Promotion: The 9-letter, 4-letter word.

Attention big brand managers in undifferentiated markets, especially in today's ad media frenzied, totally marginalized market, no one gives a damn about you. Not even a little. You might as well spend your 100K marketing degree on selling hot dogs in times square to hookers. You are irrelevant.

Why does Best Western even have a brand strategy? I don't give a shit about Best Western, nobody does. If Ramada offers me a rate at half the price, hell 95% of the price, I'll stay there before BW. Really, I don't care where it is. I'll spend the night in a camel's vagina if it's the best deal. I vote with my dollars and my vote is cheap.

So many brands, I mean "brands", think that people care about them when they don't. People care about Apple. People even care about Best Buy. But when it comes to hotels, or gas, or deodorant, or toothpaste, people just buy whatevers suits their pocketbook.

So what does this mean for marketers, for ad agencies? Does it mean we give up, call it a day? Nope, we still represent our brands with vigor. But it does mean that we have to, as marketers, as agency people, accept the word "promotion" into our vocabularies.

If our clients won't offer a product that is remarkable we have to stop pretending that they are to make them happy. If clients aren't ready to earn the consumer's vote, they better be ready to buy it.