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Over the past few decades there have been some forces at work that have rocked marketing down to its core. These forces aren’t going away; if anything, they are accelerating, causing increased effects.

Here they are, in no particular order (list is not all-inclusive!):

1. Shift from transaction- to relationship-based marketing. This is a no-brainer. It costs a lot less money to continue a relationship (and even improve it or deepen it) then to start a brand new relationship with a total stranger. It all started with the one-to-one future and has just exploded
2. Shift from intuition- to data-based marketing. Thanks to the internet, we have ways of gathering very exact data about how customers react to messaging, what they respond to, where they do, who they talk to and then make decisions based on this data. The funny thing is, now that internet marketers have become used to all this introspection and accountability, they want it for their other media buys too! It’s no longer good enough to just drop 5 million on an ad campaign and hope it works.
3. Further melding of content and advertising. Another no brainer, and a simple darwinian reflex to the rise of TiVO, spam filters, and more. No one in their right minds (and yes, this means that advertising people aren’t in their right minds!) willingly sit through ads. One way to get your pitch seen is to make it an integral part of the content that is drawing an audience. (Also, take note of the next big trend….)
4. Emphasis on microtrends and relevance marketing vs. mass marketing. In the old days, you bought an ad on TV during M*A*S*H and 70 quadrillion people saw it, and maybe 1% bought and you were made in the shade. Now you have 17 different magazines, podcasts, and cable shows devoted to every conceivable topic (like walking, cigars, quilting, medieval military history, mixed martial arts, you name it). There’s just no way that a single message can match all those audiences and their desires. Don’t even try it, as you’re not even likely to get lucky.
5. Shift from one-way marketing to conversational marketing. Even if you as a company aren’t conversing with your marketplace, you can bet your sweet patutees that the marketplace is having some kind of conversation about you. Guess what? They used to do it on the phone, or in gatherings, or over email, but now its a no brainer to set up entire blog networks about you. And to post videos on youtube of people using/abusing your product. My advice: Don’t fear the reaper. Get in there and mix it up, because at least then you’re involved.

There are more forces at work, of course. Anyone care to comment?

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