Is Marketing Dying?
Posted by Joe CannonAugie Ray provides a very thought-provoking post over at the Forrester Blog for Interactive Marketing Professionals titled, “2010: The Year Marketing Dies…” He does add the subtitle, “Or at Least Marketing as We Know It!” The post might have been better titled “The Year Advertising Dies” because it really primarily addresses the rapidly changing world of media. He eventually gets to this point — the title was mostly to be provocative. As consumers learn about products from a wide variety of sources outside the direct control of marketing managers — what does this mean for those of us teaching marketing?
I think that much of what we do stays the same. Many of our core concepts don’t change. If organizations make products that satisfy customers, price them so that customers see value in the purchase and make the available where customers want them, then there will be good word-of-mouth and brands will benefit from the buzz. Marketing managers will have to dig in deeper to better understand, customers, competitors, and their own company’s resources. They will have to segment markets better, position and differentiate their offerings — and will have to produce marketing mixes that appeal to target customers. Tomorrow’s (our students) marketers will need to understand these different media and work with them.
What do you think of Augie Ray’s post? What will it mean for those of us teaching marketing?
Tags: Technology
This entry was posted on Friday, December 18th, 2009 at 1:05 pm and is filed under Advertising, Marketing strategy planning, Promotion, Social media. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Thanks for the comments and the link to my post. You’re right, I was certainly being purposely controversial, but I’m not sure I’d agree the post was advertising focused (or at least, if it was, it was for a good cause.)
The meltdown of traditional media affects more than just advertising; PR, for example, is being greatly impacted by the shift from professional journalists (the ranks of which are shrinking quickly) to bloggers. Not only does this mean a shift of contacts but also a shift in strategy and tactics.
Meanwhile, thanks to Social Media, consumers are beginning to learn more about brands from each other than they are from brand marketing communications. This is a tremendous shift that will impact budgets, priorities, skills, and strategies in 2010 and the years that follow.
Finally, if I was a bit too advertising focused, that is only because media budgets are still–by leaps and bounds–the biggest budget items in most marketing budgets. Advertising will always be important, but the transition from an ad-driven marketing world to a relationship-driven one will continue to evolve in the coming years.
Thanks for the dialog!
December 19th, 2009 at 10:40 amThanks for coming over and adding to your post Augie. As marketing professors we often fight the perception of our students that marketing = advertising. So my comments were meant to remind my fellow instructors that your post dealt primarily with one area of marketing – Promotion (marketing communications). We try to emphasize that “marketing” involves making decisions on target markets, and the marketing mix or 4 P’s of Price, Product, Place and Promotion.
I completely agree with your post — and I believe that the shifts you describe are leading to big change in Promotion and increasing the importance of marketing decisions with respect to the rest of the marketing mix. We marketing professors need to understand the implications for our teaching. Thanks for the dialogue and great post.
December 20th, 2009 at 7:40 amCongratulations for creating this excellent Blog!
I was a marketing professor at the University of Utah and am now a marketing consultant in MA but continue to do research in marketing. So I live in both worlds – the academic and practical. What I am finding now is that marketing as in happening in the real world is quite different from what is taught in marketing texts, which are often quite out dated. Surely every other year the pictures change and a seemingly superficial attempt is made to update, but after interactions with so many clients I feel there is a real disconnect between the actual experience of marketing and learning marketing in the undergrad classes.
A big gap that has been mentioned in the Blog is the presence of social media in the real world and its absence in academia. Kudos to the creators of this Blog for being relevant and providing current perspectives. I don’t believe any text book has caught up, but what about professors? How many professors are successfully using Twitter or Blogs or Facebook?
There is another fundamental point that marketing academia has not acknowledged and which relates with the discussion at hand, but even Augie’s article doesn’t acknowledge. The failure of current business models based on maximizing shareholder value along with consumers’ lack of confidence in marketers and their increasing awareness requires a new paradigm. While adhering to the core ideas on which marketing is based like understanding consumer needs, the right price and place and all of that is important, it is the paradigm on which these marketing actions are based that needs to be re-examined. Consumers are beginning to see the lack of authenticity in marketers pushing their products to them, seemingly in service of their customers, but having adverse affects in the long run on consumers (e.g. use of high fructose corn syrup used to make the product tasty), the environment, suppliers, and workers. The new paradigm in business needs to be based on a broader vision and innovations that allow for maximizing benefits to all stakeholders.
While much of what I have said is not entirely new, in my interactions with many academics I have been disappointed by the narrow focus in their approach to marketing. Even in conferences dedicated to bringing change, are the participating professors living the change they want to bring? A small example is when I went to an elite marketing conference to transform consumers and was served white bread rolls, pretzels, and sausage with very little vegetarian options. And our sessions are discussing obesity caused by the very same food being served to us. It does not feel very authentic when what we are telling others is different from how we are living our own lives. The real work of transformation, fortunately or unfortunately, is happening in the real world out side of the class rooms.
Some of the questions I think of: How are we as professors empowering our students to go out into the world and build businesses that improve well being in society along with profitability in business? What is the education we are providing that brings out the highest potential in each student? How can we make our students more mindful of the choices they will make as marketers and their consequences on the environment, consumers, society, their workers, suppliers, and profitability, while enjoying a fulfilling life?
In conclusion, I will say that marketing is not dying but the current paradigm guiding most businesses will die. I wrote about authentic leadership on my Blog and would love to hear from you what you think:
http://mindfulmarketers.blogspot.com/2009/07/are-you-authentic-entrepreneur.html
Many thanks for starting this discussion.
January 18th, 2010 at 3:51 pmA social media tip for professors
You can get a gravatar so your identity in the form of a picture or logo or whatever gets posted on all Blogs etc.
http://en.gravatar.com/
January 18th, 2010 at 3:54 pmHi Shalini,
Thanks for the thoughtful comment. As a marketing faculty member, I always appreciate the comments of practitioners – especially those that understand teaching and practice. The practice of marketing is evolving at a more rapid pace which creates challenges for those of us writing text books and teaching. At least a blog directed at keeping faculty up to date will help to bridge this gap.
Please come back and share your comments again.
January 19th, 2010 at 3:25 pmThank you Joe. I will surely be coming back for more and have already tweeted about your Blog and its on my facebook and linked in as well.
Much gratitude for setting up an awesome Blog.
January 19th, 2010 at 7:20 pm