Marketing Principles Haven’t Changed: Only the Channels Have

It’s tempting to believe that the many technological advances of recent years have led to a corresponding change in marketing principles. Haven’t the internet, Facebook, smartphones, and other new technologies and platforms completely changed the way we communicate? A business today has to use completely different tools to reach its customers than one of 50 years ago (or even 15 years ago). It’s easy to get diverted by all the new devices, platforms, and ways to advertise that have come along in recent years.

It’s helpful to keep up with these advances and use them to your advantage. However, don’t let them blind you to an important truth. Namely, that the fundamental principles of marketing haven’t changed at all. It’s crucial to understand the nature of these marketing principles and how they apply to even the newest channels and technologies.

Key Marketing Books and Principles

In order to appreciate why certain marketing principles remain true in all times and places, it’s helpful to explore some of the key figures and books that have set the foundation for modern marketing.

David Ogilvy

David Ogilvy is sometimes called the father of advertising. He was born in 1911 — before TV — and died in 1999 when the internet was just getting widely popular. During his illustrious career, he mapped out some of the most enduring principles of marketing and advertising. While Ogilvy influenced many fields, he’s best known for his copywriting wisdom. Here are some of his main ideas on writing effective copy:

• Write simply and informally, the way you speak.
• Keep sentences and paragraphs short for easy reading.
• Always check and edit your work.
• Make a significant promise to the customer that solves an important problem.
• Segment your audience so you reach the right demographic.

Does any of this sound familiar? If you’ve studied any contemporary advice on how to write great copy for the web, you’ll recognize many of these points. It’s instructive to know that they were conceived long before anybody had heard of the internet! Here are some of David Ogilvy’s most influential books:

• Ogilvy on Advertising
• An Autobiography
• Confessions of an Ad Man

John Deere

Although John Deere is known mainly for starting a company that makes tractors and other agricultural equipment, he did far more than that. He was actually one of the world’s first content marketers. It may sound hard to believe, but Deere was creating content back in 1895, a magazine called The Furrow. The magazine provided helpful information to farmers while indirectly promoting Deere’s own business. This is the very definition of modern content marketing.

John Caples

John Caples is another pivotal figure in marketing. Like Ogilvy, Caples is known primarily as a great copywriter. He began his career writing copy for mail-order catalogs. Anyone who runs Google, Facebook or any other type of online ads understand the power of split testing. So did Caples, who was preaching its virtues as early as the 1940s. Another of Caple’s biggest concerns was writing great headlines, something that’s just as important when creating an ad for Adwords, a blog post as it was in the pre-digital era. Caples introduced a whole formula for writing effective headlines that savvy marketing professionals still use today.

Important Books Related to Marketing

Here are some additional books that will help you understand the fundamentals of marketing principles and how far back in history they can be traced.

Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, by Charles Mackay.

While not a marketing book per se, this is an important (and quite entertaining) study in group behavior and trends. Published in 1841, this book covers a wide variety of topics, from the Crusades to the Tulip mania, when the price of tulip bulbs briefly exploded in the Dutch Republic. This craze was largely orchestrated by another very early marketing genius, Conrad Gessner, who is sometimes called the inventor of viral marketing.

Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, by Robert B. Cialdini.

Published in 1984, this is of the best studies of how persuasion works in all areas of life. Cialdini, a professor of psychology, breaks down the process of persuasion into components such as reciprocity, scarcity, and authority. These are familiar concepts to marketers, but reading this book, which is backed by many studies, will help you to understand exactly how and why these marketing principles work.

Humbugs of the World, by P.T. Barnum.

Barnum, best known as the founder of the Barnum & Bailey Circus, covers a wide range of cons, scams, and hoaxes in this autobiographical work. In some ways, Humbugs has a similar tone to Mackay’s work. However, Barnum is speaking from the point of view of someone who has actually perpetuated the hoaxes. Barnum was not exactly a model citizen and you may not want to imitate his tactics but he undeniably has great insights into the art of persuasion. Humbugs of the World is in the public domain, so you can read it for free online.

Breakthrough Advertising, by Eugene M. Schwartz.

Returning to books that are specifically written for people in marketing and advertising, this classic book was published in 1966 and has since been republished many times in various formats. One of Schwartz’s key ideas is that even the most brilliant copywriting won’t be effective unless you truly understand the needs of your market.

