David Meerman Scott, author of the highly successful book “New rules of Marketing and PR” asks the audience the following 5 questions to kick off his workshop anywhere in the world:
1. How many people used direct mailers that came through snail mail to check out new products?
2. How many people used the yellow pages to find out about a new product
3. How many people used ads and magazines to do a product search
4. How many used internet search?
5. How many used an e-mail or other internet based social networking tools to check with a friend on a new product?
Interestingly, the pattern of responses to the above questions is uncannily similar across the world. The response to the first 3 questions is pretty lukewarm- between 0 and 15% while 4 typically scores close to a 100% and 5 gets a 60-80%.
The point is that the internet has irreversibly altered the rules of marketing. However, decision makers are yet to come to terms with the impact of the web completely and hence are still “clinging on” to old habits.
He also adds that today, much of the research on the web is done by decision makers themselves, and not delegated, as is the commonly held belief and hence more power to online methods.
David says that it is no longer necessary to buy (ads) or beg (PR), bug (sales route) for attention; today it is highly feasible to earn attention.
David’s arguments are lucid and he provides diverse examples both from B2C and B2B contexts of how online marketing has worked. At the NASSCOM India Leadership Forum recently, where David conducted his workshop and delivered a talk, he convinced all of us on the merits of carrying through whole heartedly with an online strategy.
Also check out my blog at http://indialeadershipforum.nasscom.in/blog/2010/02/new-rules-of-marketing-pr/
Popularity: 10% [?]
I also had a chance to listen to David and he was simply outstanding. He managed to convey important messages without losing his sense of humour – really enjoyed it.
Hello Sudha
Those questions I ask are always eye-openers for people. Here is a video of me asking the questions around the world.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SyBWSFUrfM
Best, David
David very succintly described the expectations of the new age customer and implored the audience in the recently concluded Nasscom Leadership Forum to use the social networking and online media to market our products / services. Through examples David was able to demonstrate our fascination for using technical jargons in the content on our websites – which he aptly terms as “Gobbledygook”
Using the “Word of Mouse”, losing control – he gave the example of how we put “gates” on things by requesting for an email id for downloading content from our websites, encouraging employees to tweet, blog etc, were some of the tips provided by David in his session.
Deepak
This was one session that I really was keen on attending at NILF and missed out on. My bad.
Thanks, Sudha, for posting this. We recently started using social media and started getting leads even through some basic actions. And the beauty is that it is mostly free.
I have one question to ask: what about events/webinars for sourcing leads? Are these passe?
Suresh,
Yes, I know how keen you were. I don’t think any mode is passe. But it is really about being smart with your marketing dollars. That was the message.
To your list of five I would like to add one more i.e, Peer Influence: How many people normally check out products-services with Friends/Relatives/Colleagues/Neighbors?. I have witnessed first hand its enormous influence & have described it in my post http://vasantp.blogspot.com/2009/06/voila-wom.html
Hi Vasant, Yes peer influence is an important one and is in fact captured in some sense in point 5 above. However, it is true that peer influence could extend beyond the use of social networking tools
Very apt and well put – the need for marketers to buy, beg or bug for attention is much lower in the online world. That’s a consequence of the incredible democratization of information that the Web has brought us. However I would imagine that the problem now is, with every Tom, Dick and Hari blogging and tweeting, how does one get heard above the din? Thus while the arrival of new tools certainly needs many marketing beliefs to be jettisoned, winning customer mindshare (and walletshare) will remain the same painstaking battle.
That is true, however, the option of making your presence felt now opens up without the need to spend huge amount of money. Creativity will never go out of fashion I guess, and those who are are smarter about it will emerge the winners.