The Dawn of a New Era: The Re-Invention of Marketing

Companies do not enable and empower but need to deal with empowered and enabled people people who due to the power of technology have quotGodlikequot poweramp160Combining this with the increased power of platforms such as Google Facebook Amazon Twitter Snap TikTok Disney Walmart andamp160Target etc which are business drivers and not just communication or marketing channels requires a rethinking of marketingIn addition the demographic shifts of rising multiethnicity combined with the sharp divide in the mindset media usage social concerns and financial outlook among youth and a rapidly aging population further roils the landscapeThe most forwardthinking companies have significantly expanded the role of the CMO to include experience design customer service growth initiatives and data strategy to reflect this new landscapeamp160They realize that we are in a marketing renaissance one that requires us to reinvent how we think and organizeThe Five Shifts Audience Brand Content Data and EnterpriseClearly the challenges and opportunities facing companies are complex Here is aamp160framework the ABCDE of Reinvented Marketing that attempts to simplify without dumbing down the key issues that we all must faceAudience Who we are marketing to how we reach themamp160and their mindset has shifted greatly over the past decadea From Consumers to People with God Like Power The biggest mistake companies make is they view things through the lens of their brands and see us as consumers But very few people define themselves by the brand they consumeamp160Even an incredible company like Procter and Gamble with dozens of billiondollar brands cannot understand people if they looked only through the lens of their brands they are too sophisticated to do that because at the core all their brands are about dirt removal Dirt removal from your teeth clothes dishes butt kid39s butt etc Do you define yourself by dirt removalOr consider brands that fixate on wanting to have a quotrelationshipquot with you Very few people want to have a relationship with a brand They want their headache to go away rather than enter a relationship with TylenolIt is key to think about people and not consumersb From passive to interactive A decade and a half ago we thought of people we marketed to as an audience since they were primarily passive receivers Today they create share and interact and some of them are so impactful that we call them Influencers and creators and there is an entire ecosystem of influencers and marketingIn many cases they begin a quotcampaignquot and marketers respond to what has been createdc From Segmentation to Reaggregation As media becomes almost completely digital we need to understand that people come to digital media one at a time There is no mass media that we segment by finding channels or magazines with a high proportion of the people we are marketing to The power of Google Facebook and increasingly connected television is the ability of selfservice tools to buy and scale individual interactions one at a time We no longer are going from a cow of a mass audience to a steak of a segmented audience Rather we are reaggregating single pieces of mince into a hamburgerBrands Brands continue to be important but the way they are built is greatly changing Today Experiences Purpose and Employee Joy matter the most in building brands These changes explain not only the longterm secular decline of advertising and communication but the renaissance and rise of marketinga From Communication to Experiences Jeff Bezos of Amazon said some companies spend 30 percent of resources on building a better product or experience and 70 percent telling people about it Others spend 70 percent of their effort on product and service and 30 percent on telling people about it Bezosamp160said Amazon was the latter companyIn an era of empowered people connected to each other the focus should be on the experience The brand is the experience and experiences are the brandb From Great Words to Purposeful Behavior Purpose matters more than ever especially in today39s time of social financial and health challenges Purpose is not some words left to wander on a lonely corporate website but the way a company or brand behavesc Employees as Brand Advocates and Key to Purpose and Experience If a company does not invest in and treat its employees well it will be veryamp160challengedamp160onamp160the experience front Angry tired and worried employees do not deliver great products or experiences Also any purpose statement rings hollow if you cannot look after your own peopleWe will soon understand that even more important than net promoter scores of customers isamp160the net joy scores of employeesContent Content has always been a key to marketing The three big differences are that there is much more of it it is far faster and there are many new ways of making ita Think Poetry and not just Plumbing Today in a world of granular targeting and algorithmic trading we can get the right interaction to the right person at the right time But are we paying as much attention to the interaction as getting it there We must think of the poetry and not just the plumbingb Think response not just creation Many campaigns are started by people Memes or perspectives about your brand can ricochet all over the worldamp160you need to ensure that in today39s world of weaponized platforms you have a worldclass risk intelligence partner and a rapid action team to identify and manage detractors and other instigatorsc People choose with their hearts and use numbers to justify what they do Content that moves people is content that moves productData Data is key to future of marketing It is like electricity It illuminates Without strong data a company cannot compete It is necessary But it is not sufficient Because just like few companies differentiate themselves by how they use electricity very few companies will find a competitive edge in data It will be a key ingredient and not the be all or end all of strategy And very few companies will be able to live on their own dataamp160The three areas to focus on data area Quality versus Quantity If 90 percent of data has been created in the last two years most companies39 quotdata lakesquot are filled with muckmudslime and lots of dead fishb Real Time Access and not just Ownership Firstparty relationships with people who buy from you are key Using only platforms as the roadways to reach them will lead to high tolls or blockades But firstparty data alone is not enough you must knowamp160how to access and partner with other firms to build a better understanding and bridge to people and to design better and more comprehensive products and solutionsc Meaning versus Math Data is not information knowledge or wisdom Algorithms are bias embedded in code How do you integrate interpolate and interrogate data and involved diverse mindsets interconnect to larger trends and add imagination to make meaning from mathEnterprise If a company is to deliver experiences in a world of people with God like power while steering itself with a purpose and looking after its stakeholders particularly its employees but also making sure it delivers tangible results today it will have to sculpt itself into a new form by building new musclesa The Paranoid Die The Schizophrenic Thrive Andy Grove the late CEO of Intel said only the paranoid survive In today39s age where we need to connect and work together this leads to polarized and insular thinking which explains why Intel has become a shell of itself and is a shadow in the world of Taiwan SemiConductor Nvidia AMD and ARM which Nvidia might buyRather than paranoia the right mindset is schizophrenia Companies should run two models One focused on delivering today and the other on building a new tomorrow where some of the best talents are given all the assets of the companies and none of the liabilities and asked to do whatever it takes to move into the future including eating and harming today39s cash cowsb Culture is the result of what fearfree diverse people do when no one is watching To navigate change companies need fearfree cultures of diverse people and mindsets led by leaders who continuously learn incentivize and train for change and worship no sacred cowsc Trust is speed If a company wants to be high velocity it must be one built on trust A company where intent is clear decision making transparent and leaders are accountable is one where speed and innovation happen and quotcover your ass deck writingquot and meetings to prepare for meetings are minimizedMarketing has never been as exciting and thrilling as it is nowamp160but just like a rollercoaster ride many of us might feel our stomachs churning our hearts beating wildly and our vision blurredamp160Hopefully the ABCDE framework may help make the most of the thrills while minimizing the illsPhoto credit Rishad TobaccowalaClick the social buttons above or below to share this content with your friends and colleaguesThe opinions and points of view expressed in this content are exclusively the views of the author andor subjects and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaVillagecomMyersBizNet Inc management or associated writersamp160amp160

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The Dawn of a New Era: The Re-Invention of Marketing

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Rishad Tobaccowala

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The Dawn of a New Era: The Re-Invention of Marketing

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