The Farmer's Tale

Complexity in simplicity, it is amazing how efficiently everything works around us. I find great satisfaction in the natural order of things. Like water finding its natural level, social networks have become the great leveller of hype and propaganda driven by PR and Marketing firms. This large statement is deserving of explanation. Simply put, for as long as can be remembered advertisers have, with great determination, attempted to sway public opinion. This was done with significant success largely due to a monopoly on the channels of communication. That is, all major methods of communicating on a mass scale where controlled by those that could afford it. E.g. newspapers, television, radio and film. Internet revolution! Social Networks come alive! Consumers direct the brand! The rules have changed forever. In the following diagram I will outline in simple terms the new path for business ideas to grow in Social Network spaces.









1. The seed – businesses today have a great opportunity to provide input into the social network spaces. With resources and reach that are beyond most individuals there is a social obligation to foster ideas and provide content for discussion.
2. Fertile soil – when placing content it is important to locate it in areas where it has a chance to take hold. With the ease of finding information and well developed social networks around topics there is little sense in putting all things everywhere. That is, be selective where you seed your information. Placing information in inappropriate places makes it at best irrelevant and possibly seen as spam.
3. Nurture – good content delivered honestly and consistently will allow the conversation to take hold and build an audience that is interested and engaged.
4. Growth – an engaged audience that has good quality content will nurture it. Through word of mouth and adding their own content they can turn a small seed of an idea into an apple orchard of knowledge.
5. Harvest the rewards – Good work delivers good rewards. A properly managed campaign provides benefits to everyone. Consumers are rewarded with an opportunity to add value through their participation and. Businesses benefit by gaining valuable consumer feedback, loyalty and, hopefully, increased revenue.

In the coming weeks this space will provide a deeper understanding on this shift from business driven to consumer driven and how this impacts the way the two interact and respond to each other.

Online Ad Spending Increases With User Confidence

There is an avalanche of studies showing a significant migration of advertising and marketing budgets toward online spending. This is on the heels of increasing consumer confidence in online channels for doing brand research and making purchases. Information found online is quickly becoming the preferred choice for consumers to formulate brand decisions. The below articles are compelling evidence that a dramatic shift is happening and critical mass has been achieved to keep the momentum.

fhhi-europe-internet-trust-safety.jpg via kwout

Video, Social Networking to Fuel Sixfold Increase in Global IP Traffic by 2012 via kwout

Interactive Media Advertising Growth on Major Upswing via kwout

Top 100 Advertisers Shifted $1 Billion To the Web Last Year At The Expense Of TV And Newspapers via kwout

The Long and the Short of it:

The short of it

For years the marketing world and manufactures have teamed up to keep a frenzied pace of new products coming at us. The motivation for this is simple and straight forward; planned obsolescence. That is, make sure the next best thing is always in reach to keep consumers always “on” with regard to their buying behaviour. The downside to this is an avalanche of over stimulation as every new product tries to compete for its 15 minutes of fame resulting in burn out or habituation by consumers. Businesses and marketers started to recognise this some time back and as a reaction brand management was born. Brand management divided the personality of the company, the brand, from the products, thereby giving businesses a new way of “connecting” with their customers to build longer term connections or relationships. By connecting the personality of the brand with customers a relationship and loyalty could be formed thereby creating brand equity. The value of loyalty expressed as brand equity. If you question this, think of Nokia. They contribute little to the design, manufacture and support of their phones, but through management of their brand maintain a dominant segment in the mobile phone market.

In a world of overwhelming amounts of choice, people are increasingly becoming more discriminating in what they attend to and developing tunnel vision. Like riding a Harley down the freeway; if you are going for a slow drive in the country you have the luxury of turning your head and admiring all the wonders that pass by. But as you turn up the speed!!! The head goes down, the eyes narrow and your stare is straight ahead on the centre line of the road – everything in your periphery disappears. Technology has enabled this behaviour. It has both provided the feeling of being strapped to a Harley doing 150 mph with the world rushing by and also through RSS, pipes and social sites allowed us to create our own “tunnel vision” by selectively filtering out most of what is unnecessary (e.g. RSS, gadgets and pipes). Marketers take note.

The long of it

Marketing needs to embrace much of the brand management philosophy. It is no longer viable to assume that a campaign with duration of 30 days or less will have an impact on consumers that are looking for stability and consistency in their choices. 64% of all persons on the internet have a “home site” that they visit daily. Marketing strategies, like brand strategies need to invest for the long term to build an audience based on consistency, affirming customer values and being engaging through dialog. I am introducing the term Marketing Equity in this blog entry. Outside of the academic world there is little discussion on this topic and “OMG!” no entry in Wikipedia; which proves my point. The value of a customer’s time and attention is at an all time premium. Their selectivity and ability to control the content they receive is becoming more precise. If you are lucky enough to get some attention, only a fool would waste the opportunity by letting their gaze drift away. Marketers need to develop comprehensive campaigns that engage customers for the longer term with interactive, informative and engaging campaigns that, like their brand counterparts, tap into the values of the customer to build lasting loyalty as expressed through marketing equity.

If You Don’t Know The Answer, Ask Yourself

When you go to buy a new toy or plan a holiday where do you go for trusted advice? Well if you are like most people you spend some time on line doing some research, but you most likely ask a friend for recommendations. If this is the case, you are in good company.

A Neilson study showed that the top 3 sources for getting recommendations are:

78% from other consumers (friends)
63% newspaper articles
61% from consumers online they don’t know

The least trusted methods are:

34% search engine ads
26% banner ads on websites
18% text messages on mobile phones

So why are internet marketers continuing to push search engines, banner ads and text messages? The answer is simple, they will sell what they know, and not necessarily what is best. For too long, advertisers have delivered messages in one direction. Imagine trying to ask your TV a question?

Well, the internet is a social/ democratic medium. It is the first time in the history of mankind that everyone can contribute, comment and share ideas as a collective whole. When it is possible to have immediate access to personal endorsements or criticisms why look at advertisement?

We learn very early that advertising exists for 2 reasons:

1 it pays for the free stuff we get to watch
2 businesses have to convince us to buy stuff

So if you are a business and are wondering how to reach your online consumers, ask your self a simple question “what would I do”?

Advertising and marketing will be with us for a long time, but hopefully, online marketers will wake up and realise that the virtual world is a very different place.

Spam Does Not Come In A Can

Today I had to bid farewell to an important part of my life. Some 10 years ago I first initiated myself into the internet world by purchasing a domain; Dougs-world.com. It was both fitting and exciting. For many years that "virtual address" was my only permanent address. As I travelled the world the only certain way for friends and family to stay in touch was through this address. Many times it served as back up for business as well, however, as time went by more unwanted spam started to appear. Yesterday the count was 2506 mails in slightly less than one day. This alone stuns me. But what was even more surprising was the number that was caught by the filter before it even reached my personal mail box.

After having a crash of our mail system I did some searching around and found that the catchall mail file had been tracking the overload for some time. More than 250,000 mails from spammers lay fallow in this box. Like a giant log jam on a river the flow of water had completely stopped.

Since there appear to be no apparent way to stop the onslaught I must reluctantly let go of this piece of my life. Dougs-world, or at least my mail address, will be laid to rest under an avalanche of spam. Not exactly a pleasant image, but the truth.

I usually do not go gently into the good night as the poem, and this time is no exception. However, sometimes you must realise that, whereas the war may still be won, the battle must be conceded.

With great sorrow, I concede.