Dave McCaughan
Chief Strategy Officer, Ai.agency
Co-Founder, Marketing Futures
MARKETING IS ABOUT GROWTH, NOT MESSAGING
Did I grab your attention? Then thanks for taking the next few moments to understand my thoughts on what will matter in marketing. Whether you do read the rest of this article or not, please go on to Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter etc. and “Like” my page so you can feed my ego, and I can use that as proof of my brand value. See my links below for easy access to my brand. Of course my brand is me.
Facetious??!! NO. Just a reflection of what I see too often disguised as “effective marketing tips for the future”.
DO NOT get carried away with terms like “social”, “influencer”, “digital”, “cause”, “mobile” …… (the list is endless) when these are prefixes to “marketing”. That is exactly NOT the way to look at these tools. Because they are only tools. Part of a wide range that you may choose to use to communicate and all are really just the current faddish way to express marketing basics that have always been true. Yes, marketers were using social media and mobile strategies long before smart phones were invented.
The role of Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) will not change. If they are doing their job. Please remember that they are not communications managers. They should have someone in charge of communication. And they and their staff should have opinions about the tools that are available in messaging and which are important whether they deciding on influencers or celebrity endorsement, using Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tactics or outdoor signage, changing packs or moving to on-line platforms for sales. What marketers WILL have to continue to do is focus on their key role as growth managers. Finding out what is important in people’s lives and then positioning their products and services in such a way that they answer those needs and create a bond that goes beyond functionality so that people want to continue to consume. That is called brand building and business growth.
So now you are asking “what should I be doing then?”. Here are THREE things that will make a difference to marketers:
Tip No.1
CLEVER COPYING: read “Copy, Copy, Copy” by Mark Earls. It and similar books and articles make it clear that smart marketers are not going to struggle to be totally original because they realize that is nearly impossible. Instead constantly stay up to date with what is happening in yours and similar markets, borrow ideas and adapt them to your own situation. Spend more time studying the history of your own and similar categories for ideas, look at what is happening in similar markets and see what you can adapt or adopt. New tools like blockchain will become important quickly. Nobody will own them just as no one brand “owns” how best to use Facebook. Look widely, learn deeply and adapt cleverly should be your marketing mantra.
Tip No.2
GETTING THE NARRATIVE RIGHT: prioritize research into the narrative that will make a difference. Don’t spend so much time looking for what is trending, the supposed differences between young people today, or the what is the hottest tactic on social media. Instead spend your time and money doing research in to understanding which narratives really matter to people and why and attach your brand to the one that is likely timeless. Look for research techniques that will look across all the available information people are faced with and are able to look for the trends you may not recognize. Automated tools like Significancesystems.com, that I work with, offer the ability to re-think and re-organize everything on the internet to understand what matters. The strongest brands are those that stick to a clear narrative that they have found focuses on a real connection. New research technologies are allowing us to plot which narratives matter, the emotions they are driving, the types of content and media used to project them. Then more traditional research can be better used to fine tune how you tell the right narrative to the right audience.
Tip No.3
PEOPLE FOCUS: think about individuals not cohorts. The golden hope of marketers has always been one-to-one marketing. That is still a long way off. However, we should also now be well ahead of talking such silliness as “millennials are like this ….” Or “the younger generation is very different”. The idea of generational cohort sameness was a bad product of the 1980s (the launch of a the novel “Generation X”) that has just stuck around because it is lazy thinking. In truth young people today as a whole have much in common with young people of 20, 40, 60 years ago. They are young, discovering new fads and technologies but still wanting the same old things like being cool, on-trend, being taken seriously, wanting to be happy. The difference is that with today’s technologies we can understand better that there are never “big block” targets like “millennials” but myriad smaller groups and segments that allow us to appeal to people more personally.
HOW DO I GET TO UNDERSTAND THE OBVIOUS QUESTION? Of course a good marketer will have to spend more time than ever “in the marketplace”. Doing more visits to homes, retailers places where people live and breath including more time visiting where people spend time on screens. But individual marketers can not be everywhere so they need to be doing more research. The trends here are clear:
More time getting well trained ethnographers to look at all aspects of your targets lives and interactions with your category
Take the time to explore the use of machine learning tools: tools that just give you a better understanding of how particular platforms and mediums are used (e.g. make sure you are trained to use Google analytics) and also tools like Significancesystems.com that go much further in understanding the context and connection between everything on the internet.
Get yourself and/or your team to leading edge events that will inform you what is making a difference. For example join me at IIeX Asia (Insights and Innovation Exchange) in Bangkok on November 28-29 to hear from experts across the region on what they are learning that can change your future marketing practice www://iiex-ap.insightinnovation.org/home
Think about marketing as “how can I find the best positioning for what I have to sell” and you will be fine.
Oh and as I said “like” me on FB, Linkedin etc … it will do nothing really for sales but will make me feel good.
