Subscribe to the RSS feed?Oh heck yes. Well played sir/ma'am, well played.
…may be sooner than you think.
Gasp! (cue dramatic music)
Then what does that mean for this blog, this book, and this company?
Not much really, just that they have to grow and evolve (easier for the blog and company, tough for the book). The thing with New Marketing is that it only remains New Marketing while it’s, well, new.
Newspaper ads were once New Marketing. Same with billboards, TV commercials, and product placement.
There will aways be marketing, that’s a given. But it’s the “new” part that makes it all so much fun. “New” means we’re still figuring it out, writing the rules as we go along. “New” means that the doors are wide open for experts, pundits, rock stars, visionaries, and moguls.
In 5 years, a blog about photography or graphic design will essentially be about the same thing. Maybe the details have changed a little, but nothing radical. In 5 years, New Marketing will be fundamentally different than it is today.
And isn’t that the best part?
Thoughts?
On my lunch break just now, I saw the cashier from Panera Bread sprint out of the store after a customer, run over to her car and give her the iced coffee she left on the counter. All this in the middle of the restaurants busiest time of day. That’s customer service.
A simple act like that sent a big message everyone around, Panera cares about it’s customers.
Why do I feel like this is the exception most of the time?
Jaffe might have written the most important post you will read this year. It might not seem like it at first glance, but really think about the implications of those statistics.
From his post:
- 84% agree (strongly/somewhat), “Too many things are over-hyped now.”
- 72% agree, “I get tired of people trying to grab my attention and sell me stuff.”
- 47% regard “Advertising as background noise.”
This stuff is incredible. The biggest line for me is the one in the middle. Looking at that statement, if you had 10 people in a room, 7 of them are tired of being advertised “at”. For an industry that spends billions of dollars, that’s an extremely low satisfaction rate. I feel like everyone on Madison Ave. should get a memo with the statistics and “Stop being obnoxious and trying to force things on people. It’s really not working, and here’s the proof.” written on it.
As a small aside, there’s a beetle that’s been flying around the second story window in my living room for a week now. He keeps banging against the glass trying to get out (I can’t open the widow or I’d help) every single day. And you can’t fault him for it, because he’s a bug. But aren’t the big ad companies doing just the same thing? Why do they think that if a little bit doesn’t work, then a lot will?
A recent post from author Tim Ferriss got me thinking about being “in the zone”. In his post, Tim says it’s important for each individual to find the time period during the day where they are the most creative and productive. Like Tim, my “zone” is in the late night/early morning, somewhere from 12-4am. At first glance, the fact that I kick it into high gear when the rest of the world is sleeping might seem unfortunate, but I’m starting to realize that it’s not so bad. I can get a lot of stuff (blogging, stats, new design, etc.) done with little to no distractions. I just had to get comfortable to really hit my stride.
And all of this, naturally, got me thinking about marketing (it’s a gift and a curse). The thing about marketing, and I’m not the first to say this, is that you can get by being just okay. Pump a lot of money into ads, put together some same-old press releases, coin a decent slogan, and sales will probably increase. And you’ll get by.
But to really succeed, you have to focus on hitting your stride.
Hitting your stride as a marketer means getting yourself to a place (mentally, physically, existentially?) that will enable you to create something special. If all your best work comes out of brainstorming sessions, then why aren’t you focusing on brainstorming? If lightning always strikes after a cup of tea, you better bring extra to the office. If all your best writing happens after sitting down with a beer (Blue Moon, if you’re buying) then don’t be afraid to grab one and get focused.
Figuring out what makes you capable of great things is the hard part. After that, just enjoy the ride.
How do you hit your stride?
Serious decision making might be driven by logic, but real interest is driven by emotion.
Marketing is inherently emotional. Let the engineers worry about logic.
Why not extraordinary? That’s exactly my point.
Our daily routines have become the poster child for ordinary. And that’s just how most of us like it.
We don’t want surprises at fast food restaurants or dry cleaners or auto mechanics or movie theaters. We want what’s reliable. What we know works. What’s ordinary. Because extraordinary means uncomfortable, scary, unprecedented and untested.
But what most people don’t think about is that almost everything that is ordinary now, was extraordinary at some point. The iPod, Google, Facebook, the Razr, Flat Screen TVs, eBay, and the SUV are just some current examples.
So as marketers, it seems that the trick is not to come up with something extraordinary, but to take that idea, and cross the gap into ordinary with as little discomfort and hesitation as possible.
Right?
Market research is a joke.
Not all of it, but a decent amount.
I’m not condemning all market research. Of course it’s crazy to pump millions or billions into a product on a whim, but with the new product failure rate estimated from 50-75% (think New Coke), something isn’t working. And that’s not even the biggest problem.
It’s beginning to feel to me like market research has become merely an excuse, a way for people to avoid responsibility if a product fails. “Well, we just followed the conclusions from the market research…” has become the mantra of many after a failed launch. That shouldn’t be good enough anymore.
Revolutionary, remarkable products don’t cater well to market research, therefore a lot of great ideas don’t test out well and get shut down. The classic case here is the Sony Walkman. As the business legend goes, the co-founder and CEO of Sony, Akio Morita, ignored the market research that said people didn’t want speakers in their ears. He pushed ahead and released the first Walkman, and the rest is history. The real takeaway here, and what gets mentioned less often, is that Sony didn’t ignore all the research (it followed the results of a 100 unit experience test). It ignored the unimportant research.
I think there’s a real opportunity for people to come up with better research tactics/methods, because with the way things are now, it might be a better idea to take those millions and head to a blackjack table. You might have better odds.
But no excuses…
If you’re like me, you feel tethered to the web. Yes, wireless and mobile technology have enabled us to go where we want, but we’re still tied.
Sometimes a big problem with coming up with new, fresh ideas, is that we’re so inundated with everyone else’s stuff. It feels like every like everything you come up with is just a rehashing of something you heard or read somewhere. So here’s my labor day advice for you: cut the cord every once in a while. Take a break and spend a whole day doing something else. If you’re a marketer, stay away from marketing. If you’re an entrepreneur, let your mind take the day off.
I know, I know. You’re thinking “I can’t possibly take a whole day or two off and stay on top of everything!”, but the truth is, if you’re burned out, you’re not doing much good now anyway.
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