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the new marketing | consumer-obsessed, always on, optimized
Popular culture bills “traditional marketing” as kaput. Traditional advertisers scurry. Digital agencies gloat.
The fact is, it is culture and people’s tools that have changed.
New Marketing has simply followed people into the cloud, and taken on the characteristics of its creators. It is always-on, consumer-obsessed (like our culture) and lives within the technology of our times.
- As people become increasingly trackable and measurable, so does the new marketing
- People now use a multi-tasked intermix of iPhones, Google maps, Macs, TVs, SMS, Nintendos and social websites - so does the new marketing
- Channels, products and promotions have migrated from bricks & mortar to 24/7 digital storefronts - so has the new marketing
With the 3Cs and the 4Ps spinning in the cloud, the companies who win at marketing will be the ones who have the approach and processes to:
- Gain and act on relevant customer insights across this new landscape (Consumer insights, which made marketing effective THEN still are the key to making it effective NOW. The ethnographers and Mad Men of the 1960s couldn’t have dreamed of the social monitoring and consumer data now available)
- Deliver effective marketing experiences along the customer pathway (taglines and print ads with CTAs and CPMs driving to POS has been supplemented by seamless optimizable ‘multi-platform’ digital commerce experiences)
- Learn and adapt to customer behavior and optimize results (company tactics and consumer experiences can be adjusted in real time based on performance)
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Clean modern design is all around us. The world has Apple computers, Burton snowboards, Sur la Table, Method, Virgin America and the Mini - not to mention Target - to constantly remind us that good design is everywhere.
It was not always so. Several factors account for the introduction of desirable aesthetics into product design:
True innovators derive insights from outside of their cultural frameworks - hence ’beyond’: Credit must go to Julia Child for bringing taste to our kitchen, Martha Stewart for bringing town and country aesthetics to the suburbs, Dieter Rams of Braun for bringing art into electronics, and grafitti artists and Jake Burton for un-dorking our outdoor gear. Read more »
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Conspicuous consumption is plummeting, and the “American Dream” has been pressure tested and redefined. For those who are in over their heads in the housing market, a kit house may be the answer. Below are 2 of the more popular models:
LOT-EK sells a pre-fab unit -the MDU- a reshaped, wired shipping container stocked with livable amenities. The company website says that the company is “blurring the boundaries between art, architecture, entertainment and information.”
Tumbleweed Houses offers many small, and even “tiny” home solutions. Tumbleweed’s “Weebee” can be had for a build-it-yourself price of $21,000 (or $45,997 pre-built.
Micro houses require no-mortgage, incorporate recycled materials, bring style to basic shelter, integrate the latest technology, provide urban efficiency and may very well change the definition of success. They certainly enable the middle class to live differently.
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The Downward Slope
Since long before the recession we are in, my clients across industry sectors -from travel to entertainment to luxury- had been abuzz with ‘a radical change in business,’ the ‘market disruption,’ and a digital ‘inflection,’ the other side of which cannot be defined.
It is a ‘given’ that globalization, technology, and consumer-focused marketing are influences in this change. Add to this the ‘perfect storm’ of a tanking market and collapse Read more »
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The Obama campaign shook up politics-as-usual and made the best use of the Internet, and the new marketing, in the following ways:Attractive Brand | Crisp Relevant MessagingAbsolute cohesion of campaign ‘branding elements’ and messaging across media.Modern stylish design (e.g. sophisticated flexible brand identity system, ‘guerilla’ bumper stickers, AND artist community involvement, i.e. Shepard Ferry’s “Progress”).Real-time fact checking allowed the campaign to rebuke questionable claims on the web (i.e. ‘Bridge to Nowhere’ claims were rebuked until the issue was silenced)Easy DiscoveryMassive non-TV video content was available (14.5M hrs. of campaign video was viewed on YouTube, equal to $47 million of TV advertising - not including comedy content, e.g. Saturday Night Live and user generated).Engaging Experience and ContentRich, engaging, site content user could go as deep or stay as shallow as was desired.Site landing page design instantly engaged, collected user information and led user to clear tasks (i.e. donate or learn).Frequent site updates / emails to create urgency and confidence.Personalized TouchPersonalized emails were frequent and relevant (I cannot name a company that has managed this!)User content was encouraged and widely distributed (e.g. ~12M YouTube views of Obama Girl).Social media was used extensively and effectively for reach, depth and action (Facebook Apps, LinkedIn).Integrated and UsefulWebsite enabled users to organize and communicate (like Facebook meets evite) to fuel an effective ‘ground game.’Mobile devices were used to communicate between volunteers and homebase during voting.Database marketing was effectively used to enable ongoing conversation with supporters. Links to articles about Obama’s strategies and sources for the statistics above:How Obama’s Internet Campaign Changed Politics | NYTQuelch’s success factorsTalk of the Nation storyReal Clear Politics analysisReal Clear Politics on Obama’s web outreach
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The skills of the new marketing are more like those of the ninja than a ‘man with a hammer.’ It is said that a man with a hammer solves all problems as if they were nails. Read more »
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It is necessary for effective marketing strategies to satisfy the customer, AND produce business results. Read more »
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The astute marketer must determine how the product or service offered fits into the hierarchy of basic human needs. It is no coincidence that the oft oversimplified “brand pyramid” closely follows Maslow’s states of basic human needs.
Read more »
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Roman Legion Five, originally named ‘V Gallica’ led by Julius Caesar, was the first to employ provincial soldiers rather than Roman citizens. It was an important step to bringing Roman advances and technology to the provinces.
This strategy is one whose time has come in the world of globally distributed marketing and advertising solutions for business.
In ancient Rome, generals understood objectives and the field, developed specific battle plans, then deployed teams on the ground to win.
This LEGION V is a strategic interactive cooperative based on the idea that vectoring the right partners together as a key to achieving desired results.
note: Legion Five was subsequently renamed “V Alaudae” -the Lark- after the winged helmets of the Gauls.
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Marketers and agencies alike are tracking on a new marketing phenomenon - one that is human and not corporate.
For ages, companies have ‘targeted markets’ with taglines and buzzwords via blatant media (billboards, TV spots and print ads).
As it turns out , customers - AKA people - don’t trust buzzwords. Read more »
