Change is difficult.
Beginning in childhood, we hang onto habits and traditions that are familiar and comfortable. Following a routine puts us most at ease, so the well-worn path permeates into our entire life, including the products and services we purchase.
In turn, Corporate America has also stayed in a comfort zone, running parallel to what consumers want – or at least what is believed that consumers want – including every facet from production to advertising and marketing.
However, the consumer has changed. Today’s consumers are savvier, more informed and better connected than ever before. They share information, express their opinions and influence each other’s decisions in ways that could not have been envisioned a decade ago.
Yet, as marketers, we have been content to watch from a comfortable distance. Sure we’ve discussed it, we’ve debated it, some of us have even gone so far as to offer some “new” marketing approaches – non-traditional we call it. But far too few of us have had the nerve to completely take the plunge.
So the question is, will we boldly reinvent or wait to be reinvented? For those willing to shake off old assumptions, it promises big benefits.
Why we should change
As marketers, we’ve always counted on the status quo because the old ways have always come through. And this leads to the root of the problem. Even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, we say: “Why not wait a bit longer and see what happens?” We persist in the face of stagnating sales, steep declines in media viewership and industry squawk.
The power of the relationship is moving to the consumer – and it’s not coming back. Theirs is a world of limitless choice which has a profound effect on buying habits. But is there anything that can intervene that will finally drive home this point with marketers?
Believe it or not, the answer may well rest in the current state of our national economy.
The recession has been bad news for everyone. It is leaving highly qualified workers unemployed, destroying wealth at an astounding pace, creating an environment of fear and uncertainty. It is responsible for major sales declines, slashed marketing budgets and the sudden demand that marketers justify their every move and every penny.
As budgets shrink and loyalty fades, as consumers reach for price before brand, the cracks in our old, trusted model have become glaringly obvious. Traditional marketing does not jive in this environment, nor does rationalizing an unclear line from advertising to sales.
The silver lining is a deep cleansing of marketing, one that is long overdue. Slowly, thoughts of change are turning into actions of change. Budgets are starting to shift, bringing more progressive thinking that focus on less mass advertising and more consumer engagement, with an embrace of technology, social media and tracking the path from interaction to purchase.
For example, traditional magazines are facing down readership, sagging sales and a cut into past dominance from challengers on the Web. So fighting the tendency to revert to old methods, Time, Inc. recently took a new, unproven path. They tapped into the Internet’s ability for extreme customization and created a completely consumer-customized digital and print publication called Mine. The concept allows consumers to select their favorite Time, Inc. publications, and build the ultimate mash-up of content from disparate magazines like Sports Illustrated, Time, Food and Wine and Real Simple for a completely personalized publication each month.
Its ideas like Mine that move us closer to reinventing the entire idea of what a brand is and what it can mean to consumers. Marketing is not simply a disruptive voice, but a connective force that brings products, ideas and consumers together.
This recession is shaping up to be the great change-agent of our industry, forcing all companies big and small to truly re-evaluate the mass marketing model that has worked for decades.
The consumers we claim to care about so much about are clearly telling us that our old ways don’t impress them. Now, we are finally forced to listen.
The effects of this recession may well stay with us for many years. But in the end, it also may correct what we’ve ignored for so long – the consumer.
That would make for quite a change.