Why Marketing Principles Don’t Change

The above are some examples of authors and books who continue to influence today’s marketers with their timeless wisdom. Let’s see why even the most radical changes in technology don’t mean that marketing is different.

Marketing Appeals to Basic Needs

When you want to convince people to buy something, you’re appealing to their needs or desires. These don’t change much over time. While it may seem that new products today such as computer games, apps, and 3D printers are completely different than anything from the past, the needs they address aren’t so different. The psychologist Abraham Maslow outlined a hierarchy of needs that drive all human behavior. These include safety, a sense of belonging, social status, and self-actualization. No matter what you’re promoting, you need to address one or more of these fundamental needs that remain the same no matter what platform or channel you’re using.

Marketing is Emotional

You probably noticed that several of the books listed above aren’t about principles of marketing, but rather human behavior in general. That’s because marketing, advertising, and copywriting are closely linked to how people’s minds work. It’s often been said that people make buying choices emotionally rather than rationally. This isn’t always so clearcut. We do, after all, consider pragmatic issues when considering products. However, there’s little doubt that emotions influence buying decisions. The fact is, psychology is concerned with both the rational and emotional aspects of our personalities.

No matter what medium, platforms, or channels you use to reach people, you still need to appeal to their needs. In this respect, a tweet or YouTube video isn’t all that different from a magazine ad from the 1950s or a verbal sales pitch used by a rug vendor in ancient Persia.

How Channels Affect Marketing

This isn’t to say that nothing has changed. New technology has indeed brought about many significant changes in how products are sold. Ever since the invention of television, for examples, images have gotten a lot more important. The popularity of memes, photos, and videos on sites such as Facebook and Instagram have made this trend even stronger.

However, it’s important not to fall into the trap of believing that new technology actually changes basic marketing principles. Marketers do have to keep up with the latest platforms. To make the best use of these, however, they need to apply enduring principles to these new channels. One of the reasons that so many people fail in their advertising campaigns is that they believe all they have to do is use a new method and people will respond, as if by magic. Of course, in many cases, marketers themselves have been taken in by the hype generated by more savvy marketers higher on the food chain — those selling the latest services.

Channels, platforms, and technology influence how messages are delivered. Consider the following modes of communication:

• In-person
• Phone
• Direct Mail
• Television
• Radio
• Email
• Online Ad
• Social Media Post

It’s worth noting that earlier forms of marketing never went away. It’s still a valuable skill to give personal pitches or to communicate well over the phone. Just as important is to realize that the latest forms of advertising still require the same principles. You just need to adjust them to fit the medium.

Enduring Principles of Marketing

Here are some of the key principles of marketing that never change.

• Understand your audience. Early copywriting masters such as Ogilvy and Caples as well as keen observers are human behavior such as Barnum all understood the importance of knowing what your customer wants and needs.
• Focus on the customer. The best copy makes the reader, viewer, or listener feel like the message is directed at him or her personally.
• Create a compelling headline. As Caples taught, headlines are essential for reeling the reader in. The same principle can be applied to the latest platforms. With emails, you need a great subject line. Videos need compelling titles.
• Be specific. Another famous copywriter, Claude Hopkins, wrote a book in 1923 called Scientific Advertising (which, in turn, influenced Ogilvy and many others). One of the points he shared in this book is that you should make specific rather than general claims if you want to persuade people. Don’t just tell people that you’re the best. Tell them exactly how and why.
• Test your results. Old school marketers such as Ogilvy and Caples understood the importance of testing different variables. Of course, today you have much faster and more efficient ways to track metrics online.
• Close the sale. Nowadays, you hear a lot about a strong call-to-action or CTA. This is actually rooted in the broader idea of closing the sale, which applies to all types of selling and marketing. It’s not enough to engage your audience if they don’t actually take out their wallets or hit the buy button!

These are just some of the enduring marketing principles that are just as valid today as when they were first identified. With the way technology is progressing, we can expect some dazzling new possibilities in the near future. Perhaps ads will soon be delivered via holograms and robots. No matter what else changes, though, you still need to understand the fundamental principles of marketing which, like human nature, remain consistent.

This article was first seen on JeffLizik.com : https://jefflizik.com/marketing-principles-havent-changed-only-channels-have/

Jeff Lizik is a serial entrepreneur and digital marketer. Jeff is the owner of RedShift, a stellar team of creatives and marketers in Pittsburgh, PA. He works every day to help businesses grow through digital marketing strategies and tactics.

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