Alex Murrell: Edition #003
Welcome
Welcome to Edition #003 of Strategy Made Simple.
My subscribers have, once again, doubled since the last issue went out! Thank you so much to those who have signed up over the last few months. It means so much.
Anyway, without further ado…
Articles
The errors of efficiency
I published a new article titled ‘The errors of efficiency’. Here’s a TL;DR:
Today, traditional broadcast communications are increasingly thought to be an inconceivable indulgence. They are mass. They are ignored. And they are expensive. This article argues, however, that these three critiques are fundamentally flawed. It argues that efficient doesn’t necessarily mean effective. And it argues that being mass, ignored and expensive are not points of weakness but, in fact, points of strength.
This essay has quickly become my second most popular piece, surpassed in readership only by The Ageism in Advertising. It also won the post of the month over on Neil Perkin's Only Dead Fish blog. Thank you to everyone who voted!
Summaries
Since my last newsletter I’ve summarised 6 industry books:
If you want something even more succinct, below is The Long and the Short of It, by Les Binet and Peter Field, summarised in eight bullet points.
Next up I'm going to be summarising Anatomy of Humbug by Paul Feldwick. If you want to read it as soon as it goes live, give me a follow on Twitter or connect with me on LinkedIn. I share them there first.
Links
Here’s some of the best things I’ve read over the past few months.
What happens when brands stop advertising?
The Ehrenberg-Bass Institute of Marketing Science published a new paper titled What Happens When Brands Stop Advertising?. The study had three big headlines: First when brands stop mass media advertising sales decline an average of 16% in year one. By year five sales have fallen by an average of 58%. Secondly the rate of decline is fastest among brands that were already declining. And finally smaller brands suffer greater declines after they stop advertising than bigger brands do.
The 95:5 rule
Peter Weinberg and John Lombardo of the The B2B Institute collaborated with Professor John Dawes and found that on average only 5% of B2B buyers are in the market to buy at any one time. The team recommend that marketers should focus on the 95% of buyers who are currently "out-of-market" and work to increase the probability that their brands are first to mind when they are ready to buy.
Archive
If you’d like to go back and read previous editions of this newsletter, the previous edition can be found below:
Over, and out
Thank you again for subscribing to this newsletter. If you enjoyed the edition, feel free to share it with anyone who may find it valuable. You can also follow me on social to get more frequent updates. All the links can be found on my website.
As always, please do let me know if you have any feedback. I always love to hear from you.
Until next time,
Alex