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The emergence of consumers as the new "king of media" is placing the spotlight not on marketing messages, not on effective ad campaigns, but on the core of our brands -- the very products and services we provide.
The future of media and marketing has nothing to do with ads and promotions and interruptive media. It has everything to do with how effective our products and services delight our customers.
This isn't a new phenomenon. Traditional marketing, done well, does nothing more than spread the work about great products and services. But if the products and services aren't great, the marketing will never work.
What's more, great products and services usually don't need marketing. Great products and services market themselves, in that they generate intense loyalty among current customers, and the kind of word-of-mouth that naturally generates steady waves of new customers.
Sure, an extra layer of traditionally-defined marketing can often be a catalyst to faster growth. It can mean the difference between 2X growth and 5X growth, simply by accelerating the speed at which people find out about your business.
But if the business isn't good -- if the products don't work, don't deliver on marketing promises, or simply are supported by bad service -- then all you've done with traditional marketing is tell a lot more people that you run a bad business or deliver a sub-par service.
In a world where customers now deliver their own marketing messages about your business back to the masses, your best marketing may not be marketing at all. It may be a renewed focus on providing the best products, supported by the best service, and creating the best customer experience.
And this is exactly why ad agencies should be terrified. This focus for brands doesn't lend itself to big media-buy commissions and expensive commercial shoots. It doesn't mean 30 seconds during the Super Bowl.
It means getting closer to your customers than ever before, listening to them daily, and building products and services that not only address their needs, but go the extra mile. It means creating products and services that are so good, they're remarkable and buzz-worthy.
This is how you ignite the marketing campaigns of today and tomorrow. It's how you get your customers talking about you and using the incredible tools available to them today to amplify their opinions back to the masses.
Brands need help doing this. Even the best products and most customer-centric service companies need outside help and fresh perspectives to keep their edge and see every possible angle that will make their products and services better.
But that help isn't coming from a big ad agency. It's likely coming from small shops and consultants that simply help brand managers listen more intently to their customers and improve both product and support strategies to better delight them.
This is an exciting time to be a marketer. But the rules have changed.
Brands that focus on great products and services will find the path to growth and mindshare easier than ever to navigate. Brands that focus their marketing on identifying and empowering their most passionate users will discover greater media power than they've ever before realized.
And the agencies? They're clearly not dead yet, but their future depends largely on how well they can adapt to the way consumers make brand choices today, how they influence each other, and how their clients will choose to focus their resources and marketing moving forward.
Matt Heinz is senior director of marketing for HouseValues Inc. and the author of mattonmarketing.com. Read full bio.
