Technology is only change in marketing over last 100 years | Expert column - Virginian-Pilot

The Federal Communications Commission issued a largely overlooked ruling in 1975 that allowed earth-orbiting antennas – satellites – to be used for broadcasting television over large areas. Around that same time, a little-known regional broadcasting network called Home Box Office took notice and decided to use the FCC’s decision to begin distributing its own programming via satellite.

HBO’s innovative move would have a ripple effect that would spill over onto the landscape of marketing. Soon, satellite networks proliferated, and with them, marketers’ ability to target in ways that were never previously possible.

Since that time, there has been so much technological innovation that marketers are faced with choices beyond measure. It can be blinding and bewildering for anyone charged with allocating marketing dollars on behalf of a business.

The problem is too many marketers have failed to recognize that only one thing has changed in marketing in the past 100 years – technology. That’s it.

So prolific is the role of technology in marketing that it has become for some an alluring distraction. Panic and peer pressure set in, and organizations pursue the latest and the greatest technology-based marketing tactics without taking the time to thoughtfully consider a strategic approach.

As legendary philosopher and strategist Sun Tzu once put it, “Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.”

Marketing must ultimately get the product or service into the hands of the customer – a real person. Marketers need to realize it is way too easy to distract ourselves (via technology) away from what is centrally important in marketing – generating a sale to a real person and, hopefully, repeating that process again and again to her or his delight.

Marketing strategy is not so much about a plan, but a system. Build your marketing (including the sale) around a strategically-based, customer-centric system, then technology becomes a true and valuable tool, and not a distraction.

STRATEGIC MARKETING PLAN

Full-on marketing guidance is someone asking the right questions and enabling you to think critically about your industry, business, customers, competition, brand and marketing activities.

A strategic marketing plan answers both, “What are we trying to do?” and “How are we going to achieve it?” in a thorough, resolute way that doesn’t miss a lick (broad-to-specific). It facilitates a systematic way of measurably and methodically moving your business’s overall marketing activities from point A to point B.

STRATEGIC BRAND PLAN

Marketers love to talk branding these days, but few truly understand what a brand is. At its core, a brand is simply a (strong) promise. Everything after that is embodying the promise or not.

A brand plan helps an organization answer the why’s and how’s of their brand in a way that actively demonstrates its value.

BRAND LANDSCAPE

The plan is a collaborative document and process that combines visual (graphic, photographic) and distilled conceptual elements (written) to succinctly express what a particular brand is, and what it is not, to a broader internal audience.

At its core, it’s a reference and training document. It serves to familiarize an organization’s management on the concept of their own brand, so they can more consistently demonstrate and articulate it to others.

Your organization needs to aspire to something greater in order for its marketing to become something that inspires others. Sometimes there is no unifying or inspiring vision – an expression of what an organization aspires to reach or become in the next five to 10 years.

Other times, a vision reads as flat, academic or long-winded. A good vision statement isn’t fluff. Rather, it helps all stakeholders reach to something higher.

PUBLIC OUTREACH STRATEGY

Address and formalize a communications approach for the public. This does not necessarily mean customers. Rather, it’s about respecting and interfacing with the general public as influencers, opinion holders, social activists and supporters of personal, political or economic interests.

This type of strategy addresses a need for responding to criticism or competing points of view. Its purpose is to build and demonstrate credibility and to authentically communicate it.

In conclusion, plan your marketing. Don’t be led by technology, or allow it to distract and overwhelm you. Know who you are, what you want from your marketing and how you’re going to achieve it.

Andy Slipher is founder of Slipher Marketing. He is a strategist, interim CMO, speaker and writer on marketing strategy. For more information, visit Slipher.com.

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