The new Snow White 2025 live-action remake is the epitome of a marketing disaster. It had all of, but not limited to, two actresses on opposing sides of an international war with very public opinions, amidst a culture war no less, as well as a complete collective disregard for what made the original a success in the first place. However, let’s not analyze what external factors tanked the box office sales, let’s take a look at why the product and service needs to be good for marketing to function properly.
The biggest difference between advertising and marketing is that advertising is focused on sales, whereas marketing is focused on helping the customer. In order to properly help the customer, you need to have the proper tools in your kit. Picture this: you go to help someone fix a leaky roof, but don’t show up with new shingles. You might have gotten in the door, and you might have closed the sale after the customer evaluated alternatives, but you left a bad taste in their mouth because you didn’t deliver.
All this to say, Snow White didn’t work because the product didn’t work. People wanted entertainment to help them escape from reality and enjoy whimsical fun, when all Snow White did was whisk them back to our world and bombarded audiences with political messaging and pandering. Do your customers a favor: learn from these lessons and seek out what they truly need, then deliver.
2 Responses
I really like the message this sends! A strong foundation is incredibly important to be able to build on regardless of what the thing is. Equating it to the Snow White adaptation is really creative but I totally agree that the marketing foundation sets the stage for the success of your brand
This was definitely an interesting example of product versus advertising. It’s definitely more important for marketing to make sure your product serves the need customers are buying for, than promising something that won’t deliver.