Insights on Today’s Marketing Issues
Don’t Panic, It’s Just Hysteria.
I’ve been quiet this year, just taking it all in from the pandemic doomsday forecasts of how marketing will be changing. It’s amazing to me how many in our industry are proclaiming that the coronavirus and resulting shut down will change everything in this country, and perhaps the world forever.
Great Storytelling Principles
I spend a lot of time writing about storytelling. It’s my passion, and it’s a huge point of difference between Spiker Communications and our competition, just like between you and your competition.
The Future May Not Include Your Phone
Smartphone supremacy is starting to wane. The devices aren’t going away anytime soon, but their grip on the consumer is weakening. Global sales slump, lack of new advancements, and the price of today’s new models make smartphones not look so smart anymore.
Don’t Hate Old People
We are undergoing the largest demographic change in human history and it is being completely ignored by the absurd large marketing and advertising agencies and brands.
Support A Cause
We’ve reached a point where companies can no longer, and should no longer, stay silent about broad-reaching social issues. Employees are speaking up to hold their employers accountable to their own missions, and customers are loyal to brands they believe align with their personal values, such as Zappos, Patagonia and Nike.
Be Non-Traditional
Part of the reason many marketers and their agencies continue to produce traditional solutions to marketing problems is because they continue to use the same traditional methods of problem solving − got to have a website right away, followed by a social media campaign to drive traffic to the new site, etc. We can’t continue to use the same methods and approaches and expect to get different results than we what got last year or the year before.
Are Your Briefs Tight Enough?
Trying to do more marketing with less investment this year? You’re not alone in trying to do more with less money. It can be done, it’s not as hard as you may believe, but it starts with your scope of work, and a better-managed briefing process may be the answer to your marketing team. Clients want sales, fair enough, and most client direction is flat wrong. Clients think the job of the Brief is to provide a cast-in-stone solution to the sales problem.
New Age of Storytelling
We all hear the word “Storytelling” in our business. It’s gotten so over used that most people can’t actually tell a story anymore. As marketers, we are all part of the ancient, campfire-born traditions − not Blazing Saddles after a plate of beans, but something more like Dances with Wolves waiting for the buffalo herds to arrive.
Let’s Be The Change
We’ve reached a point where brands can no longer, and should no longer, stay silent about broad-reaching social issues. Employees are speaking up to hold their employers accountable to their own missions, and customers are loyal to brands they believe align with their personal values − whether that’s about sustainable practices such as the use of plastic water bottles or livable wages. It’s an exciting time for consumers and employees and is also the right time for brands to be thoughtful.
Experiences, Not Things
A recent 20-year study conducted by Dr. Thomas Gilovich at Cornell came to the conclusion: Don’t spend your money on things. The trouble with things is that the happiness they provide fades quickly. 1. We get used to new possessions and tire of them quickly; 2. We keep raising the bar, and are always on the lookout for an even better one; and 3. The Joneses are always lurking nearby, and we are thrilled with our possession until a friend buys a better one − and somebody always has a better one. It’s America after all. I once had a client with a private jet and he loved it until the day he parked it next to a Boeing Business Jet in Vegas, and it wasn’t long before he had one of those.