In this presentation, given to marketing students at West Chester University, we talk about battle for customer attention that has emerged from the growth of the web, mobile and social innovations. Marketing has evolved from primarily promotion to a focus on meeting customer needs. Social media has evolved from a marketing discipline to a social business imperative that affects the entire business landscape. And personal brands will continue to become more important to satisfied and engaged employees who will deliver loyal customers for our organizations.
These are my kids (aren’t the cute?) They will grow up in a hyper-connected world with every memory documented in the cloud. Like us, they will look back at the immature devices of their youth and laugh. Reaching them will be an epic battle.
It didn’t used to be so difficult. When I was a kid brands had simple choices. TV, radio, newspaper, magazine. With the right agency and a big enough budget ANY brand could get their message to their audience.
When I graduated from university in 1993, a technology called Mosaic changed their name to Netscape and opened the world to the internet. Within a few years, thousands of connected computers became millions and now billions.
Our job is to translate content and create conversations that connect with people…
What are we doing? Peter Drucker defined the aim of marketing as “knowing the customer so well that your product or service sells itself.” Here, the product and the content is the marketing! And it’s amazing.
In fact, one US website declared earlier this year, you are more likely to win the lottery, produce twins or die in a plane crash than to have someone respond to your banner ad.