Punch line: According to a Harvard Business Review post, Marketing is dead.
Traditional marketing — including advertising, public relations, branding and corporate communications — is dead.
Many people in traditional marketing roles and organizations may not realize they’re operating within a dead paradigm.
But they are.
The evidence is clear.
Here’s the “evidence”:
Several studies have confirmed that in the “buyer’s decision journey,” traditional marketing communications just aren’t relevant. Buyers are checking out product and service information on the Internet, and often from … word-of-mouth or customer reviews.
CEOs have lost all patience with CMOs who lack business credibility, the ability to generate sufficient business growth, and evidence that … brand equity can be linked to actual firm equity or any other recognized financial metric.
Third, in today’s increasingly social media-infused environment, traditional marketing and sales doesn’t work so well …and doesn’t make sense. When you try to extend traditional marketing logic into the world of social media, it simply doesn’t work.
The prescription: build communities, leverage “influencers”, be “authentic”,build social equity, etc.
Blah, blah blah.
Ken’s Take: As I often remind my students, marketing is more than sales and advertising !
Marketing is also about:
- Identifying high potential (i.e. profitable) target markets
- Designing products that meet real customer needs
- Pricing products to deliver value to buyers and profits to shareholders.
- Distributing through efficient, hassle-free channels
- Communicating products’ benefits and value-to-customers
- Measuring performance to efficiently allocate assets and spending.
Reports of marketing’s death are premature … unless you mistakenly think that marketing and advertising are synonymous.
The Homa Files 