Being real is for real in marketing today
It’s been a busy day for me at Mplanet, where I conducted 20 interviews in the Mplanet studio with speakers, attendees and sponsors. The over-riding message I heard from them is that marketing in this economy has to leave hype behind and connect with customers in genuine, real ways.
That starts by listening to your customers to discover what their needs are today and then responding with products or services that answer those needs and do it in a way or ways – whether online or off – consumers want.
“One-to-one marketing has really arrived,” thanks to the technologies available today to target messaging, said Anne Mulcahy, chairman and CEO of Xerox. But to be effective in one-to-one, marketers need to communicate relevant and meaningful information to their customers, she said.
The initial impulse in this economy may be to pull back on marketing innovation. But the experts I interviewed agree that the opposite course – experimenting to discover new strategies and tactics that work – is the one that will produce the best long-term results.
“This is the time for marketers to really market,” said Ralph Oliva, executive director of the Institute for the Study of Business Markets.
Good advice and words that Mplanet attendees will likely take to heart as they return to their companies and organizations after the conferences ends Wednesday.
John N. Frank, editorial director, Marketing News
Posted by John Frank on January 27, 2009 6:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
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