Make Marketing History

The (Same Old) 4Ps Of Marketing 2.0.

2009-11-19T15:17:00.000-08:00

When the new "paradigm" comes along, people often describe it in ways that differentiate it totally from what came before. Often to enhance their guru status. That's a mistake. Revolution is rare - evolution far less so. Relating the new to the old can be much more insightful and is also more welcomed by the unconverted.

In that vein, I prefer to look at marketing 2.0 in terms of existing frameworks rather than throwing the baby out with the bathwater. After all, the two ends of the transfer are still essentially the same - there is stuff and there are customers. They may be changed people and it often is new stuff, but the real changes lie in the interaction between the two. The traditional 4Ps still apply, but they present new problems.

Price

Economic theory dictates that equilibrium prices equal marginal cost. In the digital world of cost-less replication, that price is increasingly tending towards zero.

While that may not make obvious business sense to producers, there is all too often someone who will think they can do this profitably via aggregation or just delusion and there is increasingly an audience who expect it to be so. Thus, even if you are not valuing your worth at zero, they are.

Solution – sell something with a marginal cost greater than zero.

Place

This used to mean distribution and it used to be on the high street. Now its more likely to mean visibility and is increasingly found online – not necessarily for the final purchase, but certainly for the discovery

It’s not so much about identifying the best places to capture physical footfall. It’s about being wherever the digital footfall is. Fish where the fish are – don’t expect them to come to you anymore. Just as "now is preferable to free", so too is proximity.

Solution – be searchable, findable and spreadable.

Promotion

Promotion has all too often been confused for the totality of marketing. Moreover, it's arguably been shown to be less effective than previously believed. Vested interests resist but we have to think more closely and seriously about what we mean by promotion (not just advertising) and what the role of marketing/promotion is.

As connectivity gets greater, promotion gets smaller – that doesn't mean restricted, just more personal. Don’t dictate what users do with your offering, just give them space to use it and reason to proselytise it.

Solution - fan club not fanfare.

Product

Product is still the most important element of the marketing mix. It's just clearer that this is the case, that bad products are more easily uncovered/spoken about and that the definition of product must be expanded to include customer service and usability.

Your product/service has, of course, to be unique and remarkable. But what has changed is the "always in beta" philosophy of "fail quickly, fail cheaply". You don't dictate what the product is, you make a suggestion and adapt it in response to your users' wishes.

Solution - have a point of view, not a point of functional differentiation.

Bottom line - you can create all the additional Ps you like. Yes, we need to consider participation, permission and proximity. Just don't tell me that's new or that the old disciplines no longer apply. It isn't and they do.

Have You Heard the One About Differentiation?

2009-11-15T04:39:00.000-08:00

I read this in an unlinked article about the threat that online plagiarism presents to comedians' live performances.

The secret is to be unique so that they can't steal from you: "That's what comics should think about: it's not the jokes; it's about themselves. It's about your personality. They can't appropriate "you".

I'm sure you can see that the marketing punch-line writes itself.

Marketer Of The Year.

2009-11-06T04:41:00.000-08:00

"My customers will be happy I've been honest with them."
"I own my shelf-space and I can do anything I want with it."
"I don't work, I just play all day long."

More wisdom than you'll get from any marketing conference.

Marketing Isn't A Destination.

2009-11-05T04:10:00.000-08:00

One of my biggest gripes about the development of marketing is the increasing trend towards the outsourcing of thinking and execution to third party agencies.

It's not that the work done by those agencies is necessarily bad - indeed as a result of writing this blog I've had the pleasue of meeting innumerable practitoners who are smart, funny and conscientious (though rarely glamorous).

The problem is that they cannot be as invested in your company as you are and they shouldn't know your customers better than you do. But, all too often, marketing directors run the risk of becoming administrators of these third-party relationships rather than poduct/service champions.

Their career development is predicated on the budgets they manage rather than the results they achieve. They become the "client" and develop a client mindset. They forget that the true client is, in fact, the customer. And from there, it's all downhill.

