Mad Men

The new prime time television show Mad Men is a take on advertising agencies in the 60’s and clearly shows how different things were then vs. today. Historically, marketing was defined by the 4 P’s – Product, Place, Price and Promotion. Ad agencies simply decided how they wanted to promote the product, developed catchy copy to get the consumer excited and moved to action. Unfortunately, the 4 P’s fail to position the customer as the center of this mix and while it may have worked for the Mad Men it certainly isn’t going to work today.

Booz, Allen, Hamilton published a study titled HD Marketing 2010 and they argue that consumers are now media producers, publishers and distributors and with this convergence of media there are more opportunities for direct dialogue between marketers and consumers. Additionally, the balance of power has shifted and consumers are the new marketers and this shift in control makes traditional strategies, channels, relationships and metrics less useful and possibly completely irrelevant.

The study contends that marketers have to use a new set of trends to achieve their objectives including the following;

1. Marketing as Conversation (Don’t push messages at consumers rather find ways to co-create experiences with them)
2. Media as the New Creative (Message distribution is just as important as content)
3. Marketing and Math (Use insight to create foresight)
4. Mind The Gap (Focus resources on where the consumers are not where you have historically been)
5. Digital Savvy (Need to align technology with the right talent, progressive culture and functional skills)
6. Network (Partnership and collaboration with various partners will grow)

Clearly the 4P’s are becoming ancient history and marketers need to focus on how to use consumer behavioral shifts to redefine marketing communications in their own organizations. However, the big question remains – How do you effectively do that while continuing to ‘mind the store’ and deliver results?