Page 1 of 4 123 ... LastLast
Results 1 to 10 of 37

Thread: The changing face of marketing

  1. #1
    Platinum Member Chatmaster's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Location
    Cape Town
    Posts
    1,065
    Thanks
    107
    Thanked 99 Times in 63 Posts

    The changing face of marketing

    Just a few years ago marketing was fairly simple. There were only a few magazines, a handful of newspapers and very few TV channels and radio stations.

    Today that is completely different. The choice and options you have are 10 times more and the audience that you have are so much more diversified. It was much easier to do marketing in the days gone past.

    Another thing that has changed its face is the number of competitors. More and more successful businesses that start up today are able to focus on niche markets that years ago would not have been viable on their own.

    More and more businesses also change in terms of providing lateral income streams that focus on providing additional niche services that are remotely related to their core business.

    All of these are signs that business is changing and that means that marketing is changing as well.

    Marketing in most cases is a simple process of repeating advertising and spend money to make money. However this is changing dramatically as well. Gone are the tunnel view mindsets of keeping your business entirely to yourself. In today’s world you need to diversify marketing and work on networking within your business relations to be able to expand your horizons to streamline your income streams.

    On the other hand consumer behavior has changed as well. Advertising are being ignored more and more by them and they seem much more skeptical than they have been in the past. If we think about changes in sport for example. Years ago Rugby was an amateur sport that had very little advertising. Today everything a Rugby player wears is sponsored from their head to their shoelaces have paid branding on it. All of this is an attempt by larger brands to stay visible.

    This overwhelming amount of advertising has resulted in changes with the consumer and their behavior towards marketing. This directly affects marketing and the marketing strategies we as business have to employ to get the desired reaction from our consumers.

    Marketing is a necessity and no matter what you do a business that doesn’t apply some kind of marketing strategy is doomed for failure. The old ways of advertising has become subliminal advertising as the consumers now know which areas to avoid being harassed by advertising and this awareness is done on a subconscious level. This means that repetition of advertising is required at a much higher frequency than before in order to be successful.

    These changes between advertiser and consumer are happening at a faster and faster rate. Marketing becomes more and more subliminal for the consumer and advertising agencies are becoming more and more intrusive on the consumer to get the message through. This game is becoming more like open warfare!

    How is your business coping with this greater than ever demand and increasing rate of demand? How are you adapting to increase the exposure of your brand? Did you even notice this happening?
    Roelof Vermeulen (Entrepreneurship in large organizations)
    Roelof Vermeulen| Rock flaps south africa

  2. #2
    Moderator IanF's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    Jhb
    Posts
    2,679
    Thanks
    197
    Thanked 529 Times in 405 Posts
    Roelof,
    Aren't you making a case to not adverise here if you have to increase the frequency. I feel if I see an ad from Pick n Pay and it is something I want I no longer keep the ad as Pick n Pay advertise so much I will see it again.
    Why not try the opposite and have a genuine once off ad with a good once off offer. I feel this has more chance of being successful than the repetitions.
    Quote Originally Posted by Chatmaster View Post
    Marketing is a necessity and no matter what you do a business that doesn’t apply some kind of marketing strategy is doomed for failure. The old ways of advertising has become subliminal advertising as the consumers now know which areas to avoid being harassed by advertising and this awareness is done on a subconscious level. This means that repetition of advertising is required at a much higher frequency than before in order to be successful.

    These changes between advertiser and consumer are happening at a faster and faster rate. Marketing becomes more and more subliminal for the consumer and advertising agencies are becoming more and more intrusive on the consumer to get the message through. This game is becoming more like open warfare!
    What do the marketers say?
    Only stress when you can change the outcome!

  3. #3
    Platinum Member Chatmaster's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Location
    Cape Town
    Posts
    1,065
    Thanks
    107
    Thanked 99 Times in 63 Posts
    Quote Originally Posted by IanF View Post
    Roelof,
    Aren't you making a case to not adverise here if you have to increase the frequency. I feel if I see an ad from Pick n Pay and it is something I want I no longer keep the ad as Pick n Pay advertise so much I will see it again.
    Why not try the opposite and have a genuine once off ad with a good once off offer. I feel this has more chance of being successful than the repetitions.
    The case I am making is that advertising is changing. Just having a price list with your products will not have the same effect as years ago. Repetition with certain advertising media is unfortunately essential. Placing one advert in the newspaper will not have a response as most marketers will tell you. Even if you place the add on the front page, you will need to repeat the add several times before it will become successful. There are other factors at play as well and it is not that clear cut but essentially repetition is one of the main ways that current ad agencies and big budget marketers are doing things. That is why advertising is such a big industry. How ever if they do not catch on with times they might soon find themselves in a bit of trouble. They will need to change their strategies.

    Merging marketing strategies into a super marketing strategy is becoming more and more important. Therefor including different departments under one umbrella might be something we will see more often in bigger companies. For example there is a lot of synergy between Public relations, marketing and IT departments. Although on the surface it might seem they have different roles and they are currently being treated that way by many companies, however they are becoming more and more related, because the future of marketing is changing to include the merger of more resources to accomplish successful marketing campaigns.

    Your point about a genuine once off ad is a very good point. IMO just advertising will not work nearly as well as a good promotion accompanied by a viral campaign and good prizes. However the public already has many choices there as well and repetition might still be required.
    Roelof Vermeulen (Entrepreneurship in large organizations)
    Roelof Vermeulen| Rock flaps south africa

  4. #4
    Site Caretaker Dave A's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    Durban, South Africa
    Posts
    22,648
    Thanks
    3,304
    Thanked 2,676 Times in 2,257 Posts
    Blog Entries
    12
    I agree that marketing a business through all the noise has become more challenging than ever. However, I find that exciting rather than a problem.