Trust.

2009-11-03T04:28:00.000-08:00

Today’s technology seems to threaten the sort of recurring and stable reciprocity that is the building block of trust.

That's the final sentence from a piece in today's New York Times about online hook-ups, but it uses all the adjectives that marketers should be double-checking. Marketing is not about conversations, it's about the quality and nature of the conversations you have and when you have them.

Fan Clubs Not Fanfares.

2009-10-29T00:33:00.001-07:00

Fanfares feed the egos of creators and advertisers.
Fan Clubs feed the needs of prospective and existing customers.

Fanfares are big, extrovert and short-lived.
Fab Clubs are small, introvert and long-lasting.

Fanfares aim to create water cooler moments.
Fan Clubs are the water cooler.

As connectivity gets bigger, marketing gets smaller.

Social Media Guru.

2009-10-22T15:26:00.001-07:00

Word Of Mouth.

2009-10-22T04:42:00.000-07:00

Lately, I've noticed a worrying increase in conversations and conferences around the issue of word of mouth and influencers. The industry's reaction to the realisation that people are ignoring their messaging is seemingly to search for an alternate way to control the message.

But if you're asking how do we generate word of mouth around our product/service, you're asking the wrong question. It leads to short-lived stunts, misplaced sponsorships and seemingly the resurrection of the debunked concept of the influencer. The latter can be the only explanation for a new frozen fish campaign in the UK being fronted by a retired rugby player.

The question is not how do we generate word of mouth? The question is how do we make our product/service so remarkable that it generates word of mouth?

The answer is to create and continually improve a product/service that makes the users feel better about their lives - whether that be in terms of perceived desirability, genuinely increased enjoyment or improved capabilities and confidence. And that's why generating authentic and persisting word of mouth is so difficult.

Light And Shade And Marketing Myopia.

2009-10-16T02:57:00.000-07:00

If you go down to the Tate Modern today, this installation will greet you. All the pre-publicity described it as terrifying, but it is essentially a very large, unlit metal container into which you ascend. It's not very terrifying and it's not actually very dark. Your eyes soon adjust and easily discern the other people therein.

A couple of years ago, I walked into Anthony Gormley's steam cloud cube at the Hayward Gallery and was completely disoriented. I couldn't see beyond a couple of inches in front of me and people were consistently bumping into each other. It was an eye-opening experience.

Photograph taken by Stephen White

It turns out that black isn't necessarily dark and that white can be. Marketers should be very pleased about that. Too often, they're not.

Addendum: And sometimes, like art critics, they even get indignant if their users don't react as expected or, worse still, told.

The 8 Ps Of Performance Marketing.

2009-10-07T23:55:00.000-07:00

Expanding upon the thinking behind my post about the lessons of live performance for marketers, I've come up with eight attributes of great performance. They all begin with P. That's the law.

Presence: Great performers command their stage.
You should command your category.

Purpose: Great performers exude so that their presence is unquestioned.
You have to similarly exude a sense of purpose, the reason you’re there.

Personality: Great performers radiate humanity and enjoyment.
You should too.

Prescience: Great performers never seem dated.
You'll be supplanted by the new if you don't do the same.

Poise: Great performers adapt to their audience, but crush hecklers.
You should listen to your users, but ignore or destroy trolls.

Playfulness: Great performers understand the power of humour and play.
You will slowly alienate your audience if you insist on being too serious.

Pacing: Great performers never coast.
You risk losing your audience if you do.

Persistence: Great performers don’t assume an encore, they earn it.
You should too.

Misanthropic Marketing.

2009-10-06T08:51:00.000-07:00

I received an unsolicited email the other day.

Apologies for the out of the blue email. However, we thought that you may be interested in a free guest post for your blog which is based on SEO, Internet and viral marketing. The article will be completely free, unique and written specifically for your blog. The article will contain a link back to our website as per my email signature.

