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'Digital marketing' to become just 'marketing' in 2013

There are three different issues being discussed here, between the headline, article and comments: [i] digital marketing is marketing and always has been, which is why there is only ever one marketing director in a business (unless the CEO is mad); [ii] if you are offline (bricks and mortar) then you can’t survive without a digital marketing strategy as well (but that doesn’t mean you have to sell online - ecommerce is not marketing and the high street/trading estate will always exist); however [iii] the most important issue is that digital threats are likely to blind-side you. Brands fail to see them coming. There is form here – poor old Jessops being another example within the last 24 hours. Are the first two issues insight? Probably not. The third one is the one that Forrester (Munchbach) warns about but what the headline of this article does not talk to – digital allows for new business models, i.e. new markets, aka opportunities. It’s the senior marketer’s job (just as much as the CEO’s) to spot these new markets. That’s marketing strategy, not ‘how shall I split my media between TV and online?’ TV vs. online vs. mobile is about tactics. As for the distinction in the headline (marketing/digital marketing, once the market opportunity has been understood), on the one hand no brand can survive without digital (unless they target solely ‘refuseniks’ or ninety years-olds) but on the other what does an expert TV planner (important) know about SEO (equally important), and vice versa? All marketing should report to one person, and so the real question is whether marketing owns ecommerce (no, it's a P&L i.e. a store) and IT (no, it's a different skills-set, but exists to deliver both ecommerce and marketing) or at minimum has a seat at the top table. Many brands are set-up oddly i.e. in an old-fashioned manner. And what about mobile? Is there nothing special about mobile marketing that requires the use of experts? Do we just lump that in with everything else? If I told you that a major airport in the UK sees 50% of its traffic from mobiles would you give the job of optimising this to a generalist; to someone who has never done it before? Experience is where the value-added comes in. The principles are the same, whether offline, digital or mobile ... but the rules/the detail massively different. There are lots of expensive mistakes to make and no need to make the old ones anymore. Don’t ask me to plan and buy TV – I’d get it wrong – but I wouldn’t tell you to junk it. The marketing director must be neutral, but also must employ experienced tacticians in each of the media that he/she determines is part of the tactical mix. More importantly the marketing director must be a business strategist as well, around the boardroom table advising their colleagues about the threats to their business model that digital changes bring. Are estate agents the next group to become extinct? In this digital age do they do much more than hold your key and let a few people in to look around? Couldn’t that we done by the key-holder at your alarm monitoring company? Strategy is not TV vs. online vs. mobile – it’s about asking (and answering) which market should I be in? “Marketing” is the art of exploiting a market. Wikipedia’s definition is wrong, as a lot of other digital things are. Let’s move this debate to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marketing!

Thu, 10 Jan 2013

1:54 pm