There is an old saying that is so overused but so true:

If you don’t change what you are doing, you are doing, you will keep getting the same results.

Personally I think that this is the definition of insanity – especially when I look at what most marketers are currently doing.

The problem with marketing is that everything has changed, and most marketers are not even aware of this. They have been trained in a traditional way and become highly effective technicians in applying the cornerstone of traditional marketing. Yet these cornerstones of traditional marketing no longer work very well.

The Traditional Marketing Model is Broken

Most marketers won’t believe me when I say that 99 % of traditional media is wasted and most marketing research does not uncover the real reasons why your customers buy. Traditional big budget marketing is no longer the powerhouse solution it used to be.

And these are the reasons for most brand manager’s existence. I guess it is hard to hear that you are no longer relevant – and we have a huge industry with a vested intrest – namely the advertsing, brand and reaserch industries. They are worth billions in any language or currency.

So What Has Changed?

Here are some of the underlying drivers of this change — and why it is important to you:

• Your customers no longer believe what you say and no longer pays attention when you talk to them. In other words: Your Customer Knows You Are Biased
• Marketing is not about communication channels anymore but rather an evolution in how your customer thinks and how they make buying choices.
• Today product marketing and customer marketing are two completely different things:
  • Product marketing focuses on communicating products and benefits;
  • Customer marketing focuses on the experience.
• Marketing is a change management process – if you want to change how people perceive you, you have to change how they experience your organisation. You have to change how you do things.
• Too many marketers are technicians who apply a big budget, plug-and-play program that are driven by creative agencies and ideas.
• Your marketing must mirror how your customers think and your brand must encourage a community and an customer experience.

Today’s Marketing Trap

Most marketing is about taking an idea and pushing it out through as many channels as possible – whether this is through twitter, TV, Outdoor or whatever. And this is the trap and false sense of comfort marketers get.

The simple truth is your customer doesn’t trust you and the attention they gave you in the past is no longer a guarantee – whether its on TV or on Twitter.

So how do you avoid the trap? Well, the first step is to stop broadcasting (which would effectively shut down about 95% of the marketing departments) and start applying some new rule.

The 5 Simple Marketing Rules That Will Redefine Your Marketing

Here is a guideline on what I think the top five changes you need to make:

• Your Brand Is A Mindset. It is a customer experience: Your brand is worth something, because your customers believe it is worth something. It’s not about your product, features and benefits. It is about what it does for your customers and how that allows them to express themselves and tell their own story.
• The Desire Already Exists: So stop trying create it with really expensive advertising campaigns. It’s time to channel it, leverage it. It’s time to get your customers involved.  This means you really need to understand how your customer thinks and understand the micro-niche is within your larger market segments. This is why earned media works so well.
• Contextually Relevant: Your communication is no longer just the big media. It is this, the newer media’s, your staff, your customers, and every other component of your business to communicate something. The key to your communication strategy is not content, but rather being relevant to every touch point and the customer experience that is designed to create earned media.
• Paid Versus Earned Media: Your customers and not listening to you any more. And what they say about you is far more important than what you say about you. You need to get them on board, by creating such a positive mind, blowing experience that they keep coming back to you for more — and they bring their friends with them.
• Loyalty: The objective of your marketing campaign is to create customers who are loyal and keep coming back for more. So stop focusing on awareness, AR’s and any other relevant measurement. It’s not going to help you.

Your Marketing Must Mirror Your Customer’s Thinking

The canned marketing approach has very little impact — and way too expensive.

To make your marketing effective you need to map it around your customers thought process to create an experience that they want to talk about. In fact they must rave about it. You need to create a Customer Utopia – or as we call it RaveTopia  :)

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