Friday, February 05, 2010

Haiti Is a Marketing Lesson

Haiti Is a Marketing Lesson - Dan Pallotta - Harvard Business Review
"The reason people are giving so much money to Haiti is simple: They are hearing about it. They are seeing and reading about the catastrophe over and over again on the front page, in prime time, and in viral web appeals 24 hours a day, seven days a week. This is not a singular occurrence: Every so often, for brief moments, disasters trigger the deluge of media for humanity as is enjoyed every day by the likes of Budweiser, BMW, and the iPod. If it had to be paid for, the media that is currently publicizing Haiti would cost many tens, if not hundreds, of millions of dollars. But alas, we would never let humanitarian organizations spend that kind of money on advertising, despite the fact that it might bring in many times more dollars than it costs."

Interesting read, considering the fact that even for-profit marketers seem to ignore these fundamentals sometimes.