|
Marketing trends reveal audience fragmentation
Marketing
By David L. Rawle
This year has almost slipped away. It’s hard to believe. For me, it’s hard to believe that our company has recently celebrated its 30th anniversary.
Much has changed during those years. And much of what has changed is continuing to change in the same direction, only faster.
When we started our company, 34% of adult evening television viewers could name a brand advertised on a show they watched the previous night.
By the year 2000, that number had declined to 9%.
That is because the clutter has increased and is increasing at a more rapid rate than ever.
Our challenge as marketers is to break through that clutter and connect with our customers. And that challenge has never been more daunting and more dependent upon smart thinking—smart strategies implemented with creativity and discipline.
The continuing fragmentation of media and the resulting fragmentation of audiences is the most pervasive trend in marketing.
Three other trends are closely allied: the portability of media content, the proliferation of blogs and the increasing transparency of media.
The portability of media content. Call it the Blackberry/iPod revolution. Our contact with the world is now portable.
We routinely receive news and information blasts on our handhelds. We can access the Internet on them and that means that GPS-driven ads (customized for each of us, depending upon our location) are on the way.
Podcasts are increasingly popular. More than 22 million Americans already own devices that can access podcasts, and the introduction of a video-capable iPod opens numerous possibilities.
Sales of video iPods are already exceeding expectations. And Apple sold
1 million video downloads within 20 days of offering the service.
For marketers, this new medium is limited only by imaginations. Imagine reaching your audience with video workshops, video home tours or episodic advertorials that consumers can watch when, where and how they want.
Blogs. On average, a new blog is launched every second. Even I have one: davidrawle.blogspot.com. About 3.5 million workers—one in four people in the workforce—visit blogs and spend an average of three to five hours (9% of the workweek) engaged in them.
Businesses and the media are already making blogs part of their marketing strategies. While still in the early stages of growth, reputable newsworthy blogs will eventually be fully integrated into the media mix.
Blogs will increasingly be vital ways to communicate interactively with focused audiences.
Smart marketers should not only be monitoring them, they should also be developing pro-active strategies to participate in them.
Media transparency. The advent of blogs, podcasts and interactive Web sites is bringing the once-distant media closer to us all.
When Dan Rather left CBS News, the network said it would not be replacing Rather with a “voice of God” type of anchor. That is because the media are no longer addressing us from on high.
We are all the media now. We can all contribute to the news and information that people receive.
This dynamic has completely changed public relations strategies and practices. Anyone who depends solely upon the old way of doing things will be talking to themselves.
These trends are all part of the challenges we face in the year ahead.
When our company began, we sought to inform, persuade and remind consumers about our clients’ products or services.
Today our challenge is to empower, demonstrate and involve.
This new challenge puts an even higher premium on smart marketing.
David L. Rawle is chairman of Charleston-based Rawle Murdy Associates Inc., a marketing, advertising and public relations firm. E-mail him at drawle@rawlemurdy.com or visit his blog at http://davidrawle.blogspot.com >
|
E-Mail This Article
Printer-Friendly Version