Somewhat belatedly I have just read this blog - Marketing is Dead - on the Harvard Business Review (HBR) website. As a marketer, obviously I wondered on seeing the title if my career was doomed but reading the blog I guess it isn't, it just needs to change in ways which I have already been doing. As is so often the case, the word "marketing" has been mis-used here, it should say be titled "Advertising is Dead". The copy points out that traditional communication methods - those which Seth Godin refers to as interrupt marketing - are no longer effective. I sort of agree and disagree with that, it is certainly the case that customers of all types are using recommendations from others as a major part of their purchase decision, but I do think there is a place for good, traditional advertising, to make people aware of a new product or service - the only people who will recommend at that stage are those who have been paid to do so, directly or indirectly.
A customer needs to be made aware of a product before they will investigate if it is what they want, and good advertising, online or offline, can create that awareness. Take the traditional purchase decision model:
Need recognition and problem awareness
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Information search
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Evaluation of alternatives
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Purchase
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Post purchase evaluation
The basic process still applies, but now rather than talking to the supplier or their representative at the information search stage we may ask for solutions to the problem online, and then evaluate the alternatives through recommendations. But if something is new and different, solving a problem people don't know they have, the awareness has to be generated somehow and that is where traditional marketing still has a role to play, but it may need to be much more creative than was previously the case.
What do you think?
