Can Marketing Save the World?

Last weekend I had an interesting experience.  On Friday and in part Saturday I participated in the International Marketing Congress in Ghent.  On Monday, I was at TEDxBrussels, which by now has become the biggest TEDx in the world.  The two events couldn’t have been more different.

On Friday, IMC marketers were struggling on how to make their initiatives more relevant to their customers.  Here, most speakers stuck to safe ground and repeated the same old same old.  On Monday, TED-sters were challenging themselves and the audience on how they could save the world. Several speakers launched daring prepositions, which sparked debate and even disagreement.

So in the past few days I had this thought.  What if – when considering their relevance – marketers upped their ambition levels.  What if they stopped talking about content marketing, social media and Chief Friendship Officers (?!) and started asking themselves how they could actually change the world?  Make it better?

This doesn’t need to happen on a global scale.  Even though it would take only 3% of the world’s advertising budget to give schooling to all kids in the developing world and 5% would wipe out AIDS.   

It can happen in many small ways.  What if every marketing initiative actually made the world a slightly better place?  Made customer’s life easier?  Did something useful for society?  Helped colleagues in the business to do a better job?

There are hundreds of ways marketing funds could be used to add to the lives of those it targets, instead of intruding on them in a pointless effort of mass-manipulation.  

The good news is that this doesn’t have conflict with the need for marketing to generate a measurable ROI.  On the contrary, customer economics have shown for a while that the intrusion and quick profit game is ending.  Instead, shareholder value is created by being relevant, being engaging and building a reputation among an ever more loyal customer franchise.  Actually doing something these customers consider worthwhile, is probably a good place to start.

So have a look at everything that you have planned for 2011 and ask yourself, how do your marketing initiatives change the world?

How Relevant Are You? Really?

It’s official, marketing is irrelevant.  At least, it looks that way when you look at the topic of this year’s International Marketing Congress.  After all, if all was in good order, would a thousand marketers gather to discuss the ways they can increase the relevance of their profession?

I know, things aren’t that black and white.  And I also know that not everyone going to the conference does so for the content and agenda.  But I would nonetheless like to challenge both those that visit the event as well as those that are on stage to do a little bit more than just “chat about relevance” over a glass of champagne.

We’ve had enough marketing conferences where gurus say that the world needs to change, audiences wholeheartedly agree, and the next Monday the world just continues as it was.  We don’t need more words.  We don’t really need more tools.  We definitely don't need more thoughts about the next bright and shiny object that is going to save the marketing profession.

What we need is less conversation and more action.  Most of what we need has been invented, so rather than talk about how marketing needs to be more relevant, engaging and reputation focused we should focus on actually DOING IT.

So if, like me, you’re going to the conference next weekend, I would like to throw you a challenge:

If you attend the conference as a delegate                               

Don’t get caught up in the marketing circus of erudite gurus and naked girls promoting the latest advertising agency on the block (for our American readers “welcome to Belgium” :-)).  Instead, ask yourself How relevant am I?  How relevant is it what I do?  Really?  If you need some help pondering this, let me offer you following questions:

• If you interrupted your Christmas dinner to tell your family about your last three marketing initiatives, would they really get excited for any other reason than that they love you?  Even if they were in the target audience?
• If you had taken half the year off and scratched 50% of your marketing initiatives, would your business have lost more net profits than the savings you would have generated?  What if you hadn’t shown up at all?
• Have the marketing initiatives you have taken made this world a better place to live in? Or have you just added to the clutter, the noise and the pollution?

If the answers are anything but a resounding yes, I respectfully submit that when you go to the #SMC2010, you simply ignore anyone trying to sell you relevance as the next quick fix.  Hunt for those pieces of knowledge that allow you to make a real difference.  After all, relevance is not a trend, it’s a state of mind. 

If you have the honour of speaking at the #SMC2010

Please lay off the bright and shiny object talk.  Please don’t just come with great concepts and stories but no examples, or suggestions on how to implement them.  Just like in real life, we all know we should eat healthily, exercise and save the whales.  But knowing is not enough.  Show us HOW to do it.  What are the steps we need to take?  How do we connect what you present to the customer’s experience.  How do we translate it into bottom line results?

You will be facing a room of close to a thousand people that are asking the question “How can I become more relevant to my customers, to my business, to the world at large?”. 

Please add to all our lives by making your speech relevant as well.

Full disclosure:  yes, I’m going to the conference as guest blogger which has given me some perks.  But – as the organizer can vouch – even considering to go anyway :-).

#ChangeMarketing: Shift Perspectives #2 Is Out

Changing  the face of marketing is something that takes vision and persistence.  With the publication of Shift Perspectives #2, Bogdan Meica & Stefan Moghina are proving once again to have both.

This time focusing on the topic of innovation, our two Romanian friends have brought together the likes of Seth Godin, Mitch Joel, Gerald Nanninga and many of the people you find on this blog in one publication that is sure to make you think.

But there’s more.  On www.shiftperspectives.net they have provided their own answer to the Battlecry to #ChangeMarketing and have created an online think-tank where all those who want to make marketing work for society can unite.

So once again we’re proud to be the first of inviting you to read this publication, and encourage you to join the Shift Perspectives community.  Because making marketing work is something we all need to do together.

The original Battlecry.

Change Marketing v01

It’s Valentine, and I Want a Divorce

Dear Marketer,

Valentine just passed, and together with many others, my wife and I celebrated that sacred bond that only loved ones can share: a warm and lasting relationship. But as we did, I also started thinking about that “other” relationship you tell me I should have.  The relationship with your brand and your company. 

As I reflected on the way that you treated me over the past 10 years, I could only conclude that in spite of all the signals, advisors and self-help books, you haven’t really changed your ways.  You’re too addicted to your organizational silos, your KPI’s, your industry habits. 

But I have.  I’m not dependent on you anymore.  I have alternatives which don’t give me the hassle.  So like the lady in The Break Up, which should have been your wake-up call, I am seriously considering a divorce. 

And just in case my reasons aren’t fully clear, I’ll sum them up one last time …

#1 You talk talk talk talk talk … and talk.
When I want to talk you never listen.  But when you have something to say, there’s no shutting you up.  You interrupt my movies, my music, my life.  Not for something valuable, but just to tell me about yet another nip/tuck you had.  And if I try to tune you out because I want a moment to myself, you just shout louder.

# 2 You don’t respect my space
When I befriended you on Facebook, I didn’t give you permission to stalk me. And after that  one purchase I made I also didn’t want you to call, mail and intrude my space.  Yesterday you even managed to get my computer to start promoting a new software to me!  My space is my own and you’re not part of it.

# 3 You take me for granted
There was a time when you swept me off my feet.  You turned my world upside down and sparks flew at every encounter.  But as time went by, the surprises became less and today I don’t think you even try.  But don’t be mistaken, I still want to be wooed.  Not every day, but occasionally.  And you’re simply not doing it.

#4 You never call
In fact, you make it even hard for me to call you.  Before you’ll even talk to me, I have to enter all sorts of codes to explain what I want from you.  And when after fifty rings you finally pick up, I’m put on hold, transferred and often rerouted to square one.  Not to mention that every minute, you charge me for the privilege.

#5 You have a wandering eye
You know, it’s not like I mind that you’re promiscuous.  You’ve got to make a living, and that’s fine.  But I do mind that every new love in your life always gets a better deal than I do.  Last month you even started giving away for free something I paid for 6 months ago.  And no, a discount voucher for my next purchase will not do the trick.

#6 Your conditional love is so hollow
So you reward me for my loyalty.  Great.  It really makes me feel all warm and cuddly to know that I’ve accumulated another 100 points towards that water heater I’ll be able to buy in 3 years.  And by the time I get there you probably change the system so I lose most of my benefits anyway.  You know, I’ve had it with your loyalty scams.

#7 You don’t know me
I don’t just mean that as a figure of speech.  You REALLY don’t know me.  I walk into your stores or onto your website and each time I come to the conclusion you forgot all about me.  Who I am, what I like, what I bought last.  And if I want your help, half the time I need to pull out our prenup to prove that my request warrants your attention.

#8 You only notice me when I threaten to leave
Last month, when I said I had enough and told you I didn’t want to buy from you any more, you suddenly took notice.  In fact, you called me twice and offered me all sorts of benefits to stay.  Things I didn’t even know you had. And while you almost had me fooled to come back to you, it was just too little too late.

# 9 You keep putting my stuff in different drawers
And now I think about it, there’s another thing that annoys the hell out of me.  Every time I’ve gotten used to one of your products or propositions, you start changing it.  You claim this is for my own good. But you never asked me about it.  If you had, you would have known that I actually “liked” things the way they were.  That I didn’t want to “change”.

# 10 And then there’s all the other stuff you do
Like treating me like I’m stupid enough to believe that eating your cookies is going to make my family happy.  Like using transparent ploys to turn me into a WOM-medium for your viral jokes.  Like making hollow promises which somehow don’t get fulfilled.  Like … 

So what do you say?

I don’t want to be the lover scorned.  If I’m really honest, I actually want our relationship to work.  And if you’ve read to this point, you probably still care.  So here’s my challenge.  I won’t leave, if you work with me.  If you help me re-invent marketing.  Make it matter again.  I’ll write more about it shortly, yet if you are truly ready to become a different type of brand, let me know. 

Let’s change reality together: one brand and customer at the time.

Shift Perspectives. A Publication “Endorsed by Futurelab”.

These are exciting times.  Sure, we have a recession, and there is the looming threat of inflation, unemployment and further value destruction.  But all these clouds are also lined with opportunity.  The opportunity to change the way we work.  To set things right.

After all, people only change when they “have to”.  And from a business perspective, this is the case.  In many companies, doing more of the same is not an option any more.  While this poses challenges, it also allows shedding the bad practices that have accumulated over the past two decades.  The mindless shout and sell communication efforts.  The customer-toxic practices.  The often uninspiring types of innovation which shun breakthrough risk to the benefit of play-it-safe-incrementalism.

So for me, and for Futurelab, these are great times.  After all, beyond helping our clients, we are on a mission to change the nature of marketing itself.  We want to bring the profession back to its roots by focusing on the customer, the bottom line and breakthrough innovations that truly differentiate company.  We want to make marketing an all-company sport.  Get finance, logistics, sales, production, HR and yes even the marketing department to do what is right for the business and for the customer, rather than what their silos dictate. 

But we cannot do this alone.  In fact, no one can.  For marketing to regain its position as a truly meaningful profession, it needs to step away from the centralist knowledge paradigm.  Here, a number of smart people hold all knowledge and disseminate this to those less literate.  They often call themselves professors, thought leaders, strategists or even gurus.

Yet if there is one thing we've learned from this recession, is that no one holds all the wisdom.  The world as we know it has become unpredictable, and anyone claiming to have all the answers is simply not being truthful.

That is why we have started to look for initiatives from people that get it.  Individuals whose thinking and actions we can help amplify with the means we have available.  You are currently looking at one of them.

Shift Perspectives # 1

Launched by Bogdan Meica & Stefan Moghina, Shift Perspectives  is a digital publication that transfers on to 30 pages what we attempt to do on the Futurelab blog.  Bring together the thinking of some of the sharpest minds in marketing, strategy and innovation into one thought-provoking piece.

I have to say, they did it quite well.  From Seth Godin to Tom Anderson they brought together global thinkers who understand that a project by two young people in Romania can have the same value than the journal of a prestigious business school.

To ensure it also has the same reach, I am proud that they asked Futurelab to endorse their initiative and help launch it to world.  This we gladly do.  Because it is people like Bogdan and Stefan that are the real change agents of the marketing revolution.