David Armano created a fantastic visual on the steps to Brand Heaven and Hell

I’ve written quite a lot about Marketing 2.0, and I’m glad to have the chance to pitch in here and compare notes with friends old and new.

For me, the idea of Marketing 2.0 has always quite appealed: what if marketing in future was more about creating genuine, authentic engagement with customers, if it levelled the playing field, embraced ideas of co-creation and farsighted inventions like VRM? In the shiny world of Marketing 2.0, we’d see the back of all that advertising and direct mail - the 99% of noisy clutter that interrupts our viewing and travelling pleasure with its crude efforts to flog us stuff we don’t need.

But maybe we’re just kidding ourselves. Us marketing types have always had a real talent for that, haven’t we?

I wonder if we’re just repeating that tired old solution for any other substandard product with a dodgy customer image - the rebrand! Hey folks this isn’t nasty old Marketing, this is New Improved Marketing NOW with Added Authenticity…

I wonder if it would be better to look forward to Marketing 0.0. That is, when marketing itself has been eradicated from organisations to fulfil the late, great Bill Hicks’ fondest, NON WORKSAFE dreams:

Ok, Bill said he was deadly serious and I might not be.

But I do think that most of the things marketing needs to do in future will be be about making less noise, and generally getting out of people’s way. In our networked world, the people formerly known as the audience are getting smarter, often have better technology, less constrained by corporate IT bureaucracy - and basically trust their mates a whole lot more than they’ll ever trust anyone in the marketing department

Or let me put that another way, using Annie and Aretha as my proxies:

(There’s a whole other post I could write about the feminisation of marketing, but that’s for another day)

We all know how bullied many CMOs are, and we’ve all read the pep talks on how to make those bullying CEO take us more seriously. Personally, I’ve always found that kind of chest-beating-for-the-noble-cause-of-marketing rather painful - I wonder what would happen if gave up that fight?

And whether we stick with 2.0 or try 0.0… what is it we’d really want to stand up for… and how much of the dead luggage of marketing would be like to be rid of?

Just a quick post to say “thanks” to Francois for inviting me along on this ride. Should be fun!   I’m looking forward to exciting discussion on the nature of Marketing 2.0, which will be a subject of my first “real” post.

When marketers design a marketing campaign – we typically design them for “rational” buyers. But do buyers ever act rational?

And what about us?

When we make decisions we think we’re in control and making rational choices. But are we?

Dan Ariely a faculty member at MIT’s Sloan School of Management and member of the Media Lab has launched a book called Predictably Irrational and the blog by the same name dedicated the study of behaviors. His work is fascinating and enlightening for all marketers.

PS - Dan is going to be one of the Keynote speakers at MarketingProfs B2B Forum on June 9-10 in Boston (along with David Meerman Scott) which sounds like a fantastic line up to me – I know I will be there as well conducting a panel on: Is Social Media Harder for B2B vs. B2C? so don’t forget to join us for that.

This is a direct link to the event use promo code ESPK08 to save $200 on the $1,295 registration fee (save $350 if you sign up before May 19th).

About Dan

Dan’s immersive introduction to irrationality took place many years ago while he was overcoming injuries sustained in an explosion (here is a description of his experiences in the hospital). The range of treatments in the burn department, and particularly the daily “bath” made him face a variety of irrational behaviors that were immensely painful and persistent. Upon leaving the hospital, he wanted to understand how to better deliver painful and unavoidable treatments to patients so he began conducting research in this area. After completing this initial research project, he became engrossed with the idea that we repeatedly and predictably make the wrong decisions in many aspects of our lives and that research could help change some of these patterns. A few years later, decision making and behavioral economics dramatically influenced his personal life when he found himself using all of the knowledge he’d accumulated in order to convince Sumi to marry him (a decision that was in his best interest but not necessarily in hers). After managing to convince her, he realized that if understanding decision-making could help him achieve this goal, it could help anyone in their daily life.

Predictably Irrational, is his attempt to take research findings in behavioral economics and describe them in non academic terms so that more people will learn about this type of research, discover the excitement of this field, and possibly use some of the insights to enrich their own lives. In terms of official positions, he is the Alfred P. Sloan Professor of Behavioral Economics at MIT’s Sloan School of Management and at the Media Laboratory, a founding member of the Center for Advanced Hindsight, and a visiting professor at Duke University.

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 Hidden Forces that Shape Irrational Behavior: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Rumors of the mobile web’s death are greatly exaggerated.

The latest brouhaha stems from a quote from Russell Beattie reposted on Read/Write Web, excerpted below:

“I don’t actually believe in the ‘Mobile Web’ anymore, and therefore am less inclined to spend time and effort in a market I think is limited at best, and dying at worst. I’m talking specifically about sites that are geared 100% towards mobile phones and have little to no PC web presence. Two years ago I was convinced that the mobile web would continue to evolve in the West to mimic what was happening in countries like Japan and Korea, but it hasn’t happened, and now I’m sure it isn’t going to.”

