The Death of Marketing

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According to Google, marketing is going to die in 2010.Then again, according to Google, it also died in 2006, 2003 and 1998. Which either means Google isn’t quite as all-seeing and omniscient as is popularly believed, or, to paraphrase Mark Twain, that the reports of marketing’s demise have been greatly exaggerated.

Or perhaps there is a third explanation. That marketing is like a phoenix – the mythical bird that dies only to be reborn, stronger than ever, from its own ashes.
The irony here is that marketing’s death should be reported on Google – the progenitor of social media – when it is ‘Social Media’ that is reportedly responsible for its downfall. In fact, marketing and social media are the perfect fit, creating a dialogue with consumers and recreating the word-of-mouth buzz that many marketers have forgotten how to generate.
So contrary to popular opinion, to emerge phoenix-like from the online ashes, marketers simply have to relearn old, fundamentally human techniques rather than learning new, computerised (de-humanised) approaches.

What’s in a name?

Language is limiting. By differentiating between ‘traditional marketing’ and ‘social marketing’, we widen the gap between two concepts that stem from the same principles. The traditional marketing paradigm has always been reliant upon people. From retailers and distributors to consumers and critics, the success or demise of brands has long been intertwined with human actions and dialogue.

The problem with regards to social media discourse is that people can see the technologies as ends within themselves, instead of what they actually are: tools by which we can re-embrace the time-honoured techniques of conversation, contact, innovation and communication.

Instead of mass communication it is a case of the masses communicating. The fact is, by its very nature, marketing cannot die. Like the cells in a human body, marketing converges and rejuvenates itself. The principles remain fundamentally the same, but the ways in which these principles are implemented are ever-changing.

The world is your dinner party…

Marketing may be alive and well, but what has died is the traditional notion of an ‘audience’. Instead of an audience, what social marketing creates is a sea of potential brand advocates whose relationship is far more complex and beneficial than the traditional producer-consumer model that has previously existed.

Marketing is now a conversation, not a monologue. Social media is in fact a return to the basic form of communication and community that people need and have utilised one a one-to-one or one-to-several basis for centuries. But as with the Fisherman and his Son, new principles can be applied to age-old techniques to produce even better results.\

The Fisherman and his Son

There once was a successful old fisherman who could not wait for the day when his son was grown enough to join him at sea.

When the day came, the fisherman said, ‘The secret you must know, son, is that the fish move in a pattern, and we must follow that pattern precisely in order to catch the most fish.’

‘Why do they follow a pattern, father?’ asked the boy.

‘They chase the seahorses, who like the warm water. As the sun travels over the surface of the water, the seahorses travel towards the warmer areas, and the fish follow the seahorses.’

The next day, the son asked, ‘Father, may I try something different to catch the fish? I think I have a way we could catch just as many fish in a fraction of the time.’

Sighing, the fisherman agreed, because he was a kind man and wanted to humour his son. The son took the wheel of the boat and steered them into the shallows. ‘What are you doing?’ cried the fisherman. ‘There is far less water here, which means there will be far less fish!’

‘But,’ said the son, ‘less water means it is easier for the sun to increase its temperature, which will attract more seahorses. More seahorses will attract more fish, and this is where we will catch them.’

‘My son!’ gasped the fisherman. ‘All these years I have wasted so much time!’

The boy shook his head. ‘Not at all, father. It was your knowledge of the sea and its creatures that showed me what was possible. Without the information you had gathered, I would never have known where to find the fish in the first place.’

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Images:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3285/2945559128_53078d246b_m.jpg

and
http://www.idealaunch.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/social-media-ball.jpg