For sale: Shiny, new marketing campaigns

1970s Radio Flyer ad -- Photo courtesy of tricyclefetish.com

How long are you allowed to say something is new?

The Dallas Morning News launched its e-edition in October. The website flashes several ads at readers, all shouting NEW! And rightfully so; it’s less than two months old.

106.1 KISS-FM, on the other hand, is a good example of old-turned-new-in-30-seconds-or-less advertising (thanks @garrettwinder for the suggestion).

“The NEW KISS-FM. It sounds exactly like the old KISS-FM, but that didn’t have the same ring to it, so we’ll pretend we’re playing different music and airing different morning shows and running different promotions, when actually, they’re all the same as they were yesterday.”

Actually, radio stations in general tend to repackage themselves frequently in an attempt to maintain a perpetual state of freshness — in reality, a state that’s impossible to maintain. “New” is sprinkled in real estate and automotive ads like poppy seeds on Starbucks muffins.

Is it false advertising? Are we as marketers being misleading? Or should it ultimately be the consumer’s responsibility to do their research? At what point does a marketing practice become so cliche no reasonable person would fall for it?

Is that the point?

Is creating a culture that subscribes to the gospel of “new” is a good thing? If an increase in profit in the fourth quarter is the goal, then probably. But how do you develop a community around a product if you’re always leaving the old project for the next big thing? What if the old big thing is what works? Whatever happened to patience? Isn’t that one of those virtue things?

And what’s wrong with old? A lot of old things add incredible value to society. I’m thinking the Constitution and indoor plumbing, for starters. Or the good-ol’ provide value to your customers trick.

I know this post is full of questions. You probably learned how to strike a healthy balance between old and new a long time ago. But if you’re like me, you’re still trying to figure out when to stick with what works, when to jump on the bandwagon behind a new product, or when to lead the charge in a different direction. I’m hoping there’s a middle ground somewhere.

What do you think? Is there a happy medium? What have you discovered so far?