I've been watching Season 6 of "Mad
Men." As fans know (and
to boil it down to almost nothing), the show is about the history of
advertising (the 50s, 60s, and 70s, so far) as seen though the eyes of
copywriters and account pitchmen. The premise that the world can be moved by
ground-breaking ad copy may have been true at one time. That time has passed. Here's the deal.
In 2013, consumers really have "heard it all" (about
one million to seven million times per year, according to Yankelvich
Research).
No wonder, in this heavy laden content world, consumers
both recognize and loathe being talked at and
down to.
A case in point: Overuse of the term "community."
Look folks, I'm your customer, not a member of your self-anointed community. True, I may love your product design
and functionality (iPad) or treasure the incomparably customer-centric way you
do business (Amazon). But I'm really just an Amazon enthusiast/fan and an Apple user (Note: Once upon a time, when the Mad
Men were young, I used to be part of the Apple community because it was a community ... but that's
another story).
A second case in point: The co-opting of genuine customer
service by the telecom industry's la-de-da marketing (or is it their
NON-marketing) C-suiters. Have a problem? If you call in, you're sure to get
recorded messages like these:
"Please hold;
your call is very important to us."
or
"A
customer service executive will be right with you."
You've got to be kidding me, Comcast. Your customer service
"executives" are paid a pittance. The big bucks go to investors and
lobbyists who haunt Congress for de-regulation favors. We all know this.
Get real .. or we'll get you. Lose your grip on that monopoly and you're done.
We will remember.
Consumers Fight Back with Sharing
We've been hearing about "authentic" marketing for
quite awhile. It matters ... a lot. But too many folks with something to sell,
sell us short. We're
getting even .. On message boards and Twitter and Facebook pages and Yelp. And
here's an even bigger threat to "fool me twice": the sharing economy. Here, from an article in The
Economist, check out
what is, perhaps, the most successful peer-to-peer sharing scheme yet.
"LAST
night 40,000 people rented accommodation from a service that offers 250,000
rooms in 30,000 cities in 192 countries. They chose their rooms and paid for
everything online. But their beds were provided by private individuals, rather
than a hotel chain. Hosts and guests were matched up by Airbnb, a firm based in San Francisco. Since
its launch in 2008 more than 4m people have used it—2.5m of them in 2012 alone.
It is the most prominent example of a huge new “sharing economy”, in which
people rent beds, cars, boats and other assets directly from each other,
co-ordinated via the internet."
This! Your house and mine, now competing with one of the
most price-aggressive, stable industries in the world: hotels!
It's not quite over yet, though. Here are a few positives
for combating cons and intrusions while retaining the marketing edge and
dealing with/cashing in on/exploiting the trend to peer sharing:
1. Do be authentic. It's okay to be funny (Mayhem is) and brilliant copywriting still
builds customer goodwill (brought to you by "the most interesting
man in the world"). But
don't even try to cover up the truth.
2. If you have loyal customers, you already have the makings of
your own "shared economy." Group pricing? Hosted information roundtables?
Shipping/logistics packages? None of these are brand new, but maybe you have a
twist to add. Consider the possibilities.
3. The world is rearranging its parts, which suggests new
partnership opportunities. For example, who would have thought that hands-on
construction worker types-- or realtors, for that matter -- could so
successfully partner with artsy-heartsy interior designers? The Property
Brothers, that's who... and
they are cashing in.
4. Customers are both voting with their feet and screaming
as they head for the exit. Voting and screaming. This could work.
Stay thirsty, my friends.
-- scrubbed by MarketingBrillo
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