First blog post in the Marketing Clinic blog.  Content below:

Catharina in her blog post mentioned the changes that have happened in the media landscape in the past few years, where customers are always on, opinionated and talk back in real time. We believe many marketers haven’t adapted to this new reality, especially if they have so far dealt with traditional media.

As mentioned in this post from Digiday, CMOs and marketing managers still make the mistake of trying to control the brand because they come from a background of controlling the message. With many-to-many communication, it becomes tough for these leaders as they need to let go a little. A brand’s real meaning is only what the customers think it is.

Furthermore, the variety of products, channels, consumers and competition make marketing strategy definition, activity planning and execution less straightforward than in the past.  Why? Oftentimes marketing managers don’t know where to start and the competences needed at all levels of the organization are much more varied than ever before: service design, social media analysis and search engine buyers were disciplines that were not in the marketing toolbox ten years ago.

In order to help their brands grow, marketers need to plan when and how to move from shouting to enabling and participating in conversations and creating engaging experiences.  In my next post, I will give you some ideas.