My PRgative

Shifting strategy for marketing in this transformational and disruptive era 

Marketers have lost it; they’re not in control anymore.  Instead, it’s the customers/consumers (who can also be called influencers, advocates or detractors) running things now as they leverage social media, initiate the conversations about products and services and ultimately behave as self-marketers whose word-of-mouth is as valuable a currency as a dollar, peso or yen. 

During a luncheon presented by the Houston Interactive Marketing Association, Scott Berg, director of digital strategy at HP, shared his perspective on the future of consumer and business marketing in an age where people are more connected than ever before by technology.

“If we keep focusing on and doing campaigns, business is going to suffer,” Berg said.  “Consumers are taking initiative because they have so much control.  It’s important to support and leverage this self-marketing.”

Berg said the typical model of digital marketing campaign management…

Discover – Find – Confirm/Validate – Transact – Support – Feedback/Share

must shift to a broader focus on customer ecosystem management:

Awareness – Consideration Preference – Purchase – Loyalty

The support and feedback/share segments of the campaign model have not been addressed well by marketing, Berg criticized, adding that measures of success have tended to focus on metrics related to how long a person spends with a brand (e.g. web page views, total time spent, interactions).

“We need to stop elongating the game,” he said.  “Focus instead on how quickly and how well we fulfill needs.”

Berg also offered compelling comments on market segmenting as he admonished the need for another shift – away from “finding them” to “them finding you.”  Search engine optimization, or SEO, is a critical strategy.  Also, content such as video and white papers must be distributed beyond a web site to wherever customers are doing what they do.    

Ultimately, Berg underscored that superior performance is what’s going to drive people to talk and generate that precious currency known as word-of-mouth.  “This is where buzz comes in,” he said.  “One customer comment on a Facebook page, for example, can generate a ton of email inquiries, tweets on Twitter and ongoing conversations across many platforms.”

LINKS

Houston Interactive Marketing Association – http://www.houstonima.org

Scott Berg – http://www.hp.com/blogs/thechangingfaceofmedia