Commentary

The Sell: The Social Services Sector

The Sell-Andrew Ettinger-The Social Services SectorI have never seen an ad for Google or Craigslist. Each of these companies makes millions of dollars, yet they do not advertise. Perhaps they do advertise, but I have never seen it. Meanwhile, American car companies are spending billions of dollars on advertising and losing millions. The difference - the reason - is social utility.

Web sites like Google and Craigslist provide a service; they benefit the consumer. That they do so without directly asking for money makes them credible sources of information. Ultimately, they deliver relevant advertising messages to the consumer. They serve a useful purpose in our everyday lives, and the more useful the information they serve, the more money they make.
Google.com, the Web's most popular URL, carries no advertising. An ad placement there would provide vast reach unmatched by any other media vehicle and add billions in advertising revenue for the company. But it would provide no social utility. A home-page ad on Google would be neither contextually nor demographically relevant. And Google's primary concern is relevance. It offers text ads only after a person has performed a search query. The company believes more relevant ads will make them more money.
Compare Google's home page with that of Yahoo, which is cluttered with ad messages. Certainly those ads provide marketers with large reach and generate Yahoo millions in ad revenue. Still, they lack a raison d'être. Statistically speaking, those ads can never be 100 percent targeted; even the most widely used products do not appeal to everyone.

A product's social utility serves as the basis of its relationship to advertising. If a brand provides relevant information, it mitigates the need to advertise. Instead, consumers will seek it out. The product becomes less of a commodity because it serves a larger purpose. People want solutions to their problems, not sales pitches. Ultimately, they migrate to credible information sources.

Brands need to be thought leaders. Anybody who provides unbiased data and an informed opinion leads the discussion. For instance, Walter Mossberg is a thought leader in tech. However, brands can be thought leaders, too. In fact, brands are uniquely positioned to inform the public. Think of the Good Housekeeping seal or even Wikipedia. Information is more valuable than ever - companies have it, consumers want it, and marketers should provide it.
Craigslist ranks utility first and advertising second. Not only do people find it clutter-free and easy to use, they also tell their friends about it. Moreover, with a steady stream of visitors, it has no need to accept intrusive banner ads. Craigslist charges people for placing job and housing ads in a few select cities. The rest of their classifieds are free. With advertising, it would be just another provider of classifieds. In all likelihood, that would decrease monthly unique visitors. Craigslist makes more money by rejecting advertising than by accepting it.

Let me acknowledge that it is incredibly difficult to replicate Craigslist's success. Perhaps we can incorporate its ideals into our own advertising, though. Brands can promote themselves by providing information. An ad for muscle cream could provide exercise tips as much as a direct sales proposition. By doing so, it becomes more than just an advertisement. Helpful information becomes part of the ad message.

The oft-misquoted Stewart Brand perfectly describes how information is changing: "On the one hand, information wants to be expensive because it's so valuable. On the other hand, information wants to be free, because the cost of getting it out is getting lower and lower all the time." In a complicated world, useful information is increasingly important. It can be cheap or it can be expensive - usually at the same time. Smart marketers can take advantage of this duality.

Tone is central to the concept of social utility. The less overt the sales message, the more trustworthy it will seem. When brands put information first, consumers respond. I am not suggesting that brands stop overtly promoting themselves. Instead, the tone of an ad message can establish a brand as a consumer resource. This moves the thinking away from being purely SKU-centric. Most importantly, this changes your image from heavy-handed salesman to trustworthy information resource.

Andrew Ettinger is the director of interactive media at RJ Palmer Media Services. (aettinger@rjpalmer.com)

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