A
Renaissance in Marketing?
The
last episode of the brilliant series Mad Men ended with “I’d Like to Buy
the World a Coke,” the iconic 1971 television commercial.
Though it may not have been the dramatic intent of the series’ writers, the
moment served as a nostalgic eulogy to the golden era of marketing. If you’re
above a certain age, you remember it: A rapidly growing economy driven by a
burgeoning middle class, three major broadcast television networks that
captured an overwhelming majority of eyeballs day and night, glossy magazines
that attracted millions of readers, a homogeneous suburban population with
shared tastes, and the emergence of what Daniel Yankelovich dubbed a “Psychology of
Affluence,” which encouraged spending on
self-indulgent products and experiences. In this golden age, marketing drove
consumer demand and preference by developing and publicizing compelling value
propositions via powerful messaging. Marketing reached a peak in effectiveness
and in clout within organizations.
The
subtext, of course, is that everything has gone downhill since — a decline
that accelerated in recent years. As my colleagues Christopher Vollmer,
Kristina Bennin, and Deborah K. Bothun argue in a recent article, the marketing landscape has hopelessly fragmented.
Ad-avoidance mechanisms like remote control and DVRs have proliferated, the
Internet has diverted audience attention, and social media and mobile devices
have blown up the existing models. And just like in the Dark Ages, careers in
the age of the Marketer’s Dilemma can be nasty, brutish, and short. According
to executive search firm Heidrick & Struggles, the average tenure of a CMO
today is just 23 months.
The Dark Ages ultimately gave way to the
Renaissance. And it’s quite possible we are on the cusp of a Marketing
Renaissance, thanks in part to technology, the force that has done so much to
destabilize the industry in the first place. A series of technology trends,
including the digitization of content, rapid advances in cloud computing, and
advanced analytics, are encouraging and enabling smart marketers to reinvent
the function. More important is the shift in mindset. The Renaissance is
remembered for a return to a focus on humanism. The Marketing Renaissance is
driven in part by a renewed focus on humans. Personalization, long an empty
buzzword, is becoming a realistic way to make content, experiences, and
messages more relevant and persuasive.
The Renaissance was also a time of empiricism
and scientific discovery, when brilliant artists like Michelangelo and Leonardo
da Vinci studied human anatomy directly and Galileo explored the heavens. While
it might be a stretch to compare contemporary marketers to that trio of
immortal artists and scientists, it is clear that leading marketers are
embracing new ways of learning about what works in the digital ecosystem, given
consumers’ non-linear paths to purchase.
So how is personalization contributing to a
Marketing Renaissance? Consider two examples.
Frequent business travelers have all
experienced the frustration of having to scramble to find a hotel room when a
flight is canceled. Economy hotel chain Red Roof Inn combines publicly
available flight cancellation information with customer mobile location data to
forecast demand near airports and target customers who may be seeking nearby
hotels after a flight is canceled. Customers at airports where flights are
canceled who punch in relevant searches — e.g., “hotels near La Guardia
Airport” — receive targeted advertising and tailored room pricing offers.
Reaching out in this way injects a small dose of humanity into a situation when
people often feel angry and frustrated. In areas where the initiative is in
place, it has led to revenue increases of about 10 percent.
To restore a human touch in retailing,
upscale retailer Burberry is using RFID chips embedded in clothing to create a
personalized shopping experience in its flagship stores. When a customer enters
a dressing room with an item in hand, the RFID tag triggers a video showing how
the item was made and offering up other products that might complement it, such
as a handbag that goes perfectly with a raincoat. With the customer's
permission, tags can also help create a customer profile by capturing
information on what she or he has tried on. The new “try-on” information can be
mashed up with data Burberry already has on customers’ purchase histories and
fashion preferences. Store associates viewing these profiles on their iPads can
add to the experience by offering product and fit recommendations, as well as
suggesting ways a new purchase could work with items already in the customer’s
closet.
Making personalization
real (pdf) is a critical way marketers can
compensate for the lost power of the mass marketing model. We’re still in the
very early stages of experimentation. To continue the analogy, it’s as if we
have just entered the Early
Renaissance. There are a number of challenges to
overcome, not the least of which is finding the fine line between helpful
personalization and that which is intrusive or creepy. There is also a great
deal of work to be done to ensure that the data individuals voluntarily share
with companies remains secure from the growing army of cyber-thieves and
hackers. Still, for the first time in a long time, those of us who work with
leading marketing organizations can see some light at the end of a dark
age.
David Meer
http://www.strategy-business.com/blog/A-Renaissance-in-Marketing?gko=ae5de&utm_source=itw&utm_medium=20161122&utm_campaign=respB
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