| Last week was a tough week. In spite of POTUS* assuring us that we are not in a recession, just a slowdown, the market tanked last Friday on higher fuel prices and lower corporate earnings. CNN.com had a long article full of quotes of people saying how they are coping with higher energy costs. (“Gas prices straining budgets, CNN.com readers say.”)
There is no doubt about it. The economy is in a downward cycle and in my opinion it will get worse before it gets better and it’s not going to be the politicians and a one-time government handout that will turn it around.
CMOs of the world unite. It’s time to prove whether you know your stuff or not. It’s going to be marketing that turns around the economy. It’s marketing that will keep your business on course. However, before you marketing gurus charge forth armed with charts full of statistics (historical) and trends (more history) and predictive models (fluff), understand how you have to do business in today’s landscape and make every marketing dollar you spend a smart dollar. You don’t have bottomless pockets. And those C-level executives upstairs have the axe poised for another round of cuts and it’s usually marketing that get the first chop.
This week’s AH-ha! offers a major challenge to every reader. It’s time to review the idea of TRADITIONAL marketing. That’s what we’ve always been doing and it’s time to look back and evaluate what HAD been working in a time when the dynamics were different than they are now.
I’m not ready to throw out all traditional marketing ideas but I am ready to propose that we replace traditional marketing thinking with a new perspective: REALITY MARKETING. If it worked for the TV show ratings, maybe it will help you keep your jobs. And maybe you’ll keep reading our weekly AH-ha!s because we are all on a very slippery slope. Why? According to the CNN.com article, “Most readers said they were driving as little as possible, cutting back on shopping and eating out and other discretionary spending.” Last Wednesday night, we ushered at a church sponsored Deepak Chopra lecture and book signing. Last year 1,600 attended. We expected 2,000 this year but only 1,000 showed up. Is it a sign of the times?
REALITY MARKETING is accepting the consumer and business marketing environment as it currently exists and then creating your brand strategies to fit it. I believe that too many marketers have been too wowed by the new technologies and have not done enough research about what works and what doesn’t and whether the ROI is really positive.
The Marketing Implications
There are three primary trends that are driving business.
First, YOU ARE BEING TURNED OFF. This is the hardest reality every brand has to face. It’s a dirty little secret we don’t want to admit. Consumers are turning you off. For those of you promoting your brand on TV, BIGresearch reports in their latest Simultaneous Media Survey that “Channel surfing remains the number one regular activity engaged during TV commercials with 41.2% doing so,” followed by 33.5% talking with others in the room or by phone. They neglected to mention the number texting.
Not only are consumers turning you off, ISPs are doing everything possible to keep us away from consumers and customers. If you’re not blocked you are just as likely to end up in the JUNK BOX.
Brand Keys, a UK loyalty consultancy, defines consumers as “bionic consumers” because they have so much more control over their personal communications than ever before, whether it’s media (I love XM Radio because I’m totally in control and my music is not interrupted by commercial breaks.), e-mail or the Internet. (I love my spam filter and pop-up blocker.)
Second, we are facing a media environment that has become more complex than any of us could have imagined in the last century (eight years ago). This is a significant disruptive phenomena affecting every brand because not only are we being turned off, we can’t even find our target audiences.
It is evident that brands are grasping for tools to connect with consumers and that’s why we have all the hype about social networking, texting and the Internet. Multi-channel marketing is a critical dynamic today as is multi-channel media. The challenge is selecting the right media channels without going broke in the process. Keep testing and keep refining to find your brand’s right mix.
The third trend is that today’s marketplace is littered with undifferentiated brands. Unless marketing can either change what the brand offers consumers or create new uses for it, we might as well go back to the 80s adage of Number One, Number Two, OUT.
REALITY MARKETING demands that you redefine everything. Brand Keys’ president, Robert Passikoff said it best: “The fusion of consumer empowerment, media complexity and generic branding may be set to cause a tsunami-like change in almost every product and service category.” We’re always saying that the consumer is in control. According to Passikoff, “The fact that consumers have ever greater control over the messages that reach and engage them may result in a rapid shift in the factors that define how consumers view categories, compare brands, and make purchase decisions.”
Passikoff is right on target. And so are we. Our Sixth Star strategy is proving again and again that a database driven, marketing focused initiative with good data backing up a good marketing strategy (that was derived from good data) will deliver the greatest ROI and sales growth than you can ever imagine.
This week, ask your team if you are practicing TRADITIONAL MARKETING or REALITY MARKETING. It ought to be a lively discussion. Bring in lunch.
Happy March. Welcome to the Madness!
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