think more of us should consider when deciding where to shop, but which is all too often ignored.
And that’s how a firm advertises its services.
Fed up with your bank? Find one that values your custom
Being annoying shouldn’t be a good thing
Now, marketing bods will no doubt say that if your adverts are irritating but memorable, then they are doing the trick.
It doesn’t matter if you silently loathe yourself while humming the GoCompare jingle because you can’t get it out of your head, the point is that you remember it and that brand recognition means you’re more likely to go back to use that firm at some point in the future.
To which I’d say, that’s cobblers.
Businesses need to earn our custom, not bash us into submission through the use of a catchy jingle, talking animals with comedy accents, or fat blokes that can dance in high heels.
Coming up with an earworm or a bizarre advertising campaign that may be memorable, but tells you diddly squat about the business or what it does, shouldn’t be good enough.
I may hate the word consumer, but it is actually accurate – I consume goods and services.
And as I have the ability to choose which goods and services to consume, it’s up to me to be a bit more selective and not just go for the brand I’ve heard of which has a sideline in cuddly toys.
Businesses need to respect their customers
This should stretch beyond avoiding these familiar trappings though. It’s also important for a firm to show that it actually respects its customers through its advertising.
A good example of where this goes wrong is Revolut.
The online bank obviously thought it was being funny with its advertising campaign earlier this year, which said: “To the 12,750 people who ordered a single takeaway on Valentine’s Day – You OK hun?”
At best you can say that’s tone deaf. But at worst, not only is it mocking a large segment of their potential customers, but it also suggests that the firm is monitoring exactly where its customers are spending their money.
I get that it was a joke, and no doubt there will be plenty of people who were tickled pink when they saw it.
But personally, I’m not wild about giving my business to a firm that just comes across as a bit mean, and potentially a bit too hands-on with my data, even if they are ‘disrupting’ the world of banking.
Fed up with your bank? Find one that values your custom
Good advertising isn’t enough
Of course, being more respectable – and respectful – with your advertising isn’t going to be enough to cover up other misdemeanours.
Nike last year won praise for its advertising campaign with controversial American Footballer Colin Kaepernick, who was essentially blacklisted by top teams in the States after electing to ‘take a knee’ during the national anthem in protest at police brutality.
While, in my view, Nike is absolutely in the right on this one, the question becomes whether that’s enough to outweigh its own controversial background with sweatshops.
Ultimately as shoppers, that’s a decision we are all going to have to make for ourselves.
But just as we shouldn’t spend with a brand that batters us over the head with earworm jingles, we also should take a stand against firms that might have a compelling and ethical advertising campaign, but which have more than a few skeletons in the closet.
Yes, that may leave us with far fewer places in which to spend.
But that has to be a price worth paying, in order to encourage retailers and advertisers to put more thought into how they market their goods and services beyond a jingle and an anthropomorphic mascot.
What's your take on advertising? Do good ads make you more likely to buy said items? Do you consciously avoid brands with rubbish ads? Let us know in the comments section below.