Marketing is broken. At least in the traditional sense.
Focused on customer acquisition, promotions and sales volumes, traditional marketing views customers as “targets” to be arrowed.
Bigger, bolder and flashier campaigns are launched to attract their rapidly diminishing attention while carrots like discounts, freebies and lucky draws are dangled to coax them to open their wallets.
The Joneses were portrayed as the ultimate stealth marketers (source of image)
Excuse me, are you an invisible stealth marketer? If you have no clue what this is, perhaps its high time for you to read about this.
My curiosity in stealth marketing was first piqued when I read Martin Lindstrom’s brilliant marketing expose Brandwashed. In the book, the neuro-marketing exponent revealed many of the psychological and neurological tricks employed by marketers to get us to buy more, often without us knowing it.
NHB’s Night Festival 2008
I love reading Nina Simon’s Museum 2.0 blog for her cutting insights on stuff happening in my neck of the woods. One of the issues that she recently wrote about – audience development – is something that museums and art galleries in Singapore are also grappling with.
In her post, Nina questioned the need for museums to organise “hip” events to attract younger audiences at the expense of alienating a broader more diverse crowd. While many museums have shifted from being a “cabinet of curiosities” for an elite few to “community destinations”, the question now arises whether their activities should be narrowly focused on distinct segments or appeal more broadly across visitor groups.
What can you do to transform the world through the social media? Is there a step-by-step way to drive social change?
In the words of former US President Barack Obama, “Yes We Can!” The answer lies in the Dragonfly Effect.
T-Mobile’s Flash Mob at Trafalgar Square
In the world of advertising, it is common for one to think about generating Attention first before anything else.
After all, that age-old mnemonic AIDA (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) is predicated on the ability to capture your target audience’s eyeballs/ eardrums in the cacophony of marketing clutter.
Make customer advocacy the pinnacle of your business (courtesy of MIT Sloan Management Review)
Anybody who has been in the field of marketing would be familiar with the term customer champion. However, few have truly understood what it means in the context of today’s organisation.
Being an advocate for customers doesn’t merely mean spending all your days (and nights) at your client’s offices, or conducting an endless round of surveys, focus groups and tea sessions. It isn’t just about understanding what customers want and desperately trying to fit one’s products and services into that itty bitty space called “consumer desire”.
Advocacy Gone Awry (Courtesy of Taejin “TJ” Moon)
I chanced upon a brilliant post by Jeremiah Owyang, renowned web strategist and thought leader, on Advocacy Marketing. This new form of Word Of Mouth marketing is different from the traditional areas as advocates are like members of your inner circle – your best customers so to speak.
Quoting from Jeremiah: