Marketing Rules Are So....Unwritten - Get Used To It, Madison Ave. Mavens

I'm following up on my last blog entry because the more I thought about it and the more encouragement I got (thank you, Denis Pombriant), the more I thought about how unutterably clueless marketers can be sometimes when it comes to doing something out of the box.

Or even understanding what out of the box thinking is.

What makes that particularly funny (ironic funny, not ha-ha funny) is that the people in advertising - who are marketing people when it boils down to the ultra tar-like essence of it all - have a category of employees they call "creatives" and yet, the advertising world, which was the toast of Manhattan in the 50s and 60s - e.g. desire was created on "Madison Avenue" home of the major advertising agencies back then, is currently nearly helpless when it comes to identifying what the new customers are looking for.

Why Might That Be, Squire?

Well, other than the obvious one - that time passes us all by at some point in our earthly existences, I really can't answer that....
Okay, maybe I can.
First, big is no longer beautiful (I say that as a newly skinnified person, but mean it as in "big companies have a lot of bureaucracy and investment in "typical" practices a.k.a. "the way we do things around here," and that is exceptionally dangerous in an age where the empowered and young customers know what they want for themselves.

Also, ad agencies and marketing entities including some public relations firms, are used to the idea of creating demand, not capturing and aggregating it nor collaborating with their customers to create it. They are very oddly and yet, sort of comfortably, old school about their thinking.

Want Some Proof To Think About It?

If you're in the CRM industry (THAT I am), and you have some influence (I am told I do), you get bombarded by press releases and requests for meetings. It is the same formula for EVERY SINGLE PRESS RELEASE THAT I EVER SEE. It fits what I learned in Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism so long ago (in 1967-71 to be exact). "Who, what, when, where and why" have to be in the early part of every article/release -preferably in the first paragraph if possible. Don't believe me? Wait here a sec. I'm going out to Google press releases and will randomly pull down 2 or 3 of interest to you guys and highlight a few things. Hold on.................................................................................................Here's one that came up in a Google search of "CRM Press Releases July."

Microsoft Reports Fourth Quarter Results and Announces Share Repurchase Program REDMOND, Wash (WHERE). - July 20, 2006 - Microsoft Corp (WHO). today(WHEN)announced record fourth quarter revenue of $11.80 billion for the period ended June 30, 2006, a 16% increase over the same quarter of the prior year (WHAT). Operating income for the quarter was $3.88 billion, a 30% increase compared with $2.99 billion in the prior year period. Operating income for the fourth quarter included certain legal charges of $351 million, compared with $756 million in the prior year period. Net income for the fourth quarter was $2.83 billion and diluted earnings per share were $0.28, which included $0.03 of certain legal charges. For the same quarter of the previous year, net income was $3.70 billion and diluted earnings per s

Another random one......

First Rate Financial Locks In with Entellium

SEATTLE(WHERE) - July 18, 2006 - Entellium (www.entellium.com)(WHO) today(WHEN)  announced that First Rate Financial LLC (www.gofirstrate.com) has selected Entellium's hosted CRM suite(WHAT) following an intensive evaluation that included a head-to-head usability shootout involving Entellium and alternative hosted CRM offerings(WHY). Based in Bellevue, Wash., First Rate represents banks and lenders in six states.

Enough Already, What Do You Want Them To Do?

The first thing for a marketing expert to do is understand that while there will always be some traditional means of marketing like campaigns, analyzing the customer, segmenting and targeting specific customer groups, etc. the new customer has no interest in being appealed to as part of a social organization. They want what they perceive to be an authentic truthful relationship with a company that is providing them with personalized experiences that use, among other things, the products and services that the company that the customer is dealing with might provide to the customer's personal value chain/ecosystem.

Beyond that, I'm going to let you marketers out there listen to the wisdom of two other entities.