The article will be written by ********* who is a well-known SEO expert and internet marketer. He was rated #2 most influential marketer in the UK and 37th in the world in 2008. He also helps many large well-known household brands improve their visibility on the internet.

We would love to add to your already well-written and informative blog. As previously mentioned it will be completely free and we will produce the article within a few days if you agree to accept our offer.

Of course, I have never heard of this great influencer. And I somehow doubt his credentials given his desire to introduce a totally different tone of voice onto this blog. Hasn't he read about "authenticity" or does he just spin that to his doubtless myriad clients?

For better or worse, everything here comes from me (and that incidentally is why I have been posting less frequently lately - I'm keen to avoid repeating myself for the sake of writing a post). There are no third parties and if I have nothing new to say, then I won't be writing anything. I practice what I preach. My "well known" correspondent doesn't. He's not interested in my readers, he's interested in what they can do for him. Don't let your company fall into the same trap.

Decide To Misuse It.

2009-09-28T03:37:00.000-07:00

While explaining their new customised newspaper business, Russell presciently observed that what they were saying to the industry was

"We've broken your business model, now give us your machines."
I was reminded of this last week during a presentation by an architect from Zaha Hadid's company. He was explaining how he had borrowed some CGI software to automatically generate a variety of ways to populate a piece of land with buildings. It was largely incomprehensible to me, but it seemed to work. And then he threw away this line.

"We just decided to misuse it."
Marketing is all too often about using tools, be that direct mail or a television campaign. The real skill is deciding how to use or misuse them.

That's something that's going to be increasingly true at a strategic level too. If the tools of your trade are the tools of a failing business model, you have no choice but to misuse them.

Performance Marketing.

2009-09-23T14:59:00.000-07:00

Attention. Interest. Desire. Action. The goals of one famous marketing pathology. And the goals of any performer too.

I've already written about the marketing parallels of the way comedians end their shows, but attending a recent show by Sunset Rubdown reminded me how all our marketing should aim to mirror a live performance. It must be audience-grabbing, exhilarating, pacy and memorable. It's a one-off chance to impress and you have to perform.

Stealing a page from the Springsteen playbook, Sunset Rubdown started their show with three songs uninterrupted with a panache and utter confidence that had the audience eating out of their hand and me rather impressed. But then they paused to swap instruments and roles and the momentum was lost. This was repeated throughout the set and seemed to me to lose the majority of the audience and diminish their reaction.

I've since disagreed with some fans about but realise they are akin to the early adopters - and thus willing to put up with flaws because of their passionate devotion. But the majority are not so loyal and pacing is something that has to be addressed. They are a great band but, for me, they didn't recognise that live performance is a different medium and requires different techniques.

I'll return to this in more detail later, but if your marketing doesn't have the energy and focus of a great performance, you won't be getting the ovation you seek.

Misunderstood Marketing Terms: 1) Niche.

2009-09-17T02:20:00.000-07:00

Niche does not mean too small for others to bother with - though it might start that way.

Niche does not mean specialist - though it might start that way.

Niche does not mean a different marketing mentality - though it might start with different tactics due to size of audience and budget.

Every market segment is a niche. Niche simply reflects customer focus. Coca Cola are niche marketers. So are you.

Remember Whose Time It Is.

2009-09-15T09:39:00.000-07:00

I read a promotional message that assured me time was running out. Specifically, time was running out if I wanted to sign up for a seminar deigned to make my life/business happier/more profitable.

The time that was running out was not mine, but the sender's. They were running out of time in which to sign me up.

Time is the quintessential scarce resource and thus a potent trigger to action. But you have to ensure that the time you reference in your marketing activities is solely that of your prospects. If you don't, it won't seem truly personal and, like me, they won't sign up.

Collaboration.

2009-09-10T17:09:00.000-07:00

Two aphorisms I heard this week.

"If you want to go fast, go alone, if you want to go far, go together."

