Marketing Behind A Smoke Screen?

What would you imagine to be the toughest industry to market to

? A recent survey carried out for Marketing Week asked its candidates just that. They discovered more than half of those asked thought that the tobacco industry was the hardest to market.

Looking at the factors and problems that marketers are faced with every day, it wont come as a surprise that tobacco products are viewed among the hardest out there to promote.

We need to consider morals and boundaries when promoting such controversial products as cigarettes. How many people would want to market a product they dont agree with or feel even slightly passionate about? In such a creative and exciting world as marketing, surely one would only consider a position within a company they can understand and want to sink their teeth into. The use of marketing materials within this field is limited; since 1965, TV campaigns have been banned. Limited ways of advertising have meant that marketers have now had to focus on the packaging of their products rather than being involved with above-the-line such as TV, press and billboards. It is very difficult to market a product that has such damaging results to its smokers health. After all, would you try and promote lung cancer?

Perhaps another predictable outcome of this survey was second place; Government and Public Sector. With a new coalition government recently elected, the much publicised Expenses Scandal, and lets not forget the moral panic that is the recession; can we really blame candidates for thinking this is a difficult area to market? I think we can forgive them for thinking it would be pretty tough. Its not like a product they are trying to get off the shelves and into peoples homes; its a constantly changing environment. They often have to contrive campaigns tackling obesity and in contrast to our top-ranker, they have to address the smoking epidemic in this country and try to cut numbers and improve the countrys overall health.

And finally, we couldnt discuss the toughest industries to market to without mentioning Financial Services. Again, coming up high in the poll (undoubtedly thanks to the recession), and the world of finance has been under the spotlight for some time now, which has put strain on their marketers and publicists. The main objective for the banks now is to regain the trust of their customers- a mountain to climb for so many.

Countless events within financial services over the past two years have set new precedents for the industry. Without a history of such economic devastation, it is the marketing teams who have the difficult task of rebuilding the nations confidence in British banks. People dont want to hear the fluffy bits when it comes to their money; they want the facts. Those that work in communications for the financial sector must be to the point and submit blunt but truthful statements to the press.

No real surprises in this survey, but it has flagged up some interesting points about the toughest industries that marketers are faced with, and the hurdles they need to tackle on a daily basis in order to do their job and to do it well.

by: Steve Mann

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