Unfair Advertising Criticism

I wonder how important is advertising in our lives. By our, I mean the consumers we are trying to reach out. I have been in this industry for almost a decade. And I found one thing in common. Most of the time, we are bothered about something that doesn’t matter to consumers. It is very crucial as we term it as brand positioning!
We work on how great our brand is. We do all the competitive analysis about grabbing our consumers’ attention and then forget to ask the simple but most important question, What problem are we solving in their lives? That’s why we see the same products claiming different things but failing to sustain. Because consumers don’t care what we say, they care how we are solving their problems!
I recently bought an iPhone. I have always been an Android user, a flag bearer about how brands like Samsung, Huawei, LG are providing far better features than iPhone. But after using iPhone for few months, I can see why this brand is far ahead compared to its competitors without providing features at par with others. They are simply providing things that matter to the consumers and staying simply in touch with them without bothering!

Interestingly they are the ones who are least visible on communications. And surprisingly, people are waiting to see their communications. That’s amazing if we consider the era we are living in. Too many communications or noises are happening around, but they are the ones people look after to avoid the chaos. I see campaigns are evaluated by how many emails we have delivered compared to asking if they actually need this many emails?
Life is nothing but trades and tradeoffs. We are selfish beings. No matter how creatively we claim, we are not. The truth is we chose our friends and want to have control over our liking and disliking. Hence, we don’t like others to tell us what to do or not to do. We want our authority on our own terms.
Brands work on subconscious minds. As long the product is rightly addressing a problem, solving them, a brand’s role starts after that! A poor product is a poor product because it is not doing the most important thing it is made for, solving human problems.
Suppose a brand wants to be positioned in the heart of the consumers, in the consumers’ spirit. Still, the delivery is not what it claims. In that case, it means it is nothing but a lie!
All the biggest frauds in the world start with a powerful brand promise! But the difference between Steve Jobs and Billy McFarland is in one single thing! They both showed vision, but one of them actually delivered!
Often we get the brief about developing the brand/communication strategy for our clients. As advertising professionals, we don’t have enough say about the product improvements or focus. That’s where most of the communications are failing!
No matter how creative we are or how engaging/ relevant we are in our communications, our consumers will maximum click the like/love/celebrate button, and that’s it! Advertising served its purpose!
There is a massive difference between manipulation and influence! Creating influence demands a solid collaboration of ideas and delivery. And that’s where I feel the advertising is unfortunately failing. Not because of the lack of creativity but the most important thing for a brand, delivery!