Out with the old and in with the new?
In media and marketing circles today it is fashionable to talk about the trend toward “New Media.” The story is dramatic and exciting: innovative digital entrepreneurs are making old ways obsolete while fat media incumbents sit on their hands. The wave of the future is destroying the overgrown giants of the past.
Despite appearances, the talk doesn’t reflect the evidence. The dominant trend is actually toward greater media diversity.
In the spring of 1995, no one knew what the internet was, the Netscape IPO was still months away and I wasn’t planning on a career in media.
Nevertheless, it was then that I learned precious lessons that have sustained me through a career that has spanned booms and busts, various countries and multiple media platforms.
Some of the most valuable lessons I learned one night in a steakhouse in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Many believe that brands will become less important as digital technology marches onward. They will surely be disappointed.
In fact, it is likely that branding will become more important in the digital age. With more media and more brands, consumers have to more to filter out. In order to cut through the clutter, marketers will have to work harder to build brands that inspire loyalty.
To understand why, let’s start at the beginning…
read more…
Tom Friedman insists that the “The World is Flat.” Richard Florida says that it isn’t; in fact the world is “spiky” with towers of activity and flatlands of obscurity. Both offer compelling, but seemingly polar opposite views of the way our world is changing around us and what we need to do to compete.
Who is right and how should it affect the way we run our businesses?
In 1865, Gregor Mendel published the paper that established him as the father of genetics. However, it went largely unnoticed until it was rediscovered decades later and became widely recognized as one of the great discoveries in the history of science.
Why do some ideas quickly spread far and wide while others go nowhere at all?
As markets become more competitive marketers’ jobs become more complex. New categories are created while old ones add more segments. Novel marketing channels compete with traditional media outlets. Marketing has never been harder or more abstruse
There are those, however, that offer a false solution to all of the drudgery. They have a simple formula that explains everything. I call them “Cargo Cult Marketers“ and they are people to avoid.
