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Home About Articles Email us Section 51 Manuel Being direct... AdVantage Jan 2005 Is marketing communication getting further out of tune with those it is trying to influence, or is there opportunity for greater harmony? Can marketers and consumers reach a level of 'concurrence' that could reverse the weakening of marketing communication effectiveness - or are we simply too steeped in the way it's always been? Its mid-November, the US election has come and gone, and the US (and the rest of the world) gets another 4 years of George Bush in the White House. When one considers this campaign and particularly the reaction to it from around the world, we are left with a few questions like: Are human beings as independent of thought as the promise of democracy suggests? When one gets down to basics, is security the key driver of decisions on what kind of government should 'take care of us'? Has the 'fight' or 'flight' option become so engrained in our psyche, that as soon as we feel threatened by somebody or something - we put up our dukes and get seriously aggressive? I have no intention of getting into the where's and whyfores of 'should Bush have won' or 'was Kerry robbed' but the fact that so many Americans were moved to participate in the election process (for a change) suggests that many people actually had to perceive a serious threat to their way of life, before they would come out in numbers to honour their obligations to the very process that brought them 'freedom'. Sadly, I think that across the globe, when a threat is perceived - society has too much of a tendency to react aggressively first - and ask questions afterwards. The preferred way should be to look for the things that potential antagonists have in common, and then work around the differences. The principle of Concurrence. The things that make humanity the same - are far more important and greater in number than those that make us different. This was the first year in many that I decided not to attend the US DMA's annual conference held in New Orleans during October. I have had some feedback on the event however, including about the launch at the conference of a new book called 'Coming to Concurrence: Addressable Attitudes and the New Model for Marketing Productivity' by J Walker Smith, Ann Clurman and Craig Wood. J Walker Smith is President of Yankelovich Partners and has been described by Fortune as '…one of America's leading analysts on consumer trends…' Ann Clurman is a senior partner at Yankelovich, and according to U.S. News and World Report is '…one of the best researchers and generation watchers in America…' Craig Wood heads up Yankelovitch's 'Mindbase' division, and is a sought after writer and speaker on trust, privacy, CRM, Loyalty and database marketing. While they obviously describe the US marketplace in their book, these authors are waving some danger flags at the whole marketing communications industry, strongly suggesting that notice be taken of these consumer attitudinal changes, as they WILL have an effect on the world of marketing - sooner or later. We can choose to ignore these forecasts and simply rely on our blind faith that things will always be the way that they have been - or we can open our minds and consider the implications of one or more of these forecasts being 100% right. According to Smith: '…consumer resistance to marketing has been growing for many years, resulting in declining marketing productivity levels, creating a real crisis for many firms…' Even worse, consumer resistance became a breakout trend in the US during 2003 and in the author's opinion will continue to worsen until marketers begin to practise the principles of 'concurrence'. Marketers must abandon their belief that 'more marketing' is 'better marketing'. In fact, that approach only adds to the clutter that turns consumers off. Ann Clurman suggests that so-called 'permission marketing' is not the answer to empowering consumers either. In that model, many marketers ask once for 'permission' to send messages to a consumer and when that permission is granted, flood the communications channels with the same brand-only-focussed marketing messages. '…that doesn't reduce clutter,' Clurman says. 'It only serves to increase consumer resistance. Empowering consumers means asking for permission over and over again. Never stop!...' According to the authors, 'Concurrence Marketing'argues that marketers must align their interests with those of their now-emancipated and independent consumers. To do so, marketers need to '…move away from targeting based solely on demographics or behavioural data - which are both limited, and akin to looking in a rear-view mirror' says Craig Wood. Instead, they need to augment that kind of data with information on the attitudes of individual consumers, which they suggest, have become a critical variable in determining future purchase patterns. '….Marketers need to embrace the principles of precision; relevance; control; and reciprocity because consumers are evolving at breathtaking pace and the traditional guidelines are hopelessly out of date…' suggests Smith. '…We have become a self-inventive society where people believe they can be or do anything they want to. This flows from the historic belief in self-reliance, enhanced by the concept of self-help and ultimately by the huge store of information unleashed by the Internet. People now take it for granted that if or when they want power or control, they are entitled to it. Smart marketers will not wring their hands at these developments, but adapt and profit from them as they have done throughout history…' I have no doubt that the issues which Yankelovich Partners raise are very important to the future 'health' of anyone in the practise of marketing and advertising, although I do have some concerns (probably because I don't have enough detail to understand them fully) - about the predictability of the tools to which they refer. One thing is for certain though…our own experience has taught us that the people (out there) are a whole lot more responsive when we demonstrate that we are attuned to their needs, than when we focus on (and only communicate about) our own.
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Being direct... AdVantage Jan 2005

Is marketing communication getting further out of tune with those it is trying to influence, or is there opportunity for greater harmony?
Can marketers and consumers reach a level of 'concurrence' that could reverse the weakening of marketing communication effectiveness - or are we simply too steeped in the way it's always been?