    In fact, I don't understand the problem. Nowadays we're spoilt for choice as to how to go about it.

  5. #5
    just me duncan drennan's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Cape Town
    Posts
    2,642
    Thanks
    119
    Thanked 94 Times in 77 Posts
    Flipping the Funnel by Seth Godin is certainly worth a read.
    [SIGPIC]Engineer Simplicity[/SIGPIC]
    Turn ideas into products | The Art of Engineering blog

  6. #6
    Platinum Member Chatmaster's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Location
    Cape Town
    Posts
    1,065
    Thanks
    107
    Thanked 99 Times in 63 Posts
    Now that is a great read, thanks for sharing Duncan! Seth is exceptional in so many ways.
    Roelof Vermeulen (Entrepreneurship in large organizations)
    Roelof Vermeulen| Rock flaps south africa

  7. #7
    Site Caretaker Dave A's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    Durban, South Africa
    Posts
    22,648
    Thanks
    3,304
    Thanked 2,676 Times in 2,257 Posts
    Blog Entries
    12
    A great read indeed.

    Thinking about it, we're back to turning customers into evangelists - just making it easier (and possibly even personally rewarding) to do so.

    It does pose an interesting challenge, however. Somehow, you need to make your offering exceptional. Worth talking about. Our delivery needs to exceed expectations. This makes the service department a vital component in the marketing plan.

  8. #8
    just me duncan drennan's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Cape Town
    Posts
    2,642
    Thanks
    119
    Thanked 94 Times in 77 Posts
    Quote Originally Posted by Dave A View Post
    It does pose an interesting challenge, however. Somehow, you need to make your offering exceptional. Worth talking about. Our delivery needs to exceed expectations. This makes the service department a vital component in the marketing plan.
    There are three things that Seth Godin speaks about quite a lot (and he has a book for each of them!),

    1) Permission
    2) Being remarkable (he uses the term Purple cow)
    3) Free gift inside (i.e. more than your client expects)

    Traditional marketing is not built on permission, in fact it is build on interruption. That has its advantages and disadvantages, but in a time when there are millions of things vying for people's attention, what gives us the right to butt in with ads (on so on)?

    But look at the statement in another way too. There are some things which people would love to be interrupted with, and would be more than willing to give you permission to market to them. Typically those things are remarkable.

    Now take that word remarkable. Is your product/service/etc so special that a client of your will make a remark to another person (potential client) about it when there is no direct gain for them?

    I've started to try to think in those terms about my own service. Would people talk about it? Would they raise it in conversation purely for fact that it left a lasting impression, or only when something external triggers a thought?

    When I got service from Outsurance that went way beyond what I expected, I went out of my way to speak enthusiastically about it. No prompting, no incentives, just a great service worth speaking about.
    [SIGPIC]Engineer Simplicity[/SIGPIC]
    Turn ideas into products | The Art of Engineering blog

  9. #9
    Site Caretaker Dave A's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    Durban, South Africa
    Posts
    22,648
    Thanks
    3,304
    Thanked 2,676 Times in 2,257 Posts
    Blog Entries
    12
    A thought occured.

    How about if your service is reliable and meets expectations, but you're exceptional in some other way? Communication, for example.

    Hmm. That opens up the scope somewhat.

  10. #10
    Email problem Alta Murray's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2008
    Location
    Pretoria
    Posts
    167
    Thanks
    9
    Thanked 10 Times in 7 Posts
    Thinking about it, we're back to turning customers into evangelists - just making it easier (and possibly even personally rewarding) to do so.

    .....mmm,being a sheer novice at marketing, I am told that advertising is dead and the only way ahead is PR. The underlying principle has always been that word-of-mouth is the most reliable way of advertising, and thus far we have only operated on the latter. We have never advertised at all as we have never had to. But now that we are expanding we need to enter into the arena of marketing, and I am busy chisseling out a plan. Your thoughts have been ever so helpful!

    Understanding human behaviour, I do know that people will reach for that which is familiar, so repitition is needed, that is how super-stars are created. They may not be so super, but they sure are familiar.

    Would I be correct in stating that one should not go for one media only, but multiple medias all at the same time?

    I am busy going through 'war plans' ( I kid you not -- it is in a Master's Degree text book on Marketing) and I am really worried that I will lead our two Software Houses on the wrong track or should that be the wrong attack?

    I think that we need to stand out from the herd today, and that the first step is our method of marketing. Doing it in a humerous way is sure getting old fast, or is it only me? Some advertising is so strong, I remember the punch line, but not the product! Pamphlets -- well, I have actually sat out by the post office and watched people collect their post to see what they do with their pamphlets. I did this on different days. A total waste of money, they all throw it out at the bins by their postal boxes! I could have saved myself a lot of time, I do the same!

    Telephone sales are just irritating, and if I get one, I don't like it at all. The general perception is that it is just a scam. As consumers we have become disillusioned & jaded. With time a scarce resource, the ads in magazines are just colour and we don't read them, same with newspapers -- we just go for the headlines of the day. So what is left?

    Please Help!

Page 1 of 4 123 ... LastLast

Similar Threads

  1. [Article] Your website is a waste of money!
    By Chatmaster in forum Marketing Forum
    Replies: 37
    Last Post: 28-Nov-10, 03:00 PM
  2. [Article] A marketing plan for a shoestring budget
    By Chatmaster in forum Marketing Forum
    Replies: 4
    Last Post: 07-Sep-10, 05:51 PM
  3. [Article] Viral Marketing
    By Chatmaster in forum Marketing Forum
    Replies: 12
    Last Post: 02-Sep-10, 10:12 AM

Tags for this Thread

Did you like this article? Share it with your favourite social network.

Did you like this article? Share it with your favourite social network.

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •