As a marketer you know the most important aspect of marketing is to “know thy market.” And that, for a lot of marketers, includes knowing demographics and psychographics, competition, buying-decision process and purchasing habits, etc., etc., etc. And depending on the size of the organization that information may come from extensive marketing research or a gut instinct that’s been built up with years of experience.
Many traditional marketing and communications campaigns, programs, etc. are then based on that collected information or a gut instinct. Sometimes an organization will get lucky and be wildly successful and other times a campaign will fall flat on its razzle-dazzled face. And lately, there seems to be more examples of the the latter.
What could be a cause? Often, as marketers we have a bad habit of making broad and sweeping generalizations about the markets we are targeting. I have had a lot of conversations with marketers in which I often here “Parents, teens, GEN Y think this way…” or “The telecom, pharma, high-tech doesn’t like…”
The problem with those types of generalizations is that there are people who build up those markets and, as we know, most people do not always think exactly the same way. And social media is putting a big ‘ol spotlight on that fact.
If you are a marketer considering social media and marketing to established communities (i.e. your target audience) do you actually know the people by name? Do you have a sense of how they interact within their community? Do you know who the opinion leaders or influencers are? Do you know how they think and react to information within their market? Can you seamlessly and consistently blend in?
What do I mean by all of that? Well, when information is shared with a social community one of two things will happen: They will respond or they will ignore you. If they respond…do you have the background and experience, especially if they call you to the carpet, to hold a conversation? Or will you need to pass the ball to someone else within your organization who understands? Or worse, will you ignore the response because you’re now in a tricky situation of being left without enough information or having anyone else who understand social media enough to jump in and respond?
I have often said that most marketers (marketing communications, specifically) aren’t the best people to engage in social media for an organization because they don’t truly understand the market because they aren’t the market. A lot of times their knowledge of the product or service only skims the surface, say compared to the product/service development team.
See where I am going with this? We are all consumers and as such we often know products and services better than the people marketing them. That said, there are exceptions and examples of people who are both.
Lindsay Lebresco was successful handing PR and social media for Graco Baby because she is a mom. Amber Naslund is successful handling community for Radian6, a social media monitoring company, because she’s a marketer and social media thought leader. Kim Wood, a successful realtor and blogger, understands her market because she lives in it.
Do you blend in?
Tags: marketers, Marketing, marketing management, Social Media
This is kind of a strange post.
There are lots of examples where people expert in the marketing of a product don’t, or can’t, blend in with the ultimate consumer. Toys. Diapers. Dog food.
In those cases, research, data and the wisdom of experience are reliable guides.
Similarly, it is possible for other marketers to “know” the market without necessarily “being” the market, and it frequently happens that way.
Undoubtedly somebody who is a machine operator can build a better relationship with another machine operator. Granted. Problem is, there may not be many machine operators available who could also run your marketing program.
I am not a machine operator, but bet I could roll up my sleeves, get on the manufacturing floor, and after a period of time figure out how to connect to them. I’m not one of them but that would not necessarily preclude me from figuring out the unmet needs of their manufacturing process.
Could you effectively be the marketing manager for men’s razor blades? Yes, I believe you could.
Hi, Beth. Thanks for the post.
In my own perspective, I think that what you emphasized in your conclusion is very true: if you follow your heart and convert it into an entrepreneurial initiative, chances are, it will be very successful.
Start a business half-heartedly and it will only take a few days to find out you’re already sinking down the drain.
Hey Beth…
Thanks for the shoutout. And you’re also reminding me of something very important, and something that happens a GREAT deal in communications overall.
We, as communicators, often make the mistake of letting our OWN perspective, opinions, and bias lead us to conclusions about our communities. So if I identify with marketers in my industry and I don’t care for direct marketing, I make the generalization that no one like me likes it, or that it’s not effective.
Similarly, let’s take gleaning sentiment for a second. If I’m a company and I read a statement about me that’s effectively factual, I might not think it’s a negative statement. But the important perspective is that of the READER or the CUSTOMER, not the company. If your customer reads it and thinks it’s negative, it’s negative.
We’ve got to be sure that when we’re crafting communication, we’re not letting our own experiences color our assumptions about what our customers, audience, or community wants and needs.
Beth,
This reminds me of a post wayyyy back in the day for mprofs… recounting a friend’s story of working for an Ad Agency that represented women’s feminine hygene products… ALL MEN.