First Up, Business Week

In the July 24 Business Week, an article appeared as if by magic, "Your Attention Please" which needs exactly that. Here is what is perhaps the critical paragraph:

It's not just that media is splintering, as it has been for decades. The difference is that the Internet is thrusting that trend into overdrive. WIth every qick click, millions of people...are slicking and dicing media into ever-tinier little bits, just the nuggets they want and nothing more. And by the millions, they're reassembling them into personalized digital channels of their own choosing - all too often, minus the advertisements that sustain nearly all media today."

The article goes on to point out that most agencies and other media have no clue how to reach the "folks who don't sit still long enough to see or hear ads - and who use their iPods and TiVos to vaporize them instantly."

This, of course, as BW is so right to point out, is also an opportunity if you engage the one person micromarket that has its own personal value chain. The Long Tail approach to what constitutes markets. Thousands and thousands of niche markets that are aimed at creating an optimal experience that also provides the "marketplace" with the ecosystem it needs of goods and services to optimize tha personal experience. There are incredible numbers of examples out there. For a view of dozens of them, check out one of my favorites - Springwise, a group of 8000 dedicated "springspotters" who find the "long tail" trends out there and report on them weekly.

Second Up, Briefly, Me

I will tell you this, marketers. Who, what, when, where and why press releases, and mundane ads and appeals to an impersonal subcategory of some group of customers divided by income, geography or any demographic piece of info you care to throw up, just doesn't cut it anymore. I may be 56, with a college degree, living in Virginia, born in NY, with a good income, and married with no kids, but I'm also not interested in the same things that the rest of the 56 year old married college graduate professionals in the South who don't pronounce "R" are (or "ah"). The sooner you remember that, the sooner who can forget about who, what, when, why and where in paragraph one and remember that someone is going to read what you say or not if it addresses what they want addressed.

With that, our final expert is someone that some might know....

Introducing Marketing Guru: Natalie Bedingfield - Author of Classic New Media Text - Unwritten

Okay, so she's actually a pop star - but her song, Unwritten appealed to a lot of people and hit the charts pretty quick earlier this year. Aside from being talented, I think that you might want to LISTEN TO (not just hear) the lyrics both as a view into the head of a younger consumer and some really good advice on how you marketing pros can think out of the box. A few samples of the corpus of Natalie Bedingfield's marketing wisdom:

1. "I am unwritten, can't read my mind, I'm undefined. I'm just beginning, the pen's in my hand, ending unplanned." (translation: Thinking out of the box means that you start with an "unwritten" page. Plus, this is how the creative, connected consumer thinks these days. Willing to be open and ready to try new and cool things)
2. "Staring at the blank page before you, open up the dirty window; let the sun illuminate the words you could not find." (translation: Shake out the cobwebs and free yourself up to be creative. Any reason that who, what, when, where, why have to be answered in the beginning?)
3. "I break tradition, sometimes my tries, are outside the lines. We've been conditioned to not make mistakes, but I can't live that way." (Translation: Good for her. Natalie Bedingfield, live like her!)
4. "Feel the rain on your skin, no one else can feel it for you; Only you can let it in; no one else, no one else can speak the words on your lips; drench yourself in words unspoken, live your life with arms wide open; today is where your book begins; The rest is still unwritten." (Translation, its up to you to think out of the box and not be afraid of it, you marketing mavens. Frankly, you have no choice, so welcome the chance to figure out the new opportunities and the new world that we're living in. They're worth a shot and even if you're not the pioneer of much so far, there's still a lot unwritten - so have a go at it. The customers are demanding that you do.)

As hokey as you might think that all is - it isn't. The lyrics aren't just those of a good song, but really are what its going to take in the marketing world. The universe of tradtional marketing is dead. The personalized requirements of those long tail micromarkets also known as individual customers are a great opportunity for those marketing leaders willing to admit that traditional marketing, advertising and public relations are, let's say, a lot less valuable than they were. Bult because, as Business Week makes clear, the new media approaches are still largely unwritten, opportunity abounds. A marketing company or person who lives with arms wide open will have a helluva chance to do something dramatic and hot. That's what marketing is when its exciting anyway, isn't it?