New World Ordering

It’s December. Do you knew where your future is?

I recently spoke at length about the future of this business with several marketers who I know and respect. Here’s the crib-sheet version of our thoughts on a few burning questions.

1. What’s the New Business World?

For businesspeople in general and marketers specifically, networking has given way to closer bonding and connecting. Businesspeople want to get together in warmer ways. They want personal treatment. It’s no longer about how big your Rolodex is, but how enriching the people you know are. This means a lot more opportunities at trade shows and other industry gatherings. (Those of you who attended this year’s PROMO Expo in October undoubtedly felt it.)

Agencies should use their connections to help clients connect. They should be part of their clients’ pathway to success, rather than the answer. They should be facilitators. Clients want self-esteem. Agencies need to give clients a reason to leave their desks. Clients want to hear success stories that they can borrow from.

Agencies can’t be as self-centered as they have been. They definitely need to be “the best” and recognized as such. But they need to communicate this as “best practices,” not “biggest ego.”

Clients want authenticity.

We have gone back quickly into the coat-and-tie professionalism mode. Literally. The grown-ups are back in charge. You can be playful, but only after you earn it.

Sexiness, edginess, glitz, and juvenile humor are out of vogue. What’s in vogue is connectivity, reassurance, and trust.

Bottom-line performance is still the measure of success for our clients’ shareholders. Agencies are only valuable when they demonstrate a deep understanding of a client’s business model, its customers, and the market dynamics in which it must succeed. If the agency doesn’t “get it,” then the agency can’t help build it.

2. What Do Consumers Want Now?

Consumer needs are turning rapidly and dramatically into consumer concerns and worries. Food safety is now top of mind, for example, as are personal and family safety and security. Consumers have serious questions and are looking to manufacturers for full responses. Fulfilling consumer wants and needs isn’t enough anymore; marketers now must resolve concerns.

This is a big change from the old P&G model (based on product features and benefits) or yesterday’s marketing-as-entertainment model. How do we show sincerity and complete responsiveness and yet still be engaging?

Expectations are way, way up. Consumers want more — more performance, more responsiveness, more answers, more help. We all know this, since we also are consumers. This year’s events have made everyone take pause, erase their mental hard drives, and look at almost everything differently.

Only those brands which have established consumer trust and consistently deliver on consumer expectations will survive in today’s retail environment. You know a brand is meeting these needs if you see healthy retailer margins, above-average inventory turns, and a strong price/value relationship for the consumer.

3. What’s The New Marketing Practice?

Marketers want justification.

They want efficiency. If agencies can show how they have best practices (effectiveness) and can add efficiencies, they will win.

Today, “creativity” sounds expensive. Agencies now need to offer brainpower with creative solutions that drive pay-out.

The new formula is: Message plus Speed plus Efficiency divided by costs.

Advertising will continue to decline, because it is less effective and less efficient.

One area of promotion marketing under debate is trade marketing (or co-op, retailer, or in-store marketing). More and more decisions are made in-store, we all know that by heart. (Quick, what’s the percentage of decisions now made in store?) But, fewer and fewer retailers are open to marketers’ programming. Or if the retailer is open, it’s at an exorbitant cost.

This is putting many CPG makers in a very difficult place. Does all of the money go to ‘price’? Or back into advertising? Or into Catalina or sampling or FSIs? How does one make true value-added brand marketing work in today’s retail environment?

Clients want to connect with consumers via ‘experiences,’ both direct connections and connections through retailers.

These experiences need some sort of ROI. This is uncharted territory. If an agency provides a killer experience to 40,000 people at a cost of $800,000, is the experience worth $20 per person? We need to have a justifiable answer.

What clients want is to make people care about their product.

What are your thoughts? Send them along and I’ll add them to my crib sheet.

Jim Holbrook is president of Zipatoni, St. Louis. He can be reached at [email protected].