Being direct... AdVantage Jun 2003
Connecting Buyers to Sellers?
A recent article in the UK publication Marketing Week described two core economic pillars of marketing thus: 'efficiently and effectively matching supply to demand'' and 'connecting buyers to sellers'. It went on to suggest that all business-related wealth creation could be divided into 'making' (or production) and 'matching and connecting' (marketing). Finally, it suggests that in recent years, productivity gains in 'making' have far outstripped those of 'matching and connecting' For some time now, I have talked in these columns (and elsewhere) about the concept of perceived 'control' as it applies to marketing and a few have even pooh-poohed my view as being a little esoteric - perhaps because it goes counter to what they consider marketing to be all about.
The way it used to be - used to be like this: marketers decided on what it is that they felt they should say about their product or service; words and picture artists turned this into the stuff that awards are made of; and the media carried these 'buy-me' communication statements for the purpose of interrupting their own consumers (with commercial content) ostensibly to help pay their bills.
How has it changed? Well, in two ways. Consumers now have a variety of alternative access channels for information that they desire, and some of these channels even use emerging technologies to place consumers 'in control' of that access; and secondly (and perhaps even more disturbingly) consumers seem (increasingly) to be dissatisfied with the fact that the mass media interrupt them with 'irrelevant' or 'unwanted' commercial content. How do we know this? From reports that suggest that marketing 'is not working' anymore.
The Marketing Week article highlights this issue when it said the following: '…matching and connecting is as much about helping buyers to buy as it is about helping sellers to sell……In fact, the reason why so much marketing is so ineffective nowadays is because marketers neglect this basic truth…' The 'Here we are, this is what we offer' approach to marketing communication should perhaps be re-evaluated - in the light of channels that offer consumers the potential to say: 'Here I am, this is what I want (or how you can help).'
When I suggest that change in control is perhaps one of the contributors influencing marketing effectiveness - it is another way of suggesting that marketing strategists should recognise the serious potential of helping buyers to buy rather than just helping sellers to sell! The (limited) focus on database marketing and CRM programmes during the past decade or so - is a prime example of initiatives that deliver 'buyer-driven' marketing and marketing communication. Those marketers who seem unable (so far) to 'give up their control' are already questioning the apparent lack of success of these initiatives.
When we had to communicate in a fundamentally 'disconnected' world, none of this even raised itself in our consciousness. We accepted that the only way to make people aware - was to tell them stuff. Sandwich boards and a loud bell were probably effective in their day, but limited in scope! Except for being targeted for awareness, consumers were virtually passive participants in the process.
It is only now that some people have the means to 'connect' (and it follows that they need to be 'aware' in order to desire such a connection) - they also want to exchange any passivity for control. Whilst many in marketing may not exactly like it (feeling in control of the process has much greater appeal), consumers may well fight hard to keep this newly discovered power.
Another example of the 'control' to which I refer is the monumental growth in mobile connectivity. The cell-phone is already making inroads into a whole variety of processes - even making an impact on previously disadvantaged sectors of our society. Simple technology such as SMS-based enquiries for example, can enable feelings of control amongst all consumers.
Astute marketers will soon be able to match such customer desire for control through even 'newer' technologies like USSD - currently built into each and every cell-phone, yet still to be promoted (by both network operators and wireless application service providers) as a potentially powerful customer-interface tool. This technology will allow 'buyers' rather than sellers to use simple tree-structured menu systems controlled by their cell-phones, to drive service-delivery processes.
Watch this space!
Cheers