Its mid-November, the US election has come and gone, and the US (and the rest of the world) gets another 4 years of George Bush in the White House. When one considers this campaign and particularly the reaction to it from around the world, we are left with a few questions like:

Are human beings as independent of thought as the promise of democracy suggests?
When one gets down to basics, is security the key driver of decisions on what kind of government should 'take care of us'?
Has the 'fight' or 'flight' option become so engrained in our psyche, that as soon as we feel threatened by somebody or something - we put up our dukes and get seriously aggressive?

I have no intention of getting into the where's and whyfores of 'should Bush have won' or 'was Kerry robbed' but the fact that so many Americans were moved to participate in the election process (for a change) suggests that many people actually had to perceive a serious threat to their way of life, before they would come out in numbers to honour their obligations to the very process that brought them 'freedom'.

Sadly, I think that across the globe, when a threat is perceived - society has too much of a tendency to react aggressively first - and ask questions afterwards. The preferred way should be to look for the things that potential antagonists have in common, and then work around the differences. The principle of Concurrence. The things that make humanity the same - are far more important and greater in number than those that make us different.

This was the first year in many that I decided not to attend the US DMA's annual conference held in New Orleans during October. I have had some feedback on the event however, including about the launch at the conference of a new book called 'Coming to Concurrence: Addressable Attitudes and the New Model for Marketing Productivity' by J Walker Smith, Ann Clurman and Craig Wood. J Walker Smith is President of Yankelovich Partners and has been described by Fortune as '…one of America's leading analysts on consumer trends…' Ann Clurman is a senior partner at Yankelovich, and according to U.S. News and World Report is '…one of the best researchers and generation watchers in America…' Craig Wood heads up Yankelovitch's 'Mindbase' division, and is a sought after writer and speaker on trust, privacy, CRM, Loyalty and database marketing.

While they obviously describe the US marketplace in their book, these authors are waving some danger flags at the whole marketing communications industry, strongly suggesting that notice be taken of these consumer attitudinal changes, as they WILL have an effect on the world of marketing - sooner or later. We can choose to ignore these forecasts and simply rely on our blind faith that things will always be the way that they have been - or we can open our minds and consider the implications of one or more of these forecasts being 100% right.

According to Smith: '…consumer resistance to marketing has been growing for many years, resulting in declining marketing productivity levels, creating a real crisis for many firms…' Even worse, consumer resistance became a breakout trend in the US during 2003 and in the author's opinion will continue to worsen until marketers begin to practise the principles of 'concurrence'. Marketers must abandon their belief that 'more marketing' is 'better marketing'. In fact, that approach only adds to the clutter that turns consumers off.

Ann Clurman suggests that so-called 'permission marketing' is not the answer to empowering consumers either. In that model, many marketers ask once for 'permission' to send messages to a consumer and when that permission is granted, flood the communications channels with the same brand-only-focussed marketing messages. '…that doesn't reduce clutter,' Clurman says. 'It only serves to increase consumer resistance. Empowering consumers means asking for permission over and over again. Never stop!...'

According to the authors, 'Concurrence Marketing'argues that marketers must align their interests with those of their now-emancipated and independent consumers. To do so, marketers need to '…move away from targeting based solely on demographics or behavioural data - which are both limited, and akin to looking in a rear-view mirror' says Craig Wood. Instead, they need to augment that kind of data with information on the attitudes of individual consumers, which they suggest, have become a critical variable in determining future purchase patterns.

'….Marketers need to embrace the principles of precision; relevance; control; and reciprocity because consumers are evolving at breathtaking pace and the traditional guidelines are hopelessly out of date…' suggests Smith. '…We have become a self-inventive society where people believe they can be or do anything they want to. This flows from the historic belief in self-reliance, enhanced by the concept of self-help and ultimately by the huge store of information unleashed by the Internet. People now take it for granted that if or when they want power or control, they are entitled to it. Smart marketers will not wring their hands at these developments, but adapt and profit from them as they have done throughout history…'

I have no doubt that the issues which Yankelovich Partners raise are very important to the future 'health' of anyone in the practise of marketing and advertising, although I do have some concerns (probably because I don't have enough detail to understand them fully) - about the predictability of the tools to which they refer.

One thing is for certain though…our own experience has taught us that the people (out there) are a whole lot more responsive when we demonstrate that we are attuned to their needs, than when we focus on (and only communicate about) our own.