Marketing bling takes on new forms

From an economic and practical perspective, the value of marketing (beyond obtaining the momentary attention of a potential customer) is that it offers prospective customers a costly signal-of-value (Milgrom and Roberts, 1986). From the customer’s perspective, a free (i.e. costless), uninvited signal is more likely to be a scam, a start-up or novices than to be a valuable offering from a professional organization. Deciphering whether it’s a genuine offer-of-value or a scam requires effort from the customer. You don’t want your marketing to do that to your customers. That’s why email marketing for unknown brands is so ineffective.

Because it’s cheap, it doesn’t work.

And piles of garbage delivered at warp speed are still… piles of garbage.

Generative AI has gone and lowered the costs AND time of decent copy and mediocre design, which ups the ante for biological brain-power. If mediocre has become free, then the exceptional is the only way to signal to customers that you are experts and that your products and services are genuine and professional.

We’re not saying there’s no place for generative AI in marketing. We’re saying its best place is to give teams a springboard from which to excel. Now, use the free copy from ChatGPT and make something awesome.

The idea – not just the execution – is king.

Milgrom, P., & Roberts, J. (1986). Price and Advertising Signals of Product Quality. Journal of Political Economy, 94(4), 796–821. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1833203