The New Marketing – A heartfelt thank you to Jana Eggers.
First and foremost, this post is a sincere thank you from me to Jana Eggers for a gift that touched me and my little girl in the best way. As you may know, I frequently post pictures of moments with my children on Twitter to share my joy. One day, a few weeks ago, I got a package from Jana out of the blue. In it was a handwritten note sharing how one of my recent posts had touched her and a child’s apron (modeled above). Her note mentioned she thought we would enjoy this together and we sure did. Lulu has her favorite apron now and likes to wear it all the time.
It’s important to know that Jana and I have a business relationship. Over the years, Tanagram has had several partners providing Just-In-Time (JIT) T-Shirt printing. A year or so ago, we found SpreadShirt.com and have been very pleased with the quality, cost, and service they provide. You can see our spreadshirt store here.
Again, Jana, Thank you.
I would also like Jana for exemplifying Social Marketing practices and providing me with a great example to share with you. It’s important to understand that this analysis cannot detract from the sentiment of the gift from Jana because truth lives at the very core of Social Marketing, as does trust and relevance. Jana’s intent is not false and if it were the “touch” would have been rejected as suspicious or manipulative.
Traditional Marketers and PR folks are having a tough time today because consumers are extremely savvy and jaded. They can immediately smell out the “lie” of a marketing campaign and forget it just as quickly. Not being able to tell consumers what to do has them running scared.
Here at Tanagram (and some of our best clients) we have a dream where unsolicited advertising (telemarketing, billboards, etc.) goes away. We imagine a world where consumers choose companies to forge relationships with and those companies in return look for individual, meaningful ways to contribute to their consumers’ lives. It’s a little Utopian, we know, but the math follows as such:
- Blanketing DMAs (think of them as custom geographic boundaries) with one-message-fits-all advertising content is expensive and the return on each dollar spent is small. Most of the advertising spend is wasted on individuals who aren’t interested or like the photo below; in the trash.
- It is common knowledge among sales professionals that it is more expensive to find new consumers than it is to maintain and foster new business from the ones who show an affinity to your products.
- It’s a little early for statistics, but if our hunch is correct, the return on investment for relationship based marketing (Social Marketing) will be significantly better than traditional media. Exponentially better. Think about it, would you buy from someone who cares about you (truthfully), you trust (based on past behavior), and is offering you something that fits immediately into your world of needs (discounted precooked chicken on the way home late from work)?
- If the return on investment is greater for personal, relevant interactions, spending on less effective methods will cease. The billboards will come down.
Today Social Marketers are listening to and searching channels like Twitter for individuals with ideas, concerns, questions, etc. that they might be able to assist with. The goal is not to get one more widget into the consumers hands but to show the consumer that a human being with deep knowledge on a specific situation is there and willing to help them. If a sale results, it’s because it was the best solution for the consumer. Follow @USAA / @Niner_Nut on Twitter to see a good example of Social Marketing for Financial Services. I bank with them, and they are AMAZING!
The biggest challenge Social Marketing faces is scale. Will ginormo-corps like P&G be able to connect in relevant ways to billions of consumers? We don’t know, but if the returns are there, expect them to spend the billions they dump into that billboard blocking your sunset on research and development to find the solution. We can’t wait!
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