Five New Rules of Marketing

In an article by Jack Neff in Ad Age, he reports on a presentation by Simon Clift, CEO of Unilever discussing the role of brands and how social media impacts brand strategy. Below are the five new rules for marketing by as presented by Ag Age. Good stuff.

Five new rules for marketing
The flat-earth, digitized world described by Unilever CMO Simon Clift is one in which the marketing norms have changed. Here are Ad Age's "New Rules."
Listening to consumers is more important than talking at them. As Mr. Clift said, "We may be ahead of our competitors, but we're most definitely behind consumers." The consumer is not a moron, she's the person defining your brand.

You can't hide the corporation behind the brand anymore -- or even fully separate the two. Even this editor's creaking computer only took 0.13 seconds to show that Philip Morris is owned by Altria Group. Welcome to radical transparency, where bad corporate behavior will damage your brands, and vice versa.

PR is a primary concern for every CMO and brand manager. If "marketing" and "PR" are not the same department, tear down the wall. Spend time deciding whether PR is underleveraged in your organization.

Cause marketing isn't about philanthropy, it's about "enlightened self-interest," as Mr. Clift puts it. That doesn't mean it doesn't count. Don't be ashamed of your profit motive, because great branding and doing good are increasingly one and the same.

Social media is not a strategy. You need to understand it, and you'll need to deploy it as a tactic. But remember that the social graph just makes it even more important that you have a good product. Put another way: The volume and quality of your earned media will be directly proportional to the impact and quality of your product and ideas.

Twitter Exceeds NY Times - Marketers should follow new models

The following quote appeared in today's SmartBrief eNewsletter: "...I will mention in passing that the CEO of Reuters spoke out last night, raising the question of why does the Times still need 6-700 journalists? Tom Glocer, chief executive of Thomson Reuters, is quoted by Gillian Reagan of the New York Observer, as arguing that newspapers like The Times should trim costs and focus their coverage. “That view that ‘I am The New York Times and I do everything’—I think that’s not the best way to run a newspaper,” he said. Meanwhile, Tweet by Tweet, asuming Compete has its data trends right, that little bird is fluttering right past The Times on the web’s list of top sites, and you might say, leaving the old business modelers wondering, “What exactly was that thing that just blew by us, anyway? A bird, a plane, or…”

Media is changing. Models are changing. Marketers should experiement with these formats to learn what works for their own brands. Ultimately, for marketers, return on investment from these new media tools will require new marketing tactics rather than old tactics applies to new media.

Brand managers triumph on Trump

Any fans of The Apprentice out there? I don't watch regularly but happening to see the last half of the show on Sunday evening. Social media has infiltrated reality TV. Very strange. Two teams are challenged by Trump to create a viral commercial for All dishwash detergent. Both teams fail miserably based on the judging of the brand marketing team for All. One team took a "tease them with sex puns" apporach while the other used a "be outrageous" approach. Is this really the answer to going viral on social networks? If so, marketing has devolved. Neither team focused on their targetg audience of middle income Moms. If viral marketing is only about being juvenile then the tactic will be short-lived. Thank goodness that All brand team was smart enough to reject both videos. Trump went on to fire 2 people instead of 1 this week. The lesson for marketers (if there was one) is that social media doesn't mean abandoning your brand personality or brand standards. Return on marketing investment may be achievable in social media, but not at the expense of core brand principles.

Newspaper vs Online Advertising - Hilarious

Marketers wondering about the future return on marketing investment between newspapers and internet advertising investments will love this hilarious interview between Mr. Colbert of Comedy Central and the head of the NAA (Newspaper Association of America). Be sure to watch through the exercise where the Colbert hands him three newspapers and challenges him find the current Dow index and the current temperature while Colbert does the same on his iPhone. Is the future of the newspaper in doubt.





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