Dr Brian Monger the CEO of the MARKEting Association of ANZ posed this question: Often “Marketing” is associated only with consumer marketing tactics – especially Advertising; and other forms of Promotion and Low Pricing. How do we teach others about Modern Marketing Practise?
I think we need at least two terms to differentiate. One for methods/marketing tools and the other for externally focused, consumer/buyer centrality marketing. What do you think?
Here’s my reply:
Great question (as ever), to which I would propose the solution is to split marketing into strategic and tactical rather than the tactical, consumer facing elements you suggest.
If I understand your question there is a concern that we are becoming too tactic focused in marketing at the expense of long term brand building at a strategic level. The symptoms of this are multiple tactical or content based activities, designed to address short term needs or objectives, the net effect of which is to damage brand strength because these activities are often not grounded by a stable brand positioning strategy or marketing strategy.
The exponential growth of social and other media has ‘freaked’ many marketers who feel that they have to get content out there at all costs – content by this definition implies tactical campaigns such as promotions, price reductions and in some cases advertising. For sure, it includes a lot of the noise currently swirling around the web as people try to get to grip with this new sort of media: but that’s all that this is – a new channel.
I’m a pretty simple person, and so I see the customer/buyer centric side of things being the strategic side of marketing where we establish the brand positioning strategy (target market, benefits, reasons to believe, competitive framework, brand character, brand promise), marketing objectives (penetration, increased use occasions, share of requirements, loyalty) and the like which should drive the tactical side.
Now, back to the question: How do we teach each other about modern marketing practice? Best practice seminars and workshops, exposing the tactical frailty for what it is, challenging marketers to do a better job so we don’t all suffer and get tarred with the same brush of mediocrity in the results we deliver? I’m not sure.
As long as people are congratulated for delivering interesting content without also challenging them on the foundation for the content, I fear it will be challenging to teach each other anything. The sea change we need is to ensure that what we congratulate and reward in marketing circles goes beyond the tactical. Like my first boss told me, an ads only a great ad if it sells. I think in this content age, we have started to forget this. Everyone loved the Old Spice campaign last year, but I am not buying the product – indeed, I doubt that there are any new customers to the brand. That’s not good modern marketing practice. That’s great for the careers of the team that developed the campaign, who have probably already moved on to a new challenge…
The Marchitect 