The challenges facing marketers in 2009

[derrickm]

"The first big challenge marketers face will be to decide just when to start taking web-based consumer forums and mobile social networks seriously. By mid-2009 a new undersea cable is expected to make Internet access faster, more accessible and ultimately cheaper for many South Africans. Which in turn will give impetus to the already growing phenomenon of consumers complaining, criticising and generating false perceptions in web-based social networks. My advice would be to start taking this seriously now."

Read the rest of this article by Chris Moerdyk over at BizCommunity.com:
http://www.bizcommunity.com/Article/196/423/31578.html

[IanF]

Derek
Thanks for this, I need to keep a wary eye on the future.

[Dave A]

I tend to disagree with this...

While the old-fashioned tactic of battening down the hatches and waiting for the storm to pass will result in abject failure.

and this

Marketing is an expensive exercise and particularly in this day and age, no-one can be cavalier with it to the extent of simply giving something a try to see what happens.

although I can understand why professional marketers would like us to believe that.

My question on the growing importance of social media is - is this good news or bad news for the smaller business?

My take is it requires more personal attention, which for once levels the playing field in the direction of the smaller business.

[derrickm]

I think he's saying that marketers have to take risks rather than ignore the changes in the marketing world...

"Never before, in the history of South Africa, have its marketers faced quite so many daunting challenges and those that will come through the economic downturn successfully will be those who understand that calculated risk is an integral and necessary part of business today.

While the old-fashioned tactic of battening down the hatches and waiting for the storm to pass will result in abject failure. "


Chris Moerdyk is certainly addressing professional marketers, rather than us entrepreneurial types - his background (BMW, Lindsay Smithers FCB) almost guarantees it.

And in my opinion it's easier than ever to "simply give something a try to see what happens".

I've just posted a video on my blog which explains how to use social media to market your business: http://idealmedia.co.za/how-to-use-social-media-for-marketing/

[Dave A]

I take "battening down the hatches" as cutting expenditure to the bone - getting rid of anything frivolous or extravagant - and that never hurts.

Chris Moerdyk is certainly addressing professional marketers, rather than us entrepreneurial types - his background (BMW, Lindsay Smithers FCB) almost guarantees it.

As a professional marketer, I'm sure he isn't above slipping in a message to influence his clients' thinking as well

Personally, I'd suggest the greatest challenge facing professional marketers is persuading their existing clients not to coast on their existing momentum through the worst of the storm

Just in case you think I'm negative on the article overall, I'm certainly not. I found the section on getting attention and the following part...

Adcock claimed that if this checklist were applied properly and logically, a marketing project will either not get off the ground or if it does, it will succeed. Funnily enough, the kind of logic that accountants seem to understand far better than marketers.

...particularly deep insights.

[Chatmaster]

Although in general I feel it is a well written article, I can not help but to wonder about the same lines Dave was wondering about.

Marketing is an expensive exercise and particularly in this day and age, no-one can be cavalier with it to the extent of simply giving something a try to see what happens.

I cannot say I agree with this statement. Compared to the conventional marketing methods which are not that effective anymore, Internet marketing is far from expensive on no matter what size of your company is or what level you are doing it.

What makes marketing expensive is the fact that they have always made money by spending money. This has been changing for years. In the US conventional marketing is rapidly shrinking compared to Internet marketing spent that is rapidly growing. This is a trend all over the world.

Lets define expensive. Expensive is when you have terrible ROI, that is simply not true of your online marketing campaigns are planned properly, so to make a statement that marketing is expensive is to me a really bad generalisation.
Online marketing can be tracked whilst conventional marketing hardly have any form of reliable tracking. You can adapt your marketing strategies to fit your budget and still have a good ROI.