Thanks for the comment. You’re absolutely right. As a one-way communications device, advertising can’t improve a product. As a multi-way communications tool, social media can absolutely improve a product.

I guess I was thinking more about subbing in “social media” in the first quote.

That is:

“A great [social media] campaign will make a bad product fail faster. It will get more people to know it’s bad.”

But maybe that’s not even true. A great social media campaign could contain a feedback loop that would allow a smart marketer to fix her bad product before it fails.

Great comment. Thanks for setting me straight.

In particular:

“Advertising doesn’t create a product advantage. It can only convey it.”

True.

“[Social Media] doesn’t create a product advantage. It can only convey it.”

I can’t agree with this. With social media, more and more companies can get access focus groups of 100s, if not 1000s or even 1,000,000s. This gives them a more fluid, circular product lifecycle where direct feedback, either in beta testing or in release, can and does make products better and better.

Ergo, products that do access “social media” and that take advantage of it, do have an advantage over their competitors that don’t.

Interested to read your thoughts on this…

Ed