The author of the R/WW post went on to say he misread the quote after he analyzed it on the blog, and on one hand he did, yet on the other hand, Beattie is clearly painting mobile with a broad brush. The comments thread then focuses heavily on the impact of the iPhone, and that this represents the mobile web going forward.

I don’t see it that way. There are a few points to understand here:

1. The iPhone’s important, but that and its clones aren’t the be-all end-all. For instance, pity this poor Mets fan here. When I go to Mets.com, it’s all flash, video, and imagery, and way too many components to navigate on a small screen. Yet when I go there from my Windows 5 mobile browser, I get the latest score and other info. Even if I’m on an iPhone, I’ll want the WAP site.
2. AdMob reported in recent ad serving metrics that iPhone surfers triggered about 2% of ad impressions on its network in the US (worldwide they serve over 2 billion ads a month), while the top three Motorola phones accounted for more than 25% of impressions combined.
3. Meanwhile, it is ridiculous to think that there will be a new mobile web totally separate from the web as we now know it. Big brands like Google, Yahoo, Facebook, NYTimes, MySpace, and the like will have a following on whatever device people use. People don’t say, “I’m surfing the mobile web now.” They’re just going to their favorite sites.
4. There are sites that are really capitalizing on it. Weather.com’s mobile site gets over 5MM uniques monthly, while toward the end of (American) football’s regular season ESPN’s mobile NFL section traffic surpassed traffic to its main site.

A growing trend in B2B marketing today is in the realms of “lead nurturing” and “lead scoring.”

I have often found the best way to impress the sales team is to feed them a stream of high-quality leads. Events, webinars, account-based marketing, trade events and speaking engagements all offer opportunities to find and feed some leads (usually the hottest ones) to the sales team. But what happens to those that are not so hot? Typically they hit the cutting room floor or are left to die on the vine in a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.

As part of my ongoing series discussing sales-marketing alignment with our friends at Marketo, a B2B marketing software provider, in this interview Jon Miller and I look at why B2B marketers should care about lead scoring and how they can get started qualifying and prioritizing leads. Check it out …

About Jon Miller
VP Marketing, Marketo

Jon has the unique challenge of leading Marketing for Marketo, a company whose mission is helping other B2B marketers drive revenue and improve accountability. Jon explores best practices in demand generation, lead management, and online marketing in his popular blog, Modern B2B Marketing, and is a frequent columnist and speaker at industry events. Before co-founding Marketo, Jon was a vice president at Epiphany, a CRM strategist at Exchange Partners, and a strategic consultant for Gemini Consulting. Jon graduated Magna Cum Laude in Physics from Harvard College and has an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business.

 

 Sales is from Mars and Marketing is from Venus – Vol. II – Lead Scoring: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (23)

Thinking about buying media? Well, it’s no longer just about ad space or traditional print. Today media has to “sing and dance.” It has to have a tight connection to the brand at the same time it distributes the brand with rich experiences online through social media – social networks (like Facebook), videos, podcasts, RSS feeds, and maybe a widget.

Traditional media is still part of the mix. But only to the extent it’s needed to help create awareness of the online experiences waiting to be had with the brand. Just focusing on traditional, one-way awareness ads will surely make your brand seem stiff and too inwardly focused.

Today’s media buyers need to recognize that prospects no longer move neatly from one media touch point to the next. They move around, snacking on video, scanning a print ad, reading their RSS feeds in a feed reader, checking into their favorite social network, or just reading a few new blogs.

How users engage with your brand through digital channels will ultimately define your brand!

Where is the buzz? Agencies that provide traditional media buying need to radically change their approach to servicing clients. Going forward, think in terms of three tiers – traditional, to online, to social.

Try not to interrupt what people are interested in. Instead, BE what people are interested in!

I submit that it is! Please hear me out.

When I say Ralph Lauren, Nine Inch Nails, Vineyard Vines, GAP – or even Apple – you get a sense of a very homogeneous type of person. You get a picture of exactly who I mean and the “lifestyle” that brand portrays. When I say Ralph Lauren, it’s like reading the preppie handbook.

But what happens when I say Unisys or Delco or even Oracle? What mental image, what picture of homogenous people comes to mind, if any? Probably nothing, right?

Now, consider Nine Inch Nails and their use of social media. The band printed tour shirts with different, seemingly random boldface letters that, when strung together, spelled out a website address – iamtryingtobelieve.com. The tactic engaged an audience that was totally in sync with their brand and lit up their community site, Spiral.

Sure a B2B company can launch a microsite any day. But can it launch one that speaks to the company’s audience so perfectly that it resonates with a vast majority? I would submit the answer is no.

Yes, I know microsites aren’t social media. My point is that out in social media land if you know exact who your audience is, what will resonate with them and how to tap into it, you are home free. B2B audiences are more fragmented, with internal employees, external partners, channel partners, third party vendors, and, oh yeah, customers and prospects.

What’s your take? I’m interested to hear from you …

We are building a new thought leadership community around the future of marketing. For now this site is under construction…I you would like to be notified when the site will go live or would like to participate, please email info@marketingtwo.com.

Thank you - Francois