Don't Throw the Baby Out with the Bath Water - "Room for old and NEW marketing"

I spend a great deal of time in the land of “New Marketing” aka, social media – both for my own personal brand identity and on behalf of my clients.  How I allocate my marketing effort today looks nothing like it did even a mere nine months ago.  What’s amazing is that I have a hard time remembering what in the world I did to spread my clients’ messages before drinking the social media Kool-Aid. 

However, does that mean we should throw-out our time-tested marketing ways?  Absolutely not.

It seems that the majority of vehicles available to marketers in the “Old – pre Social Media Days” were primarily “Push” – direct mail, email campaigns, advertising.  Of course we had “Pull” options – thought leadership strategies, but without the array of social media vehicles available today it was a long and arduous process filled with speaking engagements, customer user groups, and complicated and time consuming customer-reference programs.  Not that the advent of social media ‘expedites’ the process much – actually my contention is that it takes longer, but I think the results are much more powerful.

Social media, by default, polices our commitment to our brands and holds our feet to the fire to remain in integrity.  If you don’t – OUCH - it doesn’t take much to FaceBook, Twitter, Blog, GoogleWave or Buzz your reputation – permanently down the drain.  Companies can no longer hide behind the curtain.  There are way too many vehicles at our fingertips to catch the perpetrators.  The brands that will survive will be the ones who actually DO have the better product and service AND spend the time cultivating a respectful, mutually beneficial, relationship with its customers.

New marketing gives the power to the consumer. End of story. Today 25% of all buying decisions are made based on user-generated content.  This is a hard pill for some marketers to swallow - those who have traditionally controlled where and how their messages were delivered.  New marketing focuses on the relationship first with no requirement for a sale. A genuine interest by the company to be involved with its constituents eventually engenders goodwill and a willingness to buy on the part of the consumer.

The thing that amazes me is that there are still many that either question or ignore the importance of this paradigm shift.  That’s like having said Ford’s idea was whimsical – a flash in the pan.  We need to realize that today’s consumers run the show. If your audience is on Twitter your content needs to be there and be compelling.  If they are watching TV online – help make that experience easier and more entertaining. 

So why not throw-out the Old Ways?  Well for one, there are still some industries, such as healthcare, pharma and banking that face daunting regulatory issues.  A social media campaign for them is trickier to create and execute – trickier, not impossible.  And,  in my opinion, still worth the investment.  77% of scientists participate in some form of social media and nearly 33% report that social media helps them to make more educated decisions about purchasing new products and technologies – is that not reason enough?

Jacqueline ‘Jack’ Perez is Founder and Market Builder for Summit Strategy Partners, LLC, a Chapel Hill-based boutique strategic marketing and communications firm.  Jack helps companies align their marketing strategy to corporate objectives and uncover their Disruptive ConversationTM.  She regularly publishes MarketingSmack – a weekly humorous blog on the Human Experience.




 

Community Contributors - Marketing and Communications by Jack Perez