Jan 18, 2012 | Leadership, Management, Marketing
In the good old days of mass marketing, you could survive in a marketing role, even a senior one, with a pretty generic set of analytical, project management and people management skills.
That is no more, just as mass marketing is no more.
Markets have globalised and fragmented at the same time, consumer and customer behavior is no longer reasonably predictable across demographics, channels are evolving daily, communication options are now in the thousands, and information on product performance, price, features, availability, and so on, is everywhere.
The key marketing KPI is now curiosity.
Marketing people need to be prepared to go and see, to experiment, be brave, spend time at the coalface with consumers, and generally know far more than they had to in the past.
If I was recruiting to-day, Curiosity would be at the very top of my “must have” list.
Jan 17, 2012 | Branding, Communication, Marketing
Marketers have long understand that word of mouth advertising is the most powerful form of advertising, now enhanced by social media tools, evolving into the term “word of mouse” to describe the phenomenon.
This leads to a further distinction: media that is paid for, Vs media that is earned.
Consumers understand that paid media has a commercial purpose for the advertiser, they have a vested interest in being persuasive, and not necessarily being long on facts. By contrast, the notion of “earned media” content that is spread because it has value, approaches the value of word of mouth endorsement.
The fragmentation of media options has made life much more interesting for marketers, for those with a bit of creativity and curiosity, it is a smorgasbord, for most, just a pain in the arse and an opportunity to game the unwary.
Jan 11, 2012 | Change, Customers, Innovation, Marketing, Strategy
Kodak used to “own” photography, having a massive share of the film market, end to end.
No more, Kodak is virtually broke, subject to continuous take-over speculation.
The really interesting thing is that one of the assets that makes Kodak valuable to an aggressor is its bank of patents that relate to the technology that drives the product innovation in the digital space.
The failure for Kodak is therefore not in being unable to develop the science, for individuals in the labs to see a different path, and to imagine the next iteration but to do something about it in the marketplace, disrupt themselves before somebody else does it.
Coming in parallel, but I have not seen it really considered before is the fundamental change in the way people think about photography, a complete disruption in behavior that has gone unnoticed.
Photographs used to be used to preserve memories. No more, at least, not much.
They are now used as a foundation piece of the individual communication process.
What are we doing now, who we are seeing, where we are, an expression of ourselves are now the motivations to take a photo on whatever device happens to be in our hand at the time. Creating a record for our kids is a useful by-product of these activities, although I am not sure how the current 20 year old will react to their children in 20 years seeing photos of them pissed at a party 20 years before, so perhaps creating some records will be problematic in the long term.
The photographic market has been totally disrupted, not just by the development of digital technology, but in the way consumers behave. For a marketer, being able to build a corporate mind-set that enables the science, and at the same time embraces the ambiguity and uncertainty of consumer behavior changes is the challenge that keeps life interesting.
Jan 9, 2012 | Branding, Marketing, Strategy
As a marketer, I have always sought to differentiate my products from those of my competitors in a meaningful way, to add value to the experience of use.
In a hyper-connected, multi-branded world, where most people don’t care too much despite the billions spend by marketers trying to make them care, you have to take the concept one step further.
A brand that just looks, feels, and performs just a bit better than the others is really just another brand, but one that somehow makes a difference to peoples lives, that is one that encourages and justifies loyalty.
Apple is the obvious example, Steve Jobs’ obsessive perfectionism and determination to control everything about the experience, and be as he put it “at the intersection of technology and art” has delivered more than just differentiated, competitive products, they have redefined and created markets.
My mate Louis Marangon of Riverina Grove, a little food manufacturer in country NSW is a similar obsessive, to the extent that it is possible, taking all his ingredients from local producers, the fresh, local, and transparent supply chain both offering both assurances to users, and keeping the money in the country. He is now the only Australian owned manufacturer of a number of products left standing.
Umair Haque says it very well here, as he often does.
Jan 5, 2012 | Branding, Communication, Customers
“Advertising is what you do when you cannot get there in person”
This has been a pretty regularly heard quote over my 40 years in this business, attributed to Fairfax Cone, one of the founders of Foote Cone & Belding advertising. It remains one of the foundations of good (i.e. effective) communication weather it be paid-for media space, or one of the newer forms of “content marketing” on the web.
How come most of the advertisers I have heard/seen over the Christmas period never heard it?
I make that assertion based on the crap that passes as advertising over this period, almost all of it based on price and a transparent “1/2 yearly”, or “Clearance sale” type claim. Also, the businesses owner is often used as the mouthpiece, usually not a media friendly person. Nothing to attract me apart from a cheap price, certainly nothing to persuade me that the product will do anything to solve my problems, just price.
Problem with price being the only reason to buy, is that it just becomes a race to the bottom, and as Seth Godin has pointed out, the risk here is that you just might win.
If you could talk one on one to all the potential customers, would you still say the same thing as you are saying in your advertising?
If the answer is “No” better rethink your approach for the good of your long term pocket.
Jan 4, 2012 | Change, Communication, Innovation, Operations, Social Media, Strategy
In the communication revolution going on currently, the infrastructure to carry it all is vital, but how relevant will the 2010 infrastructure be to the world that greets it when it is finally completed roll-out in, when?, what was the last projection? ever?. The world is changing almost daily, the NBN as conceived by our political masters will be obsolete before it is 10% implemented.
In the October issue of “Wired” magazine is a fascinating analysis of the “Tech War” going on between Apple, Google, Amazon, and Facebook. It is a must read for anyone in business, it puts a competitive context around the maneuvering we all see happening, but do not necessarily connect the dots.
We, the Australian taxpayers, are making a multi-generational investment in the NBN, billions of dollars spent by those well known, fast moving, tech savvy innovators in Canberra. Lets hope they know what is going on outside the cocooned environment of the “bush Capital that are all so pleased to live in.
Somehow I doubt they have any idea, and that is truly scary, and there will be a whole lot more of this sort of failure, and the accompanying spin before anyone in Canberra admits to a huge boo boo.
