Marketing in digital age

It’s been nearly half a century since Philip Kotler first published his Principles of Marketing, which has defined the practice of millions of professionals worldwide ever since.  It’s no stretch to say that before Kotler, there was no true marketing profession.

What made Kotler different than what came before is that he took insights from other fields, such as economics, social science and analytics and applied them to the marketing arena.  Although that may seem basic now, it was groundbreaking then.

Today technology is transforming marketing once again.  Although up to this point, most of the impact has been tactical, over the next decade or so there will be a major strategic transformation.  This, of course, will be a much harder task because we will not only have to change what we do, but how we think.

http://www.digitaltonto.com/2013/the-future-of-marketing/

Marketing as a personalized experience

In my opinion, marketing is the result of everything a company says and does.

Consumers and buyers have an increasing role in the marketing mix.

It's now all about how we provide consumers with a consistent, personalized experience across the many available channels of communication.

For companies to keep customers, they have to be able to interact with them on all the channels customers use.

Nothing about marketing is simple anymore.

In CRM it's the customer that is getting into the driving seat.

Strategy for Success

I wrote this 9/18/06 (September 18, 2006) 5:47 AM (early in the morning). What has changed since? The impact of Social Media? One and a half year later...

Mission, Vision and Goals

1. Define precisely what you want to accomplish
2. Create an inspiring vision and a mission statement that will work for you
3. Set effective goals that will propel you to action
4. I add creative collaboration and crowd-sourcing
   

Strategies for Marketing Success

1. Develop a long-term strategy for success
2. Targeting - find your business niche
3. Identify your Unique Selling Proposition (USP)
   
4. Plan your PR campaign, Internet visibility, Blogosphere
5. Adding Facebook, Twitter, Jaiku, Pownce, Wiki
   

Generating Leads and lead conversion

1. Create a system to attract your ideal customers
2. Generate leads through a customer education system (sounds old-fashioned)
   
3. Additional ways to get customers: digital storytelling, Internet presence
   
4. Understand the entire sales process: supply chain management
   
5. Learn to make presentations that sell
6. Telephone and Internet selling strategies
7. Develop consultative selling skills
8. Effective follow up system
9. Listen to customers
10. Prosumerism!
    

How to Keep Customers

1. How to satisfy your customers needs and requirements
2. Defining the life value of your customer
3. The "moments of truth" in your customer relationship process
4. How to stay in touch after the sale
5. Generate profitable added value sales

Time Management

1. What's important, what can be automated and what deleted?
2. Practical system for being in control of your time
3. Scheduling time for interruptions - urgent/non urgent and important/unimportant
4. Multipresence!
   

Advertising

1. Select right publication and media
2. Power of headlines
3. How to write to persuade
4. Create offers that make people respond
5. ABC of ad-testing and test marketing
6. Advertising price management
7. Dialog with customers and partners
   

Creating a support system

1. Your support system & how to build it
2. Hiring, partnering and keeping the best people
3. Form joint ventures and alliances
4. Creative Collaboration!

Innovating over Internet

The Internet is becoming real now in a way it has never been before. You can take your talk, pictures, movies and text presentations to your customers in real time. Powerpoint presentations don't have to happen in a meeting room. A sales talk can be delivered for on-demand downloading. However, I would say that the real thing is to do things live from a distance.

The Web is becoming the main medium in which consumers engage to get information and to communicate. You can see this happening in advertising, you can see it happening in telecom, video with YouTube, with music, with newspapers and magazines.

"It is all shifting en masse, and all consumers are basically moving over to the Internet. We all talked about it in the 1990s, but it didn’t happen then. Those were just experiments. But now it is really happening," Tells Marc Andresseen to Spiegel February 22, 2008

Nik Butler and Helge Keitel about Social Media

Nik Butler, thanks for the Skype call yesterday. We discussed "Social Media in UK", exchanged information about Social Media on the British Islands and what we Finns are doing her up in the green, green woods, and country of thousand lakes.

We both agreed, there are psychological barriers for rapid expansion of Social Media in business, project management, and marketing. You told about successful cases in tourism, entertainment, the travel industry, financing and insurance industries. I see a common nominator in all these businesses; industries They need to get in touch with a large and dispersed population.

Nik, you also want to expand into entertainment. We didn't define "entertainment" but I guess it's a huge business area and social media applications are emerging. Nokia started its www.ovi.com service platform to compete with iTunes. However, that's just a tiny little area of entertainment. It is a big industry in need for personalized services.

We spoke about visiting customers on-site or dealing through Internet and working from a distance and on-line. Finland as a location means that distance-work and teletravel is the way of life. We've five million people in a country that has a larger area than UK. The typical innovator don't find a single customer in his / her home town. When we step out of the door in the winter time there is just one meter of snow; no customers in sight!

People, customers, clients are living busy lives and don't have the time to visit sales offices and show rooms. Information about products and services has to be delivered to our computers, laptops, to mobile devices in our pockets and handbags. Television and traditional print media are too slow. The Net Generation don't watch television, they don't read the old medias.

We might watch soap operas, entertainment, and stand-up comedians on TV, but when it's time for the AD break, we all run to the fridge for a sandwich or a beer. TV News is like "Yesterday" from a Beatles vinyl album.

"Search engine optimization and the traditional Web 1.0 pages are still the focus for middle of the road marketing people in UK," you said.

"Businesses still don't grasp the idea of a continuous dialog with their clients. Even in Facebook traditional companies look for ways to place ads. Companies say, they want to listen to clients and prospects, but the CRM is still all about telling and selling to the customers, most are not investing in social interaction."

Companies are looking fro sales automation models but aren't yet ready to twitter, jaiku, blog and skype with "them". The customer is still an outsider (them). The role of the customer is to carry the pounds, dollars and euros to the company's cash register and in exchange "they" get a product or service. "Thanks, have a nice day!"

Transparent conversations with dealers, clients and prospects isn't a big mainstream activity yet, but we agreed, there is a strong under-current of change. Social Media as an effective global marketing tool is emerging. The power of SM is the promise for open and innovative dialog. The big companies need to rip down the walls and start talking live with real clients and not with demographical information and statistics.

I see opportunities in knowledge management and in handling complex negotiations on a global scale without the need to spend a big part of my life in airplanes and airport security check-lines. "The death of the salesman" is a valid play again. - He and she have to learn how to sell and tell online - and to listen.

We spoke about security issues as a barrier for big companies to enter the open and interactive world. Skype, chats, IM's, mysapces, and facebooks are banned by many corporations as security risks.

You said, "Companies need to refocus their emotional energy to better understanding of Social Media benefits instead of constantly thinking about the treats."

I agree, it's million times more important to talk with your/our clients and not get cornered in security traps where NDA's, corporate lawyers, firewalls, and horror stories about hackers looming for mystical and mythical corporate treasures are prohibiting people at all levels from talking with their clients.

What could we do together? How about networking? Would it be possible to create something new through cross-border collaboration? Let me present our operation a little more. KK-Net uses social media and virtual organizations for internationalization of innovative companies and start-ups. Ares of interest are: biotechnology, bioenergy, microbiology, health care, life science, etc. But social media can be applied to anything in the corporate jungle.

• Market research, global field sales, marketing and business communication services

• Understanding how innovations emerge and what is needed to build successful global business operations

• Cost-effective business models and global collaboration, co-creation and open innovation

• Organizing international operations for shortest ways to new markets and success

• Working together in cross-border and cross-cultural projects on a global scale

• Social Networking, Knowledge Management and Social Intelligence accumulation combined with Open Source Methodology

• Sharing experience about what makes good ideas, excellent products and services to succeed and not to fail in the market place

• Visual Radios blogs about how we move towards the "Office in your Pocket" and Mobile user generated content and learning

Let me give you an insight into how we grasp globalization from the peripheries of Europe:

Let's start from Latin America. Mexico is a beautiful country and the long history, starting from Aztecs, Mayas and Incas. The book about Mexico is most exciting. We’ve been reading the book we received from you and are looking forward to visit Mexico soon. Macarena Pallares is coming to Sotkamo, Finland in May 2008. "Olli, Irja, Samuli, Annalena and I are wishing you very much welcome. It will be nice to meet you in Finland again."

This means that we're able to provide that we can provide on-line global networking, knowledge management and social intelligence combined with open innovation and co-creation services to Finnish and international customers. Our national network of expertise ranges over many sectors. Let me mention just a few:

1. Investment opportunities in real estate and innovative companies.
2. Organizing innovative projects based on open source collaboration.
3. How to approach chaos, accept the unstructured and let evolution carry work in progress.

• Open Social

• Hyperlocal

• Global

BUSINESS COMMUNICATION SERVICES

- Macarena, we spoke with Olli a few days ago about your interest to work or take translation of other assignments from Finnish companies looking for business opportunities in Spanish speaking countries and / or Latin America.

- Looking at your excellent résumé, I think you and Olli could also provide blogging, social media, Wikipedia, knowledge transfer support to Finnish companies in need for fluent communication skills in addition to Spanish, also in French and English.

I also know from recent Skype conversations with Olli that you have a broad international network that has been developing over they years. Your and Olli’s studies at the Technical University of Troyes explains the French connection, and you mention in your CV about studies in Boston (Harward) and Texas, US.

Business Communication and Social Media Services

1. Finnish

2. Swedish

3. English

4. French

5. Spanish

6. German

SPANISH, FRENCH AND ENGLISH

I’ll send a copy of this e-mail to some of the companies we’re working with, and to Finnish business people we happen to know. I’ll ask them kindly to respond to you and Olli if they have assignments and work available.

It’s my understanding that you would both be able to start on a short notice, and you’re staying in Finland from May to August 2008.

I try to think about some companies and individuals in need for your skills, knowledge and experience. For those who would like to have Macarena Pallare's and Olli Kallio’s CV please take a look at the word documents.

Macarena, wishing you and your family a great week-end, we all hope to see you over in Finland again soon.

Greetings from Olli, Irja, Samuli, Annalena, Helge

Best regards

Helge Keitel
Phone + 358 50 309 2021
Skype: visualradio

Nik Butler, this blog is long like the Finnish winter used to be. I'd like to have your comments. Have a great day and, yes congratulations to the new child.