For those of you who know me, thanks for tuning in. For those of you who don’t, thanks for being inquisitive. As you can see I have decided to start writing a blog. Not just for the craic (that’s an Irish term for fun by the way!), but because I’m passionate about the subject of marketing and I believe I have something of interest to say. Obviously the subject matter will be marketing and, in particular, the monumental changes that are taking place in the marketing world. “What do you know about marketing?” I hear you say. Well, besides having extensive experience developing marketing campaigns for businesses, I have a degree on the subject, I have written a book as well as several articles about it, and I lecture on the subject. Of course, credentials mean nothing, common sense means everything. You can decide if I speak common sense on marketing.
The Rules are Changing
To begin with, I firmly believe we are living in the
greatest time of change the commercial world has ever seen. An exciting time
when the rules of business are changing, and at a pace that we are struggling
to keep up with. The marketing textbooks for the new world that is evolving
before our eyes have not yet been written. Marketing is changing forever and,
without a shadow of a doubt, the online world is playing a pivotal role. Did
you know; to reach 50 million users it took print 100 years, radio 38 years and
TV 13 years. By comparison, Facebook hit 100 million users in less than 9
months. The digital revolution has blown up the marketing world and traditional
media has been left reeling.
Has TiVo Killed the 30 Second TV ad?
You see, marketing used to be about interrupting people.
Interrupting them with one way messages, whether or not they actually wanted to
see or hear those messages was irrelevant (most of the time those messages
were, in fact, unwanted). Now, we don’t let ourselves be interrupted by most traditional
media. We simply record our favourite TV shows and watch them when it’s
convenient to us, not the TV networks, fast-forwarding the ad breaks as we
please. Now, when we want to find out about a product or brand, we don’t merely
have to rely on advertised messages, we Google it. We ask others about their
experience with it, usually online. We join a conversation on Facebook and
Twitter. This confirms the first fundamental change; marketing is no longer
monologue, it is dialogue.
84% Act Upon Word of Mouth
People have more control of the message than ever before.
Social media has injected speed into word of mouth. Instead of marketing
messages being one-to-many (through traditional media), they are now
many-to-many (through social media). This can add the snowball effect to your
marketing campaigns and give them a speed like never before. If people are
speaking positively about you, they are acting like your very own volunteer
marketing army. They are your most effective sales people. According to
research by Nielsen, 84% of consumers would act upon a
word of mouth recommendation. However, just the same is true of those speaking
about you in a negative light. People base their buying decisions on what they
hear. It’s true, that’s always been the case, but never on the same scale as in
today’s world. Social media has given word of mouth a channel, the biggest channel
on the planet, the world-wide-web. Even the greatest of the traditional media’s
combined can’t compete.
Forget All You Have Ever Known About Marketing?
So, should you forget about all you have ever known about
marketing? Should we assume that traditional media is dead, or dying, and throw
all our marketing eggs into the digital basket? And, if digital marketing is
all it’s cracked up to be, how should we approach it? How can we keep up with
it? Well, these are the kind of discussions I intend to have here. And I do
mean discussions – dialogue, not monologue. Feel free to get involved. I will
be interested in hearing your thoughts. I hope you are interested in hearing
mine.
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