Marketers Eat Their Young

Twitter is a haven for marketers. One could almost say Twitter is their intranet. Since I am the curious type, I have sat through many web conferences on every manner of marketing, sales and public relations. This free education has been quite eye opening and has led me to hours more of independent study. Since I have had no intention of going into marketing, my interest is that of a consumer seeking to understand how I am being targeted and moulded. Admittedly, the former Consumer Advocate in me likely colours the way I absorb this material I am learning.

One big buzz word in marketing, for over a year, has been “branding.” The concept has been around for much longer but the drive to make companies, large and small, understand they need to brand themselves carefully and correctly (and therefore hire someone to do it) has recently been hyped relentlessly. Hundreds of thousands of gurus on the web can show you precisely how to do so, for a fee. Some of these gurus have advanced education, some have “certification” from a conference and some gurus have nothing more than a series of affiliate links and some snake oil. I pity the small to mid sized business owner who does not know enough to tell the difference between them.

Branding IS important but much is changing quickly.  The addition of real time communication via the internet raises exposure and concerns that have never existed before. Consumers love real time, open communication because it gets results from businesses. Businesses should like it because, if they have a good product or service, they get free buzz from happy customers. A good company that learns to stay on top of real time consumer feedback almost doesn’t need help with marketing, does it?  That is not to say they may not need training in how to best handle real time consumer feedback without getting burned but traditional marketing?

Who is driving the demand for branding campaigns? Most customers could not give a hoot if someone changes their image as long as they can still find the product, the product is still worthy of buying and they don’t look stupid using it. One company recently tried to rebrand itself and quickly reverted back to their old image because of hoopla on the internet. The consumers I know were unaware or saw it and did not care. The hoopla I saw was from marketers. They tweeted and blogged for two weeks about this incredible affront to an icon. Silly.

On Twitter I recently asked,

“Is it really "the customer" influencing brand (i.e. XXX) when the uproar comes from a bunch of marketers on Twitter & blogs?”

I follow many top marketers but received no response. I really wanted to know. Since I received no answer I started wondering why marketers would attempt to influence a brand if it weren’t their brand and that, of course, led me to the playground because the human race has never left there. And then I felt very naïve. Of course! It was not those other marketers’ toy so they hated it. I certainly don’t envy that advertising firm for having that lesson play out.

So where does it go from here? It is a much larger playground now with real time feedback. I wonder who the brands will listen to. Their customers, who are the life blood of their business? Or the marketers who know better than the petty customer what the customer really wants? And if the brand listens to the later, how much embarrassment can they take for not choosing the Mercedes of advertising? If they can’t afford to pay for someone who is unassailable, will they perish or just give up with traditional marketing all together?

(The author did not study marketing in college. She has never pretended to be a marketer.  She still doesn't.)

Photograph used under creative commons license from Chuck “The Caveman” Coker of Flickr