I've been reading a lot of interesting articles lately for this blog and for my own personal education. There were some great articles in The Economist from earlier this month about women in the workforce which I highly recommend. I ran across this article in Adweek which I thought would be a good conversation starter.
The author's basic premise is that we can no longer rely on old ways of brand marketing and that even the tools we used a few years ago are obsolete much like homes with land lines! In other words, we can no longer say that "black is the new black" when we devise marketing initiatives. He offers five new approaches to brand marketing in this new decade and in this as well as subsequent posts, we will review them together. So, let's get cracking, shall we?
Create Better Realities
What's likely not surprising is the internal brand perception does not necessarily match customer brand perception. The article quotes a recent Y&R Brand Asset Valuator which found a 90% erosion in brand differentiation over a 10 year period. This becomes an even more urgent problem when you consider that consumers own the marketplace of opinion via social media whereas marketers owned them previously in the traditional channels.
The proposed solution is that the product is also the marketing tool. The product gets shaped by itself, the customer experience, vibe, service, etc. In other words, it's multi textural and multi sensory.
Who does this really well? One example leapt to mind immediately: Apple. Walk into any Apple store, visit apple.com, download anything from iTunes, covet your friend's iPhone (and embarrassingly hide your Blackberry) and you've officially been enveloped in the Apple experience. The product is the marketing and the marketing is the product.
I wish I'd thought of that... If you've got any other examples, please send them my way. "Design Blindness" is the topic of the next post - stay tuned!
Best,
Parissa
p.s. If you've not done so already, please consider a donation to Haiti earthquake relief.
The author's basic premise is that we can no longer rely on old ways of brand marketing and that even the tools we used a few years ago are obsolete much like homes with land lines! In other words, we can no longer say that "black is the new black" when we devise marketing initiatives. He offers five new approaches to brand marketing in this new decade and in this as well as subsequent posts, we will review them together. So, let's get cracking, shall we?
Create Better Realities
What's likely not surprising is the internal brand perception does not necessarily match customer brand perception. The article quotes a recent Y&R Brand Asset Valuator which found a 90% erosion in brand differentiation over a 10 year period. This becomes an even more urgent problem when you consider that consumers own the marketplace of opinion via social media whereas marketers owned them previously in the traditional channels.
The proposed solution is that the product is also the marketing tool. The product gets shaped by itself, the customer experience, vibe, service, etc. In other words, it's multi textural and multi sensory.
Who does this really well? One example leapt to mind immediately: Apple. Walk into any Apple store, visit apple.com, download anything from iTunes, covet your friend's iPhone (and embarrassingly hide your Blackberry) and you've officially been enveloped in the Apple experience. The product is the marketing and the marketing is the product.
I wish I'd thought of that... If you've got any other examples, please send them my way. "Design Blindness" is the topic of the next post - stay tuned!
Best,
Parissa
p.s. If you've not done so already, please consider a donation to Haiti earthquake relief.
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