Customers are now smarter, more observant and more cynical than ever before. They are aware of the wiles of marketers. As a result, traditional branding approaches have been rendered useless in strengthening the brand and capturing mind share. This has led to the abandonment of the traditional ‘push’ strategy, and the adoption of the illustrious ‘pull’ strategy.

Yet getting people to love the brand is not so simple. Customers are not simply passive consumers of advertising. Customers question advertising, deconstruct it, and render their own interpretations and meanings upon a brand. They do not like being told what to do, how to think, or how to feel. Enter the ‘pull’ strategy of marketing, designed to encode meanings within a text, and customers are expected to interpret these desirable meanings and flock to the brand as a result. While it may be idealistic for marketers, customers are not really this naive. In a world where advertising is all around us, customers are becoming increasingly literate to marketing communications. Customers can see through advertisements and recognise their commercial intent. The ‘pull’ strategy is really an attempt to suck you in, and customers know it.

So as advertisers become wise to the fact that customers are wise to them, what do they do? For many, the concept of anti-marketing marketing is emerging as the new strategy. This strategy is one which attempts to recognise customer cynicism, and sympathises with customers by cutting through brand messages and the clutter in the market. The message is clear, direct and to the point. It is an old-school ‘push’ strategy enacted in an ironic way. There is no spin. It is about being ‘real’- promoting the marketing message exactly as it is without the need for fancy tricks. Sometimes advertisers even go as far as promoting against the product they are trying to sell, taking anti-marketing marketing to the very extreme. As an illustrative example, take a look at this advertisement by Australian retailer, Rivers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqSN63xZqXU

Yet even anti-marketing marketing is marketing. Brands exist in the market to make money. Whilst some brands that have adopted anti-marketing marketing practices have earned respect from customers, as these brands become successful, more brands will follow in the same vein. Anti-marketing marketing will become the new mainstream marketing, and customers will finally realise they have been fooled and taken for a ride, if they do not know so already.