Kingdom Keys Bookmarking Blog

In-your-face advertising is on its last leg. If you work in marketing it might be time to un-learn what you knew worked so well for so long and do something else...

Since the sixties magazine, radio and television advertising was based on the premise that you had to interrupt as many people as you could with your wonderful self-promoting message.

Cyberspace is pulling the plug on this cosy arrangement - now consumers are googling for what takes their fancy and the smart operators who offer real value are being found at literally no cost to them.

Marketers who want to keep a tight control on their corporate image risk isolation. What matters is being willing to lose control to let a good story spread.

Savvy consumers care more about what social media says about a given topic or brand than what a political candidate or corporation says about themselves.

People are shopping online in droves. Some may like to go down to the local shopping mall but only after doing their research on the net.

Journalists scan the net for bloggers in the know. The official channels of communications are being challenged.

Stakeholders don't buy your corporate gobbledygook anymore. Instead they send an email to your CEO. Some companies waste millions in market research but fail to capitalise on the wealth of trends and feedback that comes freely in their inbox from interested parties.

God has given us one mouth and two ears. It is time for marketers to use them in that proportion. The era of the marketing corporate monologue is over. Instead companies need to engage with their marketplace and it is being done in full view of everybody including your competitors (gasp!).

Corporations have been caught off-guard for ignoring pesky requests when in fact their customer service policies were being scrutinised in broad daylight unbeknown to them.

Today you can't pick and choose the image you wish to broadcast. Your corporate behaviour IS your image. The net is an excellent medium for investigative journalism. Any passionate blogger can get to the bottom of a corporate misnomer and blast the truth from the rooftop.

Even a champion of marketing like Apple got it wrong when they tried to cover-up issues with the iPhone 4 antenna.

Marketers had it so good for so long. Now it is the turn of consumers to call the shots.

Add comment