Marketing used to be an advertiser with a bullhorn indiscriminately, to use Seth Godin's phrase, "shouting at strangers." If even 1 person in 100 turned their head, or otherwise acknowledged the ad, the marketer considered their efforts a success. Never mind the 99 people who were distracted or otherwise upset by the barrage of ads -- the marketer didn't care about those people at all.
Fast forward to the present. Marketing is now a consumer with a laser pointer, carefully selecting what advertising message they want to hear. They ignore TV/Radio/Magazine ads, consider direct mail junk, block online ads, and screen phone calls. They choose which brands they will follow in the medium they prefer, when they prefer to. Advertisers now have to be available to the consumer when and where they want to hear or see their message.
I call this Marketing in Reverse because it takes everything in marketing and turns it upside down.
Big brands used to be the only ones who could afford mass advertising; smaller companies were stuck with a yellow pages listing and direct mail. Through search marketing and social media, because the consumer is now in charge, small companies are at a comparative advantage -- the playing field is now level. Instead of a big advertiser buying their way to sales, smaller companies now earn the consumer's attention. Money no longer matters -- great content, and great interaction, matters. Success in the places consumers now choose to interact no longer depends on company size.
As long as we're still using the word "consumer" I don't think we've completely achieved "marketing in reverse." The word "consumer" comes from a model where the consumer's role is to buy stuff and the marketer's role is to convince him or her what to buy. It's still the same model, just much more focused on matching the needs of the consumer with those of the marketer. It's push vs. pull, so in that sense reversed, but still fundamentally the same way of thinking of the world.
ReplyDeleteA more fundamental shift would be recognize people not as consumers but instead as individuals with many interests and activities not directly related to the purchase of products or services. I don't think you can do this without recognizing that companies are made up of individuals as well. If you want to really see a change then deconstruct the facade of a company being one entity with its own single-minded interest in selling products or services. We are not just consumers and marketers, we are people with stories to tell and interests to share.
Thoughtful & insightful, Bradley (as always). Thanks for the feedback!
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