TOP 10 BRANDS NEVER TO ADVERTISE ON TV
Venture capitalists (and our employers) will have us believe we need lots of advertising support to launch (start). Here’s a list of contrarian brands:
1. Google
2. Youtube
3. Starbucks
4. Amazon
5. Ebay
6. Quiksilver
7. My space
8. Bebo
9. Second Life
10. Krispy Kreme
Some lessons here. What attributes do they all have in common?
You ask “What attributes do they all have in common?” (perhaps rhetorically)…
I’d argue there’s one commonality – a very large role for “word of mouth” as a prime mechanism for building a customer base and customer loyality… but you could say that also of cars, fast food etc but they still advertise…
A variation on it would be the “my little secret” aspect where consumers feel they’ve dicovered the product themselves… but that dies out pretty early on surely for places like Ebay, Youtube, Starbucks etc…
Almost all of them have a curious “location” advantage, in that the product is extremely accessible. This is certainly true of all the www-based listees, plus Starbucks. Krispy Kreme can become ubiqituous within certain geographic areas, but is really more of a “destination” experience.
So, that leaves Quiksilver as the exception on the list (although not within its competitive domain – Ripcurl, Mambo etc don’t use TV either, nor do most clothing labels…)…
Provactive list… do folks have any more?
Another you might want to add as “ad-free” is The Body Shop.