Ignore the IPA and grow by cutting adspend

An INSEAD study says that successful companies should grow by cutting marketing spend and instead focus on original thinking. Do companies waste time and money by investing in marketing to compensate for a poor product, service or positioning?

I can't imagine anyone buying a car saying, 'I wish Ford spent more on advertising.'  What people want is a car that doesn't break down and a dealership that doesn't charge you £500 for a service and forget to change the oil.

Marketing isn't about promotions, it's about the proposition. The best brands don't need to advertise much because the product is so original: google, iPod and Toyota. A big advertising budget should be viewed as a sign of failure.

I think that the founder of Geek Squad was quoted as saying  "advertising is the tax that you pay for being unremarkable".  In an always on highly connected viral web2.0 world it strikes me that there may be a large element of truth in what he says if he is referring to traditional message centred one way advertising.  

Mazafer - you miss the point entirely. The founder of Geek Squad wasn't being cryptic or speaking with secondary meaning. For you to twist this around and imply that he is referring to a particular mode of advertising is as disingenuous as it is dim-witted. He was being quite explicit: advertising = tax paid by the unremarkable.

I'm sure some companies, especially product led ones who sell one-off purchase items and services probably do waste time and money investing in marketing to compensate for a poor product service or positioning.

However, given that the aim of marketing per se is to identify, anticipate and satisfy customers wants in a sustained and profitable manner, I doubt any company that uses marketing to sell a crappy product / service would be the most profitable as customers will have no loyalty past their first purchase. For these companies, some original thinking in terms of new products albeit tailored to the existing or potential wants / needs of its customers might be warranted - there's no point promising what you can't deliver afterall - just ask Google. For everyone else, I guess there's always room for original thinking terms of how to satisfy and communicate with your customers, even if you have a great product.