Will Old Marketing be New Again?

The Future of Marketing

It’s time for the classic marketing disciplines to make a comeback. We’ve had our fun with social media, but now it’s time to grow up. Social media is a tool that enables marketing, it doesn’t replace it. In fact, a case could be made that social media’s misuse has led to a decline in the quality and effectiveness of marketing.

That was the consensus of the marketers participating in my most recent podcast episode: The Decline and Fall of Marketing Discipline. The following is an excerpt from the podcast with the marketers commenting on the future of marketing. Participating are Stephen Denny, Emanuel Brown, Michael Wagner, with my comment at the end.

(Email Subscribers and feed readers, if you can’t see the video player, click here: The Future of Marketing)

This is not an indictment of social media. But when social media made it’s way into marketing, marketers changed. They lost their focus. It was as if somehow customers instantly became someone else because you have a Facebook page. Supposedly the old laws of the marketing universe no longer applied. It’s akin to saying the laws of thermodynamics no longer apply because someone invented a thermometer. A lot of social media gurus have made a nice living leading businesses astray.

So what are the classic disciplines of marketing? They are what I consider to be the four essential spots of marketing, as illustrated in the Marketing Circle of Life: Branding, the Customer Experience, Conversation (which includes social media), and Advertising. Some marketers might add research, testing and others. That’s fine, but if you stick to the first four, you will have a solid and effective marketing plan to build your business.

So are you ready to “dig the old wells?” You can listen to the complete discussion on marketing discipline and professionalism on the podcast website: The Decline and Fall of Marketing Discipline. Please add your opinion in the comment section below


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