A Reminder
In my career I’ve learned how tough it often is to instill new ideas into the minds of others. It takes stubborn and repetitive evangelism to promote new ways of thinking. Personally I get a tad frustrated when, after saying something for a year, someone suddenly perks up with their own personal epiphany of the identical thought I’ve been promoting. But hey, if that’s what it takes…
So the subject of this post is about trying, yet again, to get a principle seared in minds. It’s one more reminder to wake up and have ‘your epiphany’ sooner.
The reminder is this: REMEMBER the fact that a fundamental and monumental change has already happened! And this principle MUST be paramount to anything and everything we do relative to marketing, from now on.
Memorize the principle: “It’s no longer good enough to be in front of people. Now, it’s only good enough to be with them!”
Let’s break this down.
“It’s no longer good enough to be in front of them.” Traditional marketing has always taken the form of advertising (to call attention to, in a boastful or ostentatious manner”, dictionary.com). Intrusive placements that shout at people to stop and pay attention. It’s only worked when the ‘target’ altered their mind-path to focus on something thrust in their face. Advertisers have treated people like an ‘in-box’. Just keep bombarding the in-box and hopefully 1% will respond. We’ve known for a long time that the ever increasing consumer control of channels and mediums is erasing the viability of that approach. Shouting intrusively is as effective as screaming at a wall.
“Now, it’s only good enough to be with them.” The recent iPad launch is the best reminder of this new reality. The trend that’s been taking shape for years (phones, Xbox, etc.) is no fad—it’s now a standard. People own and often carry devices with them that connect them at will, to whomever they choose, whenever they choose, wherever they choose, and however they choose. They connect through a multitude of devices and social spaces, private places, and mediums. Face it, they own the on and off switch to almost all media—and frankly, brand relationships.
Being with them means to recognize a consumer’s power, will, choice, control, and to stop shouting! To simply have a conversation. It means being visible, useful, usable, desirable and engaged. It means being aware, active, agile, and relevant in their mediums, channels, and networks of choice. It means NOT being intrusive but ‘there for them’, on demand.
My hero Leo Burnett summed it up well when he inadvertently predicted the power of interactive in saying “Make a friend before you make a sale”. Leo would’ve been a master of this new age…
Now, traditional marketers’ would argue they believe and practice the same—be where the people are. But they still typically take the same old approach—“Let’s place an ad on that iPhone app!” That’s not what I am talking about. Being where they are and with them are two very different things. Just being where they are and trying to capture their attention is very different than being with them in the ways I’ve described. Being visible is only the first step in developing a relationship via a branded interaction.
We can no longer shout ‘at’ a target—we have to relate and interact ‘with’ a customer. After all…they now carry and own the connections, the touch-points. They decide when to turn the button on to connect, or off, or click elsewhere. They decide what they will give their attention to—and when.
Simply put, stop thinking about placements (being in front of them) and focus on building a relationship with them (being with them). Instead of thinking about ‘reach’, think about offering useful ‘branded interactions’. Relational interactions that offer immediate value.
Connectivity and device explosion have fundamentally changed the way we need to think and behave as marketers. We can no longer afford to approach every assignment with the intent of driving traffic to a site. The days of thinking computer, site, and pages are passed. We have to think relative to the new reality of consumer, on-demand, and control. And offer useful, usable, desirable, and engaged branded interactions as they wish, choose, decide, and control.
Duh.
“It’s no longer good enough to be in front of people. Now, it’s only good enough to be with them!”
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