We are the traffic — Kelford Labs Daily

There’s a popular saying about congested roads that, “you’re not in traffic, you are traffic.”

It’s a reminder that, often, we’re contributing to the problem we’re complaining about. We’re not just stuck behind someone, someone is also stuck behind us.

And when it comes to marketing, we’re not just “cutting through the noise,” we are the noise. Just for somebody else.

20th century advertising legend—“the Socrates of San Francisco”—Howard Gossage, once wrote: “Advertising is not a right, it’s a privilege. Our first responsibility is not to the product but to the public.”

We have to remember that, if we’re doing marketing, it’s because we believe it works.

We believe it can get attention. It can change someone’s mind. It can change behavior.

And none of those things are automatically good things. Responsible things. Useful things.

No, it’s what we put in our marketing and where we put it that matters.

Calling people at all hours of the day to market products was a great idea until it meant nobody answered their phone anymore—even for real, important calls from real, important callers.

And social media was a great way to promote products until platforms, in their zeal for attracting advertisers, made their apps so addictive and combative that their communities devoured themselves.

As marketers, we’ve got to remember that what we do actually works. It actually affects the environment and context.

“Throwing tons of stuff out there and seeing what works” is a type of media pollution we’re responsible for.

Instead, we’ve got to focus on who actually wants to see what we have to say.

We’ve got to target our messages on platforms and places where people want to learn more about us.

Setting fire to the media environment through creepy emotional tricks, psychological manipulation, or sheer volumes of messages—just so we can be the last brand standing—is irresponsible, short-sighted, and antithetical to providing real value to real people.

If we want to “stand out from the noise,” we actually have to stand out. Not just be louder or more obnoxious.

It means we have to be the breath of fresh air in the polluted media environment.

It means we need to provide real, actual value in our messages, and in our media.

It means we should be helpful, not harmful.

How? By getting so curious about our customers that we know where and when they need us—and what, specifically, they need from us—so we’re able to help them from afar.

And we’re able to demonstrate our value at a distance.

Which is what all good marketing does.

Kelford Inc. shows you the way to always knowing what to say. Marketing positions and messages for hands-on entrepreneurs.