Change

The advertising paradigm is shifting fast; How will you reach your target audience?
Over the past several decades, the marketing function has undergone evolutionary change.
During the 1950s and 1960s, marketing was fairly simple. There were fewer product categories and fewer products. There were few media vehicles: television was just coming of age, there were only two dozen major weekly magazines, and FM radio had yet to be heard.
In the 1970s, alternative radio, UHF television, special interest magazines, and the growing sophistication of direct mail brought greater diversity to the marketing mix. Marketers began to focus on niche markets. Successful products spawned product extensions. New categories developed almost overnight as consumers demanding social change also sought more diversity and uniqueness in their lives.
The 1980s saw the conglomeration of the marketing industry with the advent of mega-agencies such as McCann Worldwide and Darcy McManus Benton and Bowles. As a result, many skilled executives who were “downsized” formed “boutique” agencies and began specializing in their particular promotional forte. Niche marketing became more focused.
The 1990s offered an even more perplexing set of marketing and promotional options: hundreds of cable television channels; radio stations featuring shock jocks and Christian Coalitions; magazines for every pursuit, profession, or perversion. And most startling of all: the Internet.
The new century promises to be even more perplexing. Today, the challenge to advertisers is: “How do you go from interrupting people because you want to, to interrupting people because they want to be interrupted?”
That represents a fundamental shift in the way marketers must look at their customers. And it represents a fundamental shift in the way the media must view their readers, listeners, or viewers.
For instance, it might mean giving away content to prospective customers in exchange for permission to talk to them. In a sense, you are saying to somebody, “If you give me permission to talk to you, I will send you my monthly newsletter.”
Or a retailer might say, “Every week I will send you $10 worth of coupons for shopping at my store.” Then he can go to vendors and say, “These people want your ad as content.”
Broadcast media are having a particularly difficult time dealing with the new technologies. Remote controls have made it easier to “zip” from channel to channel. And VCR users frequently “zap” commercials when recording their favorite shows. Now, with new technologies such as TiVo and Replay TV, zappers will only make it harder for advertisers to reach them. The bottom line: Viewers may never have to hear a commercial again unless they want to.
How can TV make the transition? Here’s one way: Let’s say you’re ready to buy a car. With nearly an infinite number of cable channel options, you can tune into the General Motors Channel and watch 24 hours of infomercials about their array of automobile alternatives.
Need to go clothes shopping? Tune into the clothing channel. Perfume? Try the fragrance channel. You only watch what you want to watch.
The Internet may prove the most interactive marketing tool. For instance, most people agree word-of-mouth is the best form of advertising. The Internet digitally enhances it.
First, everybody has more acquaintances today than ever before. There are all sorts of people you can touch today using email that you never would have picked up the phone to call previously.
So now, when you have a bad experience with a car rental firm, you might tell your whole e-mail list. Or if you have a terrific meal at a new restaurant, you might tell 50 people, whereas before, you might have told two. And this word-of-mouth doesn’t lose something in the translation. It’s digital; it can simply be forwarded.
Second, people are way more receptive to new technologies. It took radio 40 years to reach 10 million listeners. Napster had 57 million users after just one year. So, new ideas and new products have a much better chance of reaching more people sooner.
Lastly, personalization is king. If it doesn’t appeal to my particular peculiarities, you’re not really marketing to me.
Several leading food companies have begun to recognize that, and now allow you to customize your food and beverage choices. Go to General Mills’s mycereal.com and create your own cereal blend from ingredients that meet your specific tastes or health needs.
Or try Procter & Gamble’s personalblends.com, which lets you customize your personal coffee blend. Answer a few questions about your ideal cup of java and your taste in certain foods, and receive a personal “tasteprint” for your perfect cup of coffee. A pound is ten bucks, plus shipping.
Ever had a hankerin’ to try Asparagus-Anisette Ice Cream? Now’s your chance. Ciao Bella Gelato will make you whatever flavor tickles your fancy [five-gallon minimum].
The future of marketing is in permission promoting. Consumers want what they want, when they want it.
The advertisers who win will be the ones who come up with a deal with the reader, the viewer, or the consumer that says, “Watch this because there’s something in it for you.”
Robert Grede is an adjunct professor of marketing at Marquette University, and author of “Naked Marketing – The Bare Essentials” (Prentice Hall). www.thegredecompany.com.
July 20, 2001 Small Business Times, Milwaukee