The Times They Are A Changin'

In his blogpost, We Are Actively Dismantling Your Trusted Marketing Strategies, Brian Massey explains that,

"The culture, the strategies, and the beliefs that your business has relied on for the past 20 years are being actively dismantled."

I think that in many ways Brian has it right. As we shift power away from the Boomer Generation that thrived on hype and mass marketing we find control of defining what a brand means largely in the hands of the "new" consumer. Enter the era of conversational marketing where the words humility, simplicity and authenticity rule.

The truly interesting thing about all this that Brian points out is that the parts still work, they just need to be put together in a different form.

"TV is not an effective way to communicate, video is."

"Radio is not an effective way to communicate, the human voice is."

"Print is not an effective way to communicate, words and images are."

"Web sites are not an effective way to communicate, solving problems is."

All of this relates to my last post on listening first and always. Understand your audience (those that are important to you as well as those that are important to them) then say something powerful. They will do the rest.

As Shakespeare said, "To thine own self be true."

Be real,

--Charles

Lay-a-way for a New Generation

Saw this from DirectDispatch that Lay-a-ways are back in vogue now that credit is crunched.

http://blog.hagginmarketing.com/?p=874

I think lay-a-ways fit both today's economy and today's dominant generation. If hype is out and genuineness and authenticity are in, Lay-a-ways making a comeback just makes sense. It's a way to get what you want in a more "real" way than sliding plastic. But from a branding perspective, a lot of negative brand equity has to be cleared away to make lay-a-ways cool. Do you think the current economic pressures people are feeling are enough to overcome the stigma? I'm not so sure.

Be real,

--Charles