Marketers have to answer consumers’ questions

It wasn’t so long ago that the marketer’s quiver held a handful of arrows. The skillful often chose some combination of print advertising, radio, broadcast television and cable spots, Yellow Pages ads, direct mail, billboards, special events, telemarketing, press stories – and of course, word of mouth. These were the trusted marketing tools.
That was then; this is now. And everything has changed. In fact, it is still changing.
Some may see what is occurring as a transition from the old to the new. But it may be more than that.
This picture came into abrupt focus one morning when the telephone rang. It was a vendor from a company placing video monitors displaying consumer ads in supermarkets.
“As you know, advertisers are trying new ways to get to customers,” said the salesperson, who was expressing the deepening dilemma facing companies today. Not only are there no silver bullets, but the bullet supply is running mighty low.
In fact, no one has a corner on “right answers” today when it comes to marketing tactics. When someone asks if a particular tactic will produce the desired results, there is only one acceptable answer: It all depends on the product or service, the target demographic, the message and, particularly, how the target customers want to be approached.
The CNN debates with Democratic and Republican candidates are a good example of the profound changes taking place not only in political marketing, but in the entire marketing universe. Perhaps the most dramatic event took place in July when 3,300 people posted video questions on YouTube for a Democratic presidential candidates’ debate. It may come to be thought of as a marketing watershed in political campaigning.
The event sent the message that the public wants “real people” to question the candidates.
While this is but one example of the many communication changes taking place today, it illustrates the sea change that’s occurring.
To put it as clearly as possible, no marketer can say with certainty how to reach a particular audience as things stand today. If that isn’t enough, there is reason to doubt that the clouds of confusion will soon part and the sunlight of certainty will shine again.
Here are some “thought-lines” when considering an organization’s marketing strategies:
• All marketing tactics are temporary. The time has come to recognize that there are no permanent solutions. One major soft drink company is changing the design of its cans every 12 weeks in an effort to grab attention, while wine bottles are quickly becoming works of art.
The e-mail blast frenzy lasted about a year, about as long as it took to ramp up the spam filters. The question today is always, what’s next? Will Google’s cell phone deliver advertising messages that work with consumers? Should electronic ads be games? If there is a message in all this, don’t expect any tactic to last. Everything is temporary. Technology will constantly open the way to new opportunities.
• All marketing is essentially experimental. “We’re waiting to see how all this shakes out before we do anything,” says a company president. The words are hauntingly reminiscent of those who announced rather proudly that they would wait to buy a computer until they were perfected. Today, these same people view their computers as disposable. It all happened in just a few years.
Even though there are those who like to suggest that they have “the answer,” it’s clear that all marketing is, to one extent or another, experimental. There are no certainties, no guarantees.
• Marketing requires an array of tactics. Rather than bouncing three or four balls at one time, marketers are juggling up to a dozen or more at the same time. The marketing concept is finding ways to connect as intimately and meaningfully as possible with individual customers, recognizing that not even three or four venues can deliver your message to your entire universe of customers and prospects.
• Customers are the only experts. Perhaps the most poignant moment of the CNN TV debate featuring the videoed questions was the one featuring the woman who had lost her hair as a result of breast cancer treatment. Nothing was more real than her question about health care.
Al Wittemen, the managing director for retail strategy for Advantage Retail and a marketer for 35 years, points out that today’s customers think less about brands and more about themselves. He uses prepared foods as an example.
When the customer comes to the supermarket, there is far less interest in picking out a particular brand than there is in picking out dinner for tonight. In other words, “shoppers … are looking for relevant solutions to their immediate needs,” he notes.
Why did an advertising agency replace a higher-end well-known brand (Xerox) copy machine with a lesser known one (Lexmark)? It’s simpler, faster and more flexible.
When customers are getting ready to make a purchase today, the first place they go is to the Internet, to look for what others have to say.
Among his observations regarding customer behavior, George Colony, the Forrester Research CEO, says that while 100-question surveys might help measure customer satisfaction, there is one question that will do the job: “Would you recommend this product or service to a friend or colleague?”
It’s time to forget about the hype and listen to the customers; they’re the experts. •
John R. Graham is president of Graham Communications, a marketing and sales consulting firm. He can be reached at j_graham@grahamcomm.com.