APR 2008 - From Where I'm Standing
The New “P” In Marketing
I was privileged to have been invited to attend two excellent marketing conferences last month, both run by The Economist – one in San Francisco and the other in the UK.
Both were extremely well attended and had excellent speakers from the client and provider side of marketing and both were primarily focused at the CMO (chief marketing officer) level, although there were some healthy discussions and debates from a marketing services perspective also.
It is interesting, although not surprising, to see how far ahead the American business environment is with regards to embracing new marketing trends and how integral they already are in the marketing strategies of US-based businesses. There was a lot of talk about the challenge of getting marketing into the board room and the language and approach senior marketers need to adopt in order to be heard and influential at that level.
There was, of course, a huge focus on the effect the maturing of the digital era is having on marketing strategies and the make-up of the marketing team to support this. Other common themes were the subjects of sustainability, an aging customer base, globalisation and the essential nature of true integrated marketing in today’s environment. There was the inevitable discussion around the economy and what effect that is going to have on business as a whole and of course, in particular to marketing budgets – which got back to what was happening in the board room and how essential it is for marketing leaders to engage the whole organisation in the concept of the brand being a critical vehicle to ride the economic wave.
So I am currently sifting through this plethora of information and deciding how to use it to the best advantage of our members, not least of which is to feed it into our event and education schedules.
I have however chosen one ‘nugget’ that I felt was of particular interest and felt would be good to share with you now … and that is that the new “P” in marketing is Participation! Being driven by the emergence of web2.0, it highlights the requirement for specific skill sets in marketing such as data analytics, CRM, content management and optimisation, as examples, and it is essential in today’s marketing mix.
It has come about as a result of the fact that the market now wants to, can and, whether you like it or not, is participating in your brand evolution. One statistic bandied about was the fact that over 51% of consumers online were viewing or creating user-generated content. Just take a look at how many blogs there are on erasers alone if you find this statistic unbelievable – we managed to find over 300!!! Some see this as a risk, however, it is quite the opposite. Consumers want to add value and if your brand is “authentic” (i.e. your brand promise is a true reflection of your brand experience) then this is a huge opportunity. Your clients want to participate in your brand: they want to influence who you choose to partner with, what products and services you choose to take to market, they want to actively participate in campaigns, they want to feel as though they are helping you be successful.
And by the way, brand membership is nirvana - so essentially it’s DM online. And “engagement” is the new metric!
Now as you all know, we had our AGM last week … my address was primarily focused on how I am going about ‘operationalising’ our vision and purpose as a professional body. Specifically, I spoke of our focus on the promotion of Integrated Marketing (Marketing Strategies that ensure multiple marketing methods and disciplines work together to create a result far greater than they could individually) and Strategic Marketing (where effective marketing is recognised in the board room as the key driver of growth strategies for business).
I spoke of the NZMA 'thought leaders' forum, where I will be meeting on a regular basis with a select group of business leaders and influencers to discuss the opportunities associated with showing excellence in strategic and services marketing in New Zealand (our first meeting is in April) and I advised that we will be launching a suite of Corporate Member services this year, and in particular a series for Senior Marketers. I mentioned that I have had an initial meeting with the other marketing-related association heads to ensure we are working together for the collective good of our members and the industry and we all agreed to keeping a healthy communication between us and sharing resources where appropriate to minimise overlap and maximise effectiveness. Our next working session is planned for later this month. And finally, I reiterated my commitment to ensuring we continue to build on our education services and strive to have a single professional development framework that will benefit the marketers, the recruiters of marketers and the employers of marketers in New Zealand, and specifically how I am currently finalising an exciting coalition to provide NZ marketers with the opportunity to acquire internationally recognised accreditation.
I closed my AGM address on the subject of Direct Marketing, to clear up any misunderstanding amongst the member-base, and I repeat this here to emphasise the importance I place on this issue…
Whilst we (NZMA) have dropped ‘Direct’ from our title, and clearly we are now creating a step-change to embrace the full scope of marketing in New Zealand, it is important that this is not seen as a diminishing interest in DM.
The NZMA is still as committed as ever to supporting and educating the DM community to ensure DM is promoted as the essential element of the Integrated Marketing mix that it is. There are many case studies, both old and new, that provide the proof that when DM is included in an integrated campaign, the results are magnified considerably – and it would be remiss of us if we were not to acknowledge this and continue to give DM the status it deserves within the Association.
That’s all from me for now. As ever, if you have any views, concerns or initiatives on how we may better serve the marketing community please do not hesitate to contact me - sue@marketing.org.nz
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