Shifting Sands for Brand Stewards and Their Clients
Branding today is entirely different from branding ten years ago. And as brand stewards trudging through shifting sands, to responsibly represent our clients, we respond to the differences. In truth, it would be hard, not to mention dangerous, to ignore the power of the channels available to us today.
The reasons impacting the changes in marketing strategy are many, but one is key:
Well- informed consumers are now both diverse and empowered. They have a voice strong enough to inform and even shape brands. Unlike the traditional messaging of old, primarily from business to consumer, with the advent of new channels, we now need to participate in consumer to business messaging as well. In fact, it’s not enough to passively participate, we are also charged to listen and act.
In this month’s Marketing Manager, Kevin Lane Keller tackles the issue on pages 37-43, saying we must,
1. “fully and accurately factor the consumer into the branding equation:
engage in ‘participation marketing’, and
2. Make the whole of the marketing program greater than the sum of its
parts: develop fully integrated channel and communication strategies.”
What this means for every business and nonprofit we represent is the need to combine traditional and nontraditional elements within every strategic marketing plan. It is not that traditional marketing in print and personal networking no longer works, it most emphatically does and needs to be in the mix, but so does interactive marketing which is far more than having a website, alone. Participation marketing incorporates interactive communication across all channels relevant to the client.
One of our clients summed up this concept recently, saying ‘don’t put all of your eggs in one basket.” You know, I remember my grandmother saying the same thing, so that’s either timeless advice or she was especially prescient–though the power of freely talking with, listening to, and responding to consumers, in real time, is probably not something any of us predicted.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 31st, 2011 at 8:47 am and is filed under Announcements, Articles, Galley Overview, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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