What Is Your Share of Noise?

I'm usually a soft spoken guy, yet when I read this article in AdWeek a quite profound WTF?? did exit my lips (I'd say Pardon my French, but I am Belgian :-) ).  Carat Aegis is advising its customers that with the economic downturn, they should maintain "share of voice" in their category. 

After all, dropping the ball today, would mean you'd only need to spend more in the future.

TVWeek had more on the story:

Marketers looking to save a few bucks during rainy days also can re-evaluate their media mix. They often can improve efficiencies by moving to less expensive TV dayparts or shifting from expensive media to less costly outlets, Carat said.

In other words "It's OK to buy crap, as long as you spend the same".  Of course, I respectfully disagree.

Don't get me wrong.  I am too of the opinion that the mindless cutting of marketing budgets does more harm than good.  Assuming they are not spent mindlessly.  I further agree with Carat that marketers should engage every channel and focus on the insights.  

But I also think "Share of Voice" should just be removed from every polite form of conversation.  Or at least be replaced with the more accurate "Share of Noise".

"Share of Voice" is not about the customer.  It's about the branded shouting match that annoys us every time a movie gets interrupted.  That makes us flip needless pages to keep reading that article.  That makes us wonder which radio station we're actually listening too, as all commercials sound the same.  
SoV lives in a world where,  "the LOUDER you shout, the better it is".  

In an age where we finally figured out it is about conversations and customer focus, this is simply non-sensical.  There's proof in many markets that the GRP's you buy - or even the awareness you create - often have no influence at all on the sales number.  So the chance that share of voice will have a significant impact, is pretty slim.

That is why I submit we should exchange the concept of "Share of Voice" by the concept of "Share of Conversation".  Which share of conversation does your brand capture in the market place?  Do people "care" enough about you to actually talk about you?  Because we know that if they do talk (well) about you, you will sell more.

I agree with Carat that in the tough times ahead, you shouldn't just stop marketing.  In fact, you should double your efforts.  But I submit you should focus these efforts where they matter.  On your customers and making sure they talk well about you. 

If you can prove that this can be done by maintaining your advertising expenditure, great!  But most of the media plans I've seen don't come near this type of thinking.  Instead, they simply contribute to the maximisation of pointless noise and media commissions.

Stop the Noise, Start the Conversation.

And now I get off my soapbox :-)

PS. I just did a quick Google search on Share of Conversation and apparently I cannot claim the term :-)   Edelman is already going in this direction (see item 3).  They are still just focusing online, but it's a good start.

Free chapter: Accidental Branding

Now here's a publisher (or should I say publicist) who knows how to market its wares, and I think it should be rewarded with a post.  Instead of sending me the usual (advance) review copies that go to bloggers, Holly Cariddi of Planned TV Arts started up a dialogue with me first.  She basically asked if I would like to review or give visibility to a book she represented, but left it open how this was to be done.

After a few emails up and down, the answer was not to do a book review (I have 10 books in backlog anyway), yet simply to give part of the book away for free publication.  In other words, don't spoil the blogger, spoil the reader.  She immediately got on to the publisher, and got permission to give a free chapter away ... in which she even gave me a pick of the chapter I liked most.  As an ex apparel boy I of course couldn't resist the piece on Columbia Sportswear.

OK, Seth did this years ago, and with the exception of Charles Leadbeater's We Think and the Age of Conversation are already well beyond sharing a PDF, yet the unique thing here is that some people are "getting it" and are starting to have real conversations.  Let's have more of this!

About the book

So, when you click this link, you can download a chapter that is excerpted from Accidental Branding: How Ordinary People Build Extraordinary Brands by David Vinjamuri.  Copyright © 2008 by David Vinjamuri.  All rights reserved.  Reprinted with permission of John Wiley & Sons, Inc.  For more information on the book or to purchase a copy, please visit: www.accidentalbranding.com.

The book is a series of interviews with people who "accidentally" developed their business into a brand.  Their stories.  Their tips.  Their wisdom.  Whether it is your cup of tea, I'll leave up to your judgment, yet I already would want to encourage more publishers to start taking the example of Holly Cariddi and start having these conversations.