No, I'm not going to declare advertising dead. That's not the case, and it never will be the case. Advertising is alive and kicking, perhaps just a little confused.

What's the problem? Oddly, it seems that advertising has an identity crisis and its parents - the purchasers and purveyors of advertising - are to blame. Mom and dad started using words like branding around the kid. And he, like them, started to believe those words over time.

You can't brand with advertising alone. That's like trying to dig a swimming pool with a spoon. You can support your brand with ad messages. Advertising can be a component of a larger branding campaign. Advertising is a tactic. It's paid mass communications for when you don't have the time or resources to shake hands and greet each member of your target audience.

The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) defines advertising as: "The means of providing the most persuasive possible selling message to the right prospects at the lowest possible cost."

Let's break that down: Advertising can carry one message: a "selling message." It must be targeted. Because so many other folks like you are advertising, you must be efficient with your advertising dollars or it will make no business sense.

The good news is that many people are starting to figure this out. We met with a service provider recently who was proud to tell us that his business was grown without any advertising whatsoever. How do they get business? Doing a good job and getting referrals. Identifying key influencers and staying on them like white on rice. Fulfilling their promises. Positioning themselves against the competition at every turn. Branding in the purest form.

Would this company ever need advertising? Probably not if its service offering remains essentially the same and they stay in the same geography. Now, let's say they wanted to pick up the business model that they spent 15 years developing in Charlotte and quickly establish an office in Greenville, SC. To reach the right people quickly enough, advertising would most likely be part of the program.

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