How has the internet, and more specifically social media, changed the way businesses are marketing their products?
Ten years ago, consumers began to tire of the old way of doing business. Being force fed a steady diet of overly zealous commercials imploring consumers to use a product or service were largely being ignored. Company’s like Ford understood this more quickly than others, when targeting the younger audiences, and instead of commercials they did something radical.
They gave and group of 20 somethings Ford Focuses to drive around for a few months and encouraged the to document their experiences with the automobiles on social media. Other big companies jumped into social media as well. And they failed, miserably. Why? Because they used a new medium to go about advertising in the same old way, and they faced immediate back lash. Case in point was a major US bank, fresh off a round of home foreclosures, who posted feel good messages on Twitter and Facebook as the local banking heroes and people shut them down, quickly.
It’s the era of engagement and interaction. It’s not just me who is saying this, take a look at what Forbes magazine posted:
“Consequently, marketers are being tasked with crafting interactions with customers instead of mere transactions. To do this, they must not lead the customer journey with the “sale” but rather the carrot that will drive to it. That carrot must be translated into the ability to transform storytelling into a vital business competency that takes the why and who of the brand and translates them into experiences that create lasting emotional connections. This type of thinking will without question help define distinction and competitive advantage in 2018.
Emotional engagement is the sister to rational engagement. Rational engagement is based on the stimulation of the mind, whereas emotional engagement is based upon the stimulation of the heart. In today’s age of brand experience, it seems that emotional engagement is proving to be more and more critical to achieving winning results and effective storytelling and digital marketing are at the heart of this movement.
In order to be able to master the new art of emotional engagement, you can no longer tell customers what you care to, or create the experiences you desire them to have. You must tell them the stories they crave to hear, and provide the moments that they seek to feel connected and emotionally engaged. This significant paradigm shift has led to an economy predicated on engagement and experience and has paved the way for an era of digital marketing driven by strategic, digital marketing analytics rather than naked creativity.”
What is in your marketing plan for this year and how is your company adapting to the changes in Marketing?
Central Comm
