The 2020 Vision of Marketing

Denise Wymore
June 29, 2010 | COMMENTS

Ten years ago we were celebrating the non-event that distracted us for over a year—the impending doom that was to be the Y2K crisis. Remember that? It was marketing's warning shot across the bow and we ignored it. Marketing was classified as a “non essential function.” Should the computer catastrophe pan out, there was to be no marketing effort or expense in the aftermath.

So relieved were we that our computers came up on New Year's Day that we just kept right on with our quarterly advertising campaigns promoting bland products with puns and shiny happy people. No one wanted to concede the well-deserved label that was slapped on our department during the drills for doomsday.

Now it's 2010. We're in our third year of the greatest economic crisis since the depression. Our corporate network system created havoc on our bottom line at a time when we could ill afford it. Marketing budgets are getting hit and marketers are getting laid off. Was it true? Have we made ourselves non-essential in a time of crisis?

I believe that marketing is more important than ever, but advertising is dying a slow and painful death. In the next 10 years, I believe you will see the following things happen:

1. Local radio broadcasts funded by advertisers will go silent.

• Northwestern University does not offer a single degree in radio anymore because, as the Dean of the School says, “Students are not interested in radio.”
• Since the Telecommunications Act of 1996 was put into effect, the consolidation of the industry has created a homogeneous, far less creative industry. Small markets are laying off employees and getting rid of most if not all of their local programming.
• The growth of Internet radio. It's already being made available as a factory-installed option in many automobiles. If you have an iPhone with Pandora and an auxiliary jack in your car, chances are you never listen to radio advertisements.
• Wall Street has already seen the writing on the wall. That is why today there is no pure play radio stock that is valued above $1.00.

2. Passive advertiser-funded bundled cable crap will no longer be tolerated.

Simply put, the middle man that is cable television will be cut out. Television commercials will be a thing of the past. That model is outdated, ineffective, expensive and annoying.

• Hulu, Netflix, iTunes and YouTube have created an uproar in the way consumers view their television habits.
• The current cable system is being challenged with pay-per-view via micro payments and subscriptions.
• Broadcast TV is now digital, which meant that cable companies are extremely constrained as to how much they could charge for network TV in an a-la-carte world.

3. Newspapers (printed and dropped on your front porch) will be gone.

• Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News Corporation, believes the future of newspapers is digital. In May of 2009 he said, “Instead of an analog paper printed on paper you may get it on a panel which would be mobile, which will receive the whole newspaper over the air (and) be updated every hour or two.”
• One year later the iPad is launched with iPad apps from all the major newspapers. Subscribers pay for content, not advertising.

4. The Post Office will be privatized and people will have the option to no longer receive mail (direct mail) at their place of residence.

Okay, this might be a bit of a stretch, but the numbers are pretty scary.

• The post office recently announced they plan to eliminate Saturday delivery to stave off bankruptcy. Mail volume has dropped from a peak of 213 billion pieces in 2006 to 177 billion last year. Quite simply, there is much less mail to be delivered thanks to e-mail and cellphones, text pages, etc. yet the cost to deliver mail continues to rise.
• In Australia they have a “Do Not Call, Do Not Mail” option for all residents. By simply putting a sticker on your mailbox, the post will not deliver direct mail.
• It is estimated that 100 million trees are harvested to produce junk mail each year. As more and more companies push for green policies, direct mail will be questioned.

So what does this mean if you are a marketer today? It's time we get some new tools in our toolbox to remain relevant.

The discipline of marketing is changing from advertising and product pushing to conversational marketing—a practice that involves engagement and interaction, a two-way communication rather than a one-way flow of information.

As Joseph Jaffe points out in his new book Flip the Funnel, “Marketing is not a campaign, it is a commitment.”

This year retention should be the new acquisition. Instead of ending with the new member, how about we begin with the new member.

Instead of measuring new accounts, how about rewarding based on member retention rates?

Rather than spending 80%-90% of your budget trying to lure in a complete stranger, ask yourself, “What have I done for my loyal members lately?”

Denise Wymore is a marketing blogger and vice president of association services for the Credit Union Association of New Mexico. Visit her blog at www.denisewymore.wordpress.com or contact her at 503-805-4424 or   me@denisewymore.com.