????放眼望去，我們周圍到處都是商家在推銷自己的產品。大公司試圖做到面面俱到——大到時代廣場的戶外廣告牌，小到精致的Twitter網上廣告——目的就是為了把它們的品牌印到你的大腦中。

????爭奪消費者心理認知空間的競爭異常激烈，尤其是當今的消費者越來越挑剔。面對鋪天蓋地的廣告攻勢，對于許多公司而言，最有效的策略或許是退出競爭，另辟蹊徑。

????以入選2011年增長最快公司榜單（Fortune's 2011 fastest-growing companies list）的Signature Bank為例，該銀行并沒有進行任何廣告宣傳，但業務卻出現顯著增長。2001年公司成立之初，資產僅為5,000萬美元，而今年公司旗下資產已達到131億美元。過去一個季度，銀行凈收入達到366億美元，比去年增長了64%。

????這家銀行在許多方面尤其適合無廣告策略：它以紐約的小型企業為目標客戶，只須通過該行提供的任何一種聯系方式，客戶便可享受該行的所有服務。給Signature銀行打個電話，客戶便可確定企業的信用額度，緊接著，客戶就可以為購置漢普頓斯的房子從該行申請融資。銀行CEO喬?德保羅表示，這些客戶不太可能通過洋基隊（Yankee）比賽現場的廣告來選擇銀行。相反，他們會相信朋友和同事們的推薦。

????美國弗吉尼亞大學達頓商學院（University of Virginia's Darden School of Business）教授拉杰庫馬爾? 文卡特桑認為，實際上，這才是增加客戶最有效的方式。他說，與通過廣告吸引的客戶相比，通過口口相傳獲得的客戶能為公司帶來更多的利潤。社會關系就是一種強力粘合劑。

????Signature銀行在紐約的高端客戶尤其如此——沒有廣告宣傳，反而為銀行打上了精英主義的光環。文卡特桑稱，事關財務決策，“人們往往希望能獲得與眾不同的服務，以便獲得更好的投資回報。”在大銀行鋪天蓋地的廣告中，Signature另辟蹊徑，使銀行蒙上一絲神秘的色彩，看上去更像是俱樂部，反倒帶來了更多優勢。

????杜克大學（Duke University）市場營銷與心理學專業教授加萬?菲茨西蒙斯表示：“想想我們一周會看到多少關于財務服務的廣告，尤其是在曼哈頓。可謂數不勝數，而且，幾乎都俗不可耐地宣揚自己‘信譽卓著’、‘嚴肅認真’。”為什么就不能老老實實做到“信譽卓著”和“嚴肅認真”，然后等待口碑的機傳播呢？

????菲茨西蒙斯預測，越來越多的公司將會采取這樣的策略。退出廣告戰，公司可能會在與潛在客戶進行的交流中失去主動權。雖然存在這樣的風險，但消費者的大腦中已經塞滿了形形色色的廣告，更多的宣傳不見得更好。菲茨西蒙斯稱：“事實是，消費者一看到廣告，就會自然而然地產生一種抵觸心理。”

????菲茨西蒙斯的研究顯示，對廣告主來說，最好的結果也不外乎錦上添花，也就是借助廣告略微強化一下消費者對本來已經有好感的品牌產生的正向情感關聯。

????當然，許多廣告公司依然在追求這種正面的推動作用，因為它有時候不失為一種強大的工具。在廣告業參與度較高的市場端，營銷高手們通常會通過社交媒體進行病毒式營銷，并為這一“營銷圣杯”展開激烈競爭。雖然模式無法預測，但有時，廣告主可能會無意中擊中一個“甜點”，所推出的廣告或宣傳活動能夠獲得消費者的喜愛，于是消費者會主動將鏈接發送給朋友，發布微博，或發布在Facebook上，自愿替廣告主進行傳播。

????去年，寶潔公司（Proctor & Gamble）在這一點上大獲成功。當時，寶潔公司邀請演員以賽亞?穆斯塔法為公司的Old Spice男士香水推出了一個互動社交媒體宣傳活動。文卡特桑稱，這種方式有諸多優點，尤其是社交媒體廣告宣傳僅需要投入少量資金。他說，公司可以更加靈活，嘗試不同選擇。只要有一種選擇有效，它們就會為公司帶來快速增長。這種情況并不鮮見。

????而另一方面，最傳統的品牌化策略也正卷土重來，再度流行：那就是，提供高品質的產品或服務，之后守株待兔，等著客戶自動上門。

????譯者:阿龍/汪皓

????Look around, anywhere really, and you'll see the upshot of somebody trying to sell you something. Big companies try to cover all the bases -- everything from billboards in Times Square to pithy tweets -- to hit the algorithm that will put their brand on your brain.

????It's a rat race, vying for all that mental space, especially when customers are growing more skeptical. The result of the ad deluge is that, for some companies, the best strategy is to opt out.

????Take Signature Bank (SBNY), one of the companies on Fortune's 2011 fastest-growing companies list. Without any advertising, it has grown significantly, from about $50 million when it launched in 2001 to $13.1 billion in assets this year. This past quarter, the bank had a net income of $36.6 billion, up by 64% from the previous year.

????In many ways, the bank is especially suited for the no-ad tactic: it targets New York-based small businesses, and offers clients one point of contact for all banking services. A client can call Signature to set up a line of credit for a business and then ask about financing a house in the Hamptons in the next breath. These aren't customers who chose their bank based off of ads at a Yankee's game, says CEO Joe DePaolo. Instead, they rely on recommendations from friends and associates.

????That's actually the most effective way to reel people in, says Rajkumar Venkatesan, a professor of business administration at the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business. Customers acquired through word of mouth are more profitable for the company, over time, than customers who join through other types of advertising, he says. The social bond is strong glue.

????That's especially true for people like Signature's high-end New York clients -- the lack of advertising plays into the company's aura of elitism. Especially regarding financial decisions, Venkatesan says, "People want access to something that everyone doesn't have so they can get better returns." Opting out amid a glut of big bank advertisements gives Signature a secret, club-like edge.

????"Think about how many advertisements for financial services you see in a typical week, especially in Manhattan. Crazy amounts of them, and all of them are about being 'reputable,' and 'serious,'" says Gavan Fitzsimons, a professor of marketing and psychology at Duke University. Why not just be reputable and serious and let your business spread organically?

????More companies will start to do this, Fitzsimons predicts, even though businesses that back out of the ad race risk ceding control of the conversation. Still, people's brains are so saturated with advertisements that more exposure isn't necessarily better. "The bottom line is, now a consumer sees an ad and their defensive mechanisms automatically come up," says Fitzsimons.

????In fact, according to Fitzsimons' research, the best result that an advertiser can hope for is to nudge us in the direction we were already going -- reaffirming a slightly positive association with a brand that we already liked.

????Certainly, many marketers are chasing that positive nudge, which can be a powerful tool. At the more engaged end of the advertising spectrum, marketers often vie for the Holy Grail that is viral marketing via social media. The formula is unpredictable, but sometimes, advertisers hit a sweet-spot and make an ad or start a campaign that we like so much we spread it ourselves by sending links to friends or tweeting or posting it to Facebook.

????Proctor & Gamble (PG) struck gold with this last year, when they created an interactive social media campaign for Old Spice around actor Isaiah Mustafa. The method certainly has its merits, says Venkatesan, especially since many social media ad campaigns require very little capital. Companies can afford to be agile, he says, and try different options. When one sticks, they encourage its rapid growth, already in progress.

????But at the other end of the marketing spectrum, the oldest branding strategy of all is making a comeback: deliver a quality product or service and sit back and wait for the customers to come to you.