Online media has the capability to be precise in targeting relevant messages to the right audience, to create rich brand experiences that engage readers in a story, to build followers in a genuine and sincere manner. So why aren’t more businesses and marketers engaging their customers with rich and meaningful marketing?
Online media is unlike any media we’ve seen before, yet we dumb down this awesome power by being stuck in a traditional media mindset. Launching one campaign and distributing it to the online masses can be (rightly) perceived as being irresponsible, thoughtless and lazy in light of the tools available. Seth Godin has an opinion on the matter: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/typepad/sethsmainblog/~3/lFp6Qrcqf7U/friction.html.
Leaders in the industry are shifting from integrated strategies to transmedia storytelling which takes it’s lead directly from the entertainment industry to create rich storytelling as opposed to redundant messaging. http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/24339.asp
The next time your client needs a strategy (business, marketing, brand, media et al) take the time to sort through your messaging by audience, figure out how the message can be conveyed uniquely and richly, in different media (both online and off). The more intriguing the story and how that story unfolds in different media, in different ways, is the key to an effective and efficient strategy. Take your lead from Razorfish: http://www.imediaconnection.com/summits/coverage/24404.asp
We’re living in extremely unsettling times and I think most of us agree that change is necessary and due. Consumer behaviors are in a chaotic flux and standard business practices are ill equipped.
As a brand marketer it’s my job to guide and determine the best course of action for our clients products, services and brand. This frequently requires a second look at business fundamentals, the source of brand and marketing strategy.
Pragmatically, strategic planning is essential to business, however it’s also the best way to achieve sameness and commoditization. Quite literally you may be taking your product down the wrong path if you’re strategic indicators are amiss.
MIT Sloan School professor Arnoldo C. Hax resurfaces his evolving Delta Model and proposes a “strategy as love” vs. “strategy as war” mindset to embrace this change.
The Delta Model in a very general sense approaches strategy from a consumer focused mindset (putting imitation, congruency and competition aside) and embraces an extended network of “complementors” who deliver value, trust, benefits and transparency, they project a company’s products in a manner that expresses care and concern for the customer.
By listening to your customers and working with “complementors” even the most commoditized industry can find uniqueness and distinction. Mr. Hax used to joke ” Commodities only exist in the minds of the inept,” and sites examples where companies have embraced distinction within commoditized industries, including THE COPPER INDUSTRY.
To be sure, changing your strategic approach doesn’t sound like an easy task amongst an already difficult process. This methodology requires you to think differently about your approach to the market and the positioning of your products.
But if you find you’re competiting more frequently on price alone, it begs the question if not now, when?
A few years back Seth posted on his blog “small is the new big”, later becoming the title of one of his books. Seth’s epiphany challenged convention wisdom that creativity and talent, and the best minds and the best ideas were found primarily in large agencies and businesses in our nation’s cities. Big was trusted, big was secure and big had the best and the brightest. On the heels of Enron - Seth detected a change in the air.
Enter 2009, the acceleration era with new opportunities, new rules and new expectations. Where agility, speed and instinct matter. Where the best, the brightest and the most innovative can be found in the most obscure places. To RT a blog post from Paul Dunay “Why Small Companies Will Win in This Economy”, Harvard Business Publishing agrees… small is the new big - now more than ever.
This all begs the question, the next time you’re looking for a consultant or an agency where will you look?