"Stand on each others' shoulders, rather than on each others' toes"

The former is a Chinese proverb quoted by neuroscientist John Cacciopo in his excellent book about Loneliness, the latter a definition of open-source computing. Both speak to the benefit of teamwork - which, I think, is very different to simply working in teams.

Leave Something To The Imagination.

2009-09-03T00:15:00.000-07:00

Maybe this is where we as consumers are missing a trick. Too many toys do all the work of imagination for the kids, actually making them less imaginative not brighter. Every subsequent toy has to be more and more exciting as a result, whereas the kid just becomes an observer to the next fifty quids-worth of mass produced plastic as opposed to the designer of their own little piece of genius.

Someone making an observation about his baby's infatuation with a toilet-roll. An observation that has implications for marketing, communication and product development.

Marketing Is Strategic, Not Tactical.

2009-09-02T03:14:00.000-07:00

The Bahamas Tourist board are apparently sponsoring the next Mariah Carey album. The former still thinking that exposure is their goal. The latter seeking to guarantee cashflow and not wondering how that might impact her artistic credibility. I give up.

Cutting The Line.

2009-08-27T04:58:00.000-07:00

Three lessons from my post office.

1) Don't put a sign announcing changes at the entrance.

It seems logical to put it there, but people have been visiting the post office since they were young and they are not there to browse. They have a purpose and will purposefully walk straight past your sign because they know what they want to do and will not be seeking guidance. If you want to change their behaviour, a sign won't cut it. You have to understand their existing behaviour and adapt to it.

2) Don't dislocate human contact with your customer.

Yes, the queues/lines are a source of dissatisfaction. The solution is to reduce the waiting time not to displace it by getting people to sit down and wait for a number to be called. Moreover, a queue does give the customer some sense of connectedness with their goal where waiting for a number to be called with no indication of "time till service" is alienating.

(Side note - if you do have an indicator of "time till service", make sure it's accurate and make sure it counts down - unlike that in my revamped council office that identified me as the only person waiting for attention from a particular department and proclaimed my waiting time as 5 minutes, then 10 minutes, then 15 as the attention failed to materialise. Seeing your waiting time reduce is encouraging, seeing your waiting time being relayed to you is beyond annoying).

3) Don't berate customers for not understanding your new system.

Were a customer to stride past your sign on the way to buying some stamps and then stop bemusedly when assailed with an interior that looked like a doctor's waiting room with faux-leather banquettes scattered around, don't ask him if he's got a ticket. Ask him how you can help. And if he were hypothetically to ask what sort of stupid system this was, don't answer one in which queue jumpers are frowned upon. He might take offence at the implication, he might never darken your doors again and he might write to the chief executive about it. Hypothetically, of course.

The queue is never the real problem, the wait is.

500 Days Of Summer.

2009-08-26T05:17:00.000-07:00

Some blogs recently suggested that fiction titles were better sources of business advice than the traditional non-fiction tomes.

Accordingly I was going to recommend the new movie 500 Days of Summer as a guide to the futility of trying to match your product/service with people who are just not interested. But that's not why you go to movies, so I leave what you take from it up to you.

I'll simply recommend it highly and, in line with the impact of previous recommendations here, I expect its success further to confirm my influencer status.

Marketing Encore.

2009-08-24T01:24:00.000-07:00

One of the oddest aspects of live performance is the end of a comedian's set. The end of a theatrical or a musical performance is usually very obvious. Climactic even. The audience shows its appreciation and there may well be an encore or a curtain call.

In comedy, the performer tells a final joke and that's it. You don't really know it's the last joke until they say "thank you and good night". And is there anything more incongruous than a comedy encore? The performers who've thought this through are few and far between, they stand out a mile and they tend to be the best performers anyway.

The way you take your leave of your audience is much under-rated. First impressions are important, but so are last ones. Is your audience's last impression one of resisting unwanted up selling offers, one of indifference as you look for the next prospect or one of unsatisfied needs that leave them in the same position they were when you strove to make that first impression?

