2010 Marketing - Why Will Interactive Media Trump Traditional Marketing Efforts? Part 1 of 2

Are you aware of the marketing trends for 2010 and beyond? Awareness of these trends will position you to define a marketing strategy that is profitable for your business.

I base the facts provided from Forrester Research who conducted a survey of 204 marketing executives across multiple industries for US Interactive Marketing Forecast - 2010-2014 report.
Visit Forrester Research at: www.forrester.com to access this report and beyond as they have a wealth of information.

Bottom line: Interactive Media will Trump Traditional Marketing Efforts

To ensure that everyone is on the same page, Interactive media is defined as collaborative media that allows interaction between participants. Applications that support this fall in the social media arena with Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn to name just a few examples.

Part 1 - Why is this shift occurring?

1. Economy - while there have been many negative views of the economy, on a positive note this has forced marketing organizations to re-evaluate how they do business and to find better ways to market effectively. With the buzz of social media, marketers are finding interactive tools to be more effective than traditional tools. The reason for this, I believe is due to the influential approach the social media applications foster. As an example, Qdoba used social media, in this case, Twitter to give followers a buy one get one free option all the while Qdoba was able to promote a new menu item. There was no money spent on 30 second commercials, newspaper ads etc., rather they used the power of influence to passively persuade customers to visit their location and try their new menu item. This also supports interactive tools as being more cost effective, timely and measurable.

2. Customer Relationships - customers are demanding more especially around having an interactive and custom brand experience. An example of this includes Comcast, who leveraged Twitter to create Comcast Cares, whereby customers could tweet about their current issues and have it addressed promptly by a Comcast representative. This was a new step to enhance customer satisfaction and provide customers with the quick and interactive response they were looking for.

3. Strategic Marketing Organizations - given the turn in economy there has been more scrutiny requiring further accountability to marketing organizations to show the Return on Investment (ROI) and contribution to profit margin. Marketing organizations need to leverage the interactive tools and beyond to reach customers in effective and interactive ways to support brand and increase revenue.

4. Printed Materials - customers reading magazines or newspapers has dropped 17% to 6% since 2004 according to Forrester Research. As publishing giants re-think their approach so should marketing organizations that rely on printed materials and advertisement. Leveraging Interactive Tools and implementing a Social Media Marketing Campaign is a smart alternative.

Part 2: Interactive Media Tools Growth, Traditional Marketing Declines

Marketing in 2010 – What is Your Plan for Profitability?

What will you do different in 2010 to define a marketing strategy that will get your business ahead of the competition and your marketing organization identified as a business unit that exceeds revenue goals when it comes to increasing profit margin?

Number One: Realize that the game of marketing has changed, and new rules apply. If you do not know what these rules are and how to play, it means your odds of winning in 2010 are slim.

So what has changed?

1. Marketing is now about an influential approach. It is not about selling, rather passively influencing your customers as to why your product, solution or service is the one they should consider.


2. Social Media Marketing is here to stay, embrace it and weave it into your overall marketing strategy. Creating a siloed social media marketing campaign is a waste of time and money. Be smart and efficient and create a social media marketing campaign with this process in mind: Research, Build, Maintain and Measure.


3. ROI (return on investment) - be able to answer the questions: What is the profit or loss per dollar spent on XYZ marketing campaign? How many leads were generated as a result of ABC promotion? How did our event strategy differentiate XYZ company against the competition? Gone are the days of budgets being allocated to initiatives without accountability.


4. Differentiation is no longer just a water cooler topic, rather it is a reality in order for companies to survive. Create a Blue Ocean Strategy...think about Southwest Airlines or Cirque de Soleil, and how they competited in a saturated market yet created differentiators to exceed expectations and revenue goals. For more details, check out the book recommendation on "The Read List".

Remember as you are considering marketing planning for 2010, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results". (Albert Einstein) Embrace the new rules, make the change and race far and ahead of your competition.