Monday, October 16, 2006
Marketing: When Old Worlds and New Worlds Collide
byIn the old analog push-model era of marketing, the strategic dividing lines for message delivery were determined by the media technologies and infrastructure involved: television, radio, newspapers, magazines, outdoor, etc. Also, during that era, the demarcation for marketing planning, development and implementation was usually determined by specialty area in the Promotion “P” of marketing (see the Four Ps of Marketing). Some of these main specialty areas included advertising, public relations, publicity, sales promotion and personal selling. The problem with the old Four Ps of Marketing is that it emphasized an inside-out, company-focused perspective rather than an outside-in view that keeps customers as the important planning focal point.
Now that most media is digital—or rapidly heading there—the previous era’s distinctions are cumbersome for contemporary strategic marketing strategies. Video content may be seen on a cell phone, an iPod, a computer or the TV via broadcast, cable or satellite. The same versatility applies for audio content. Written content is as likely to be seen on a Web site or a blog as it is in a physical newspaper or magazine. Images, words, and video that were once packaged specifically, and sometimes painstakingly, for the individual requirements of a given media methodology, are now liberated in digital form to be transmitted instantly and simultaneously through a growing number of means.
The dividing line between specialty areas of communication is also becoming archaic. Content and experience that support the brand through exposure to customers and prospects is becoming more difficult to pigeonhole. How do you categorize a website? Is it advertising, PR, sales promotion or a virtual form of personal selling? What about a corporate blog? Is a one-minute homemade video about the Chevy Tahoe appearing only on YouTube a television commerical, a public relations issue or a product placement strategy?
Trying to define today’s communication strategies and branded content that fits neatly into categories that were convenient for a previous era will become increasingly problematic. The rules have changed. We now look at ways to engage the customer or prospect in the brand and it can take any number of cross-functional forms. An excellent article in iMedia Connection does an excellent job of articulating this new engagement (The 4 Types of Engagement) and a previous article explains how to measure it.
Companies that are part of the communications industry will still have specialties and core competencies, but increasingly marketing firms will need to redefine their expertise as how it relates to the delivering of brand context and influence to the consumer, rather than how it relates to past industry classifications that are rapidly becoming antiquated.
