THE EVOLUTION OF MARKETING

Marketing is no longer about how you say it, or what you say, or which medium you use, or the experience or... (the list is endless really) no none of that matters anymore.  Why do I say that?  Marketers have for a long time been stuck in the era of image building by using carefully crafted messages that are born out of weeks and weeks of thoroughly thought through strategies, backed by data and research on the consumer, shared behind closed doors in big boardrooms.  Whilst this is very important, consumers have come to a place where they look at marketing activity and especially advertising and brand engagements like promotions and any form of brand messaging like free entertainment.  Social media pages have been created to critic and even ridicule campaigns that have been generated by marketers and executed by creative agencies.

This is not to say that marketing communication should not entertain, to the contrary the more entertaining the brand engagement the better impact and recall you have with your activity.  Infact some marketing activity is pegged on an entertainment factor to ensure it captures and captivates the audience.  And that has worked very well for some brands.  The focus for me is the other group of marketing activity/engagements that are entertaining by default.  The kind that was meant to deliver serious content and make an impact, but instead ended up being the joke of the town.  That's the one I am referring to. 

Now we all know the old saying, 'love me or hate me, but don't ignore me'.  Well this might be true in 1990, when social media was non existent, and brands were not built or killed by consumers who have never seen, touched or interacted with your brand, but have built conversations around it on their mobile device, judged and tossed your brand in the jokers bucket.

Today, as a marketer you want to focus on the aspect of love where the consumer truly loves your brand and will even attempt to come to your defense when you are at the mercy of good old twitter and fb.  The consumer is switched on, connected and exposed to a lot of information.  More than they can ever consume, and every other brand is fighting for their attention, so how do you stand out.

The evolution of marketing is upon us, and its time to use culture to drive the brand.  Marketing is no longer a message or activity that you engage consumers with from time to time.  Every employee in every department represents the brand, and it is everyone's job to drive the brand message in everything they do, creating new products, hiring, selling, procuring, billing, customer service etc.  It's the ability to operate like a well oiled, formula 1 machine, that can stop at a pit stop and get fuel, all 4 tyres changed and God knows what else they get done, in 4 seconds.  The mindset, attitude and culture of the entire organization represents the brand and therefore has an impact on the consumer who engages with you. 

So over and above the brand engagement activities, the promotions and campaigns it's about time we started to seriously engage within, and build a brand culture that supports what we are doing externally, and then the love for our brands will grow in leaps and bounds.