Or is it something that cleanly ends the encounter in a way that leaves them eager for an encore?

Customer Service By The Book.

2009-08-17T07:20:00.000-07:00

I walked into the sneaker store. Within seconds, an assistant asked if he could help me. My response was to point out that I had just arrived and might need his assiatnce shortly.

The timing of when you address your customers is arguably even more important than what you say. Good customer service takes that into account. Regimented customer service manuals do not.

Geek Marketing 101 (revisited).

2009-08-11T02:33:00.000-07:00

Three years ago today, I posted a guide to my views on marketing disguised as a discussion of technology marketing. It became my most viewed post (thanks Guy Kawasaki). Three years on, I think it still applies. Three years hence, I fear, marketers will be making the same mistakes.

Geek Marketing 101 is so named because I see amongst many geeks a pervasive misunderstanding and consequent distrust of what marketing is, and a failure to recognise that much technology marketing is no longer geek to geek since complex products are increasingly being bought by non-geeks. Of course, these observations are equally applicable to geek to geek and non-geek businesses.

1) Marketing is not a department.
Marketing is a combination of elements that creates the environment in which it is possible to meet a customer need (starting right back at product development). Promotion and sales are just sub-sets of marketing.

2) Marketing is a conversation, but most people don't speak geek.
Successful technology marketing must translate the creations of the uncommunicative into the needs of the untechnical. Spin is not good marketing. Lucid two-way communication is.

3) Simplicity does not negate complexity.
Reductive marketing that simplifies ideas does not undersell your complex creation. It facilitates an entree to your world. You can't have passionate users until they start using.

4) Think what, not how?
Think of the "product" in terms of what it does, not how it does it. You may be interested in the latter, but your users generally aren't. Portable computer memory is not a difficult concept to enunciate, yet flash drive and USB drive nomenclature is predicated on technological aspects not the actual function. Long words confuse, don't they?

5) Think will, not can.
Think of the "product" in terms of what most people will be happy doing with it and not in the myriad possibilities it offers. You may think speed and multiple settings are hot, but outside the lab such attributes may not provide the greatest satisfaction. Simple, intuitive interfaces will.

6) Only you RTFM.
Regular people don't read the manual. It's too big (see 5), too complicated (see 3) and thus incomprehensible. It's not that people are averse to science and technology - they're averse to being made to feel helpless. The demand for books that simplify science is huge the world over. Your manual is marketing.

7) Technical Support is marketing.
In the absence of all of the above, your users inevitably need help. A technical support department speaking in non-technical, hand-holding language transforms their purchase from waste of money to life-enhancing boon and is the greatest marketing tool you have.

8) You're not marketing to people who hate marketing.
Don't allow your misguided prejudices about advertising and snake-oil to infect your approach and damage sales. People hate hype, spin and unfulfilled expectations. They do not hate having their needs met (see 1).

9) You're not marketing to people who hate technology products.
They're not Luddites, but nor are they geeks - that's what you're paid to be. However, they often hate how technology products make them feel because blinding with science is as bad as baffling with bullshit.

10) Marketing demystifies.
As the conversations develop, the users comprehend your products better and you better understand their needs. With increased confidence, they utilise more and more of your geekiness and, with increased awareness, you are better able to adapt to their behaviours. They feel more warmly about geeks and you may get the chance to buy them a drink. That doesn't sound so bad, does it?

Sign Of The Times.

2009-08-10T01:58:00.000-07:00

All too often, "marketing" adds unnecessary detail and blurs the message. Why say soon when you give me the actual date? I know what soon means. And now I'm thinking about the composition of your message and not thinking about your message at all.

The Best Definition Of A Blog.

2009-08-05T23:56:00.000-07:00

Your website is an image.
Your blog is a reflection.

Courtesy of Thomas Mahon of English Cut. Not a bad definition of effective maketing when you come to think about it, is it?