Studiocom's national strategy practice lead explains how to get in sync with your consumer base and strengthen your brand's allure in 2008.
The marketing landscape has indelibly changed. If you're reading this article you probably buy into the following statement -- the fragmentation of media outlets and the proliferation of emerging technologies has forever changed the way consumers interact with the marketplace.
It's easy for digital marketing professionals to trumpet the latest Forrester or eMarketer report on the shift in marketing spend towards digital, but every so often a mainstream media outlet picks up the scent and inspires a closer inspection. Time Magazine nominated "You" and the user-generated revolution as its 2006 Person of the Year. A July 2004 Business Week article entitled "The Vanishing Mass Market" had a chilling effect, outlining the fragmentation of media (five TV channels per home in 1960 versus over 80 today), the proliferation of the web, and emerging technologies such as DVRs that have created a new generation of on-demand consumers increasingly in charge of the marketing message and now empowered to tune you out, or market around you.
Assuming you buy into these macro trends, what's the average marketer to do about this?
Develop personas
Due to this generation of on-demand consumers, it is more important than ever to be customer-centric (we really mean it this time) and to put the target audience front and center. We need to think like anthropologists and analyze what makes our customers tick, and what ticks them off.
Understand where your customers live online
Part of understanding what makes customers tick is understanding where they already live online. Moving into 2008, it will be increasingly important to not interrupt our customer's natural inclinations and habits, but rather to build contextual relevance around value-added content and services that enhance their online experiences. Rather than driving traffic to a destination that may not be top-of-mind, we should fish where the fish are. Entities such as YouTube or Facebook provide an open platform to create a compelling brand channel. Some marketing stalwarts have already gotten on board.
A recent NY Times article outlined Nike's shift towards services. Stefan Olander, global director for brand connections at Nike, explained, "Nike executives say that much of the company's future advertising spending will take the form of services for consumers, like workout advice, online communities and local sports competitions. We want to find a way to enhance the experience and services, rather than looking for a way to interrupt people from getting to where they want to go. How can we provide a service that the consumer goes, 'Wow, you really made this easier for me'?"
They're already discussing your brand -- join in, or at least listen
Online conversations about brands are unchecked, unfiltered and outside the control of marketers. One only has to Google or use Technorati to get a quick reality check on discussions involving your brand. Brand monitoring services exist that allow marketers to "take the pulse" of what's being said, the tone and sentiment of the conversation and the nodes of influence in their particular ecosystem to better understand potential media partners. At a minimum, active listening is a great primary research tool that will inform search and word of mouth strategies. Some tools actually allow you to take part in the conversation and begin a dialogue with your customers.
Develop marketing programs that build holistic customer journeys
As we all know, integrated communications that share a unified message drive brand behaviors. It is also critical that we think holistically about the multi-channel world customers live in and the myriad of managed and unmanaged touchpoints they leverage when engaging with your brand. The key component in integrated marketing success will emphasize how various communications synch with one another and help to move a customer through the lifecycle.
Develop stronger hooks
Stronger customer relationships and engagement are the result of quality loyalty marketing programs, but the day is quickly approaching where we will need to incentivize customers with more than an email newsletter. Email fatigue is starting to set in, not to mention the fact that Millennials consider email as their parents' communication tool. We crave stronger bonds with customers and the permission to remarket to them, and we need to up the ante in terms of what we give in order to receive that valuable profile data.
Enable customer dialogue and storytelling
The proliferation of blogs, online video and other social media technologies prove the case that people are more comfortable with online media and are natural born storytellers, and that an experience shared is oftentimes more valuable that the experience itself. Some brands (Nike Plus, Nokia Nseries) have created experiential platforms that are architected to put customer experiences and storytelling front and center, where the product plays a supporting role. This idea of brand as enabler, of experiences that synchronize with brand pillars, will become a stronger proposition for brand marketers in 2008.
Innovate, experiment and always measure
Most marketers are at least cautiously optimistic about digital marketing due to the inherent measurability of the channel. Data-centric marketing communications, where communications programs are governed by customer profile data, onsite behavior and an innate understanding of which communications drive behavior, will increasingly become the price of entry in coming years. Multi-channel analytics that provide unparalleled insight into marketing ROI and inform optimization will become the most sought after marketing skill set. And the ability to combine the classic of brand planning based on customer insights with data from stronger analytics will create stronger integrated marketing strategies.
Robert Manning is the national strategy practice lead for Studiocom, a full-service digital agency in the WPP network. Read full bio.