Thought I’d share, for yuks.
http://www.mpdailyfix.com/2008/05/crawling_for_customers.html
I’m with you on this…
hey
there i am in the profession of direct marketing as well as internet form last 2 years and from the training and the trend of the market i know that the things you have post in your post are one the best area of concerns to make your marketing more effective
Mark, the point was a marketer can be a really great marketer with lots of data to go off of, but if they aren’t the market sometimes it can be difficult, if not impossible, to truly understand the market and social media puts a spotlight on that. Like Leigh’s example below…can you image male brand managers chatting it up on Twitter with female customers (at any age) about, er, tampons, um… no. Just like I would have a hard time being anything more than a marketer with IT folks who engage in social media (even with 15 years of high tech marketing under my belt). People know when you aren’t “one of them” by the limitations of your technical conversations, use of buzz words, etc. They want to chat on Twitter, forums, blogs, etc. with people who are in the IT space as deep as them (i.e. network managers, data center managers, etc.), not marketers.
SAG, I didn’t have entrepreneurs in mind…but that’s a very good point. Most entrepreneurs follow their heart and what they love, which makes them a natural to reaching out to people with the same interests/passions.
Amber, sage advice! I think one way to help craft better communications and understanding of customers is to be a part of *their* world. You’re absolutely right from a social media and PR perspective… If it’s negative, it’s negative, even if we as communicators might find the content or statement neutral or positive. Just look what happened with the PRSA last week. A post from one of their bloggers (on their ComPRhension blog) on social media and millennials that they thought was insightful lead to a firestorm of criticism. If they were better engaged in the community, they would have known that it wouldn’t be seen as positive.
Leigh, wow, just wow! Thanks for sharing the example…that’s exactly what I am referring to. Now…image those men coming up with Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, blog, forum marketing tactics? How could they possibly properly communicate and engage? What would they talk about? I think it would be virtually impossible to do anything other than one-way messaging pushing until they recognized that they weren’t qualified to relate to the market in a social media space. It’s like adults coming up with forums/communities for teens/kids…how could we possible relate?
Jessica, thanks! I think it’s totally possible to be engaged and still market effectively. Perhaps even engaging effectively online via social media would help make direct marketing efforts that much more successful.
Nice list. I’ve read a few of them and also recommend them. It’s really a wonderful post.thanks a lot.
As marketers, we are not only required to identify the audience we’re marketing to, but we’re also expected to learn as much as we can about that audience. Sometimes blending in is easy, other times it’s more difficult, but I agree that the people marketing a product or service should be a part of the audience they’re marketing to.
I certainly agree that social media puts those marketers who don’t blend in so well with their audience on the hot seat. As marketers, we’re also expected to be experts. If we’re not, we put ourselves, our company’s reputations, and our product’s survival at risk.
Tessa Carroll
VBP OutSourcing
http://www.vbpoutsourcing.com
Dear,
Beth Harte
Really the social media is becoming the main source of attraction for every marketing person. The lot of work and knowledge on the following field is required. The social media interaction isn’t an easy job every person have to fulfill the requirements of the these communities to make his / her worth in it. Like following the guideline making the friends and joining groups forming the friend circle e.t.c. the need is that the now a person or business should focus on making place in such medias instead of spaming or just promoting. If he / she makes him/her self a prominent person in these communities than he will get benefits in long term.
Hi! This is the one blog which I visit from last two weeks and I really like this and it helps me a lot so stay tune with us and keep post continue.Thanks… Keep blogging.
[...] What is ethnography? Basically, it’s about understanding your market’s everyday life where they live it and from an insider’s point of view. Meaning, you understand the market because you view them in their natural settings. Take for example, Graco’s marketing and social media team A lot of them are moms and as such they can relate and market to moms because they understand the needs/wants moms have. Social media, again, is one way to understand the common values, lifestyles, hobbies, values, needs, etc. that drive people to join communities and forums of like interests. Typically these types of online groups have their own culture, speak in terms that are unique to the group, and they often help or influence each other to make purchasing decisions. Relating to your market in this manner allows you to seamlessly blend in with it. [...]
Yes, that’s right. You have to “know your market”. But, most important of all, you have to believe in your products and know your products pretty well! You can start by selling your products to yourself first!
Knowing your market is a great way to be successful in your business endeavors. But, most importantly, you also have to know your product and believe in it! The first thing you can do is to have personal experience with your product! You can’t say that the movie being shown today is a good one not until you have watched it yourself!