Article

Michael Baker
Michael Baker 15 August 2019
Categories Advertising

The Downside of Excessive Marketing: How Bragging Leads to Failure

As a startup owner you may be too eager to make a lot of noise for your product through advertising and marketing. However, excessive marketing may harm your business more than you think.

Just like an over-dose of medicine, excessive marketing has more downsides to it than the benefits. Understanding the principles of marketing, particularly in terms of when to go overboard and when to halt is necessary to survive in today’s competitive business world.

Importance of Advertising

There is a lot to advertising than what the naked eyes see. Apart from being the prime marketing tool, it is actually the most important factor in the customer’s ecosystem. To market a product, advertisements not only educate the consumers but also make sure they entertain the onlookers as well. You can say it is sneaky; just like a thief that can enter into your brain without your permission and ultimately change your first choice to one of its own choosing. In fact, companies consider their advertising and marketing strategies as next in significance to product manufacturing. Around us, famous brands are always looking for new and improved ways to advertise to uplift their marketing outlook and bring in more sales – and it works magically.

Beware of Excessive Marketing

Creating the perfect marketing strategy with creative advertising, one that captures the short attention span of today’s consumers is an intimidating task in itself. If you happen to over-advertise your product, however superb a strategy you employ, you should better be prepared to see a dramatic decrease in your sales.

In the haste to build brand visibility, startup owners often commit the fatal mistake of excessive marketing right from the start. As a result, their brand gets lost in the blur of white noise, and it gradually sinks to the pit. We need to learn how and when to effectively market, what steps to take and what to do as an alternative if we want better brand visibility.

Bragging Leads to Wastage

Marketers estimate that consumers are exposed to around 4,000-10,000 ads every day. That is huge. Ask yourself this-do you really go through any advertising message before dragging it to the recycle bin? Not quite. This is evidence in itself that no matter how much potential a brand has, bombarding an average person with advertising notifications is never going to do the job.

Like never.

​The money you are spending on sending these messages is wasted because our consumers have become quite smart at knowing what to ‘block,’ literally and figuratively. They would simply delete your messages within a second, or just ignore your brand altogether.

Fans Breakaway When They’ve Had Enough

Did you know that the average internet user breaks up with the brand they actually like? According to Adpresso around 57.7 percent of fans will unfollow a brand on Facebook due to excessive advertising. As much as 82 percent of people have closed browser due to popup ads while 21 percent report emails spam even though they aren’t. What do these statistics tell you? Excessive marketing causes the death of your business and sabotages your customer-base.

Hazards of Over Marketing 

Just like cancer, there are several more drawbacks closely linked to this particular disease in the corporate world. You may not notice these defects at first while marketing, but they are definitely there, and they can easily gobble up the little profit you might have earned.

1. Risking Budget

Most business owners have a limited budget as it is. Using their budget for excessive advertising at the beginning puts their limited resources at risk. It’s true that startup business owners need to make their presence felt in a market completely crowded with competitive brands and services. Newbie entrepreneurs wish to reach out to as many target audiences as possible; TV channels, billboards, ads, brochures and online. However, is this a good idea?

It definitely isn’t if it means to put you out of business. 

Experts state that spending a lot on your marketing strategy right in the beginning is inadvisable and extremely risky. You are spending your limited resources on a channel that does not guarantee intended results. Unless a product is fully established amongst consumers, investing a lot of money on advertising is plain foolishness.

2. Greater Expectations

Your “fledgling” product might be able to make a breakthrough in the corporate world through expensive marketing strategy. However, you are still relatively a new player and have just begun your startup journey. You are going to come under great pressure of meeting unrealistic expectations of your consumers that you projected through expensive marketing.

Wouldn’t it be prudent to take one step at a time, diversify your marketing strategy and gradually reach out to your customers through brand awareness and superior quality products?

3.  Need for more staff and space

Naturally, with more work in the marketing department, more staff and investment will be required. As we discussed before, startup owners have a limited budget, to begin with. If you decide to invest in excessive marketing just to make it loud and be “heard”, you are going to have to cover the expenses associated with it. For instance, a couple of more professional employees along with more space working on a particular marketing campaign won’t make a difference in marketing but it will dent your budget.

 Needless to say, your resources will be totally diverted towards covering the expenses coming up with the demands excessive marketing requires. This diversion is unhealthy in the long run for your business.

Understanding Consumer Behavior

The question that arises is what to do besides marketing (excess or not) for your startup business? You need to save your budget and remain “non-irritating” while being heard as well. ​

First off, develop a branding strategy that is based on research and survey to understand consumer behaviors. When a new product is introduced in the market, you need a thorough understanding of what works and what doesn’t with your target audience.

Next, design your brand identity in such a way that it is focussed on your business mission and vision, and aligned with your target customers.

Explore cheaper and better channels of reaching out to your audiences. And on the top of it all, always respect your customer’s permission to receive advertisements. Nobody likes to feel harassed, whether in real or commercial life. 

Lastly, always get feedback and follow up on your brand promise. Make your customers feel like their time is honored and their wishes are respected. Win your consumers’ trust and you’re good to go. 

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