Adweek: Advertising agencies should restructure their services to become more "connected" to their clients' target audiences, by focusing on engagement and having consumers opt in to marketing, according to a new study by Forrester Research. "I don't think agencies are going away," said Peter Kim, a Forrester Research analyst and co-author of the report. "They're going to be the ones that help marketers to communities of mutual interest."
Hold on to that gag reflex, here it comes...
As I read the little blurb and clicked on the link, I anticipated the delight of reading absolute bullshit.
Fantastic.
My instinct again proved right.
No.1: Being a marketer means that you can adapt to the different audiences. You learn to understand the audience and their different motivations. We use our understanding to devise a plan that will speak to the chosen audience in the right way.
That's why I love marketing- new challenges every day, understanding different people, knowing what buttons to press to have the desired effect. It's exciting to understand a different type of people, it's interesting to learn more about people (key word here - people, not consumer/target/etc).
Choosing individuals who represent each audience to actually perform the marketing work is boring, most of all lazy and just too limited. Simply, it's inefficient.
Think about how many permutations of various communities are out there???? What Forrester is posturing is preposterous.
No.2: This is simply code for "We're out of touch with our consumer" and you know what? Making up stories and not owning up to the truth is only going to make things worse. Own up to the problem that most marketers are completely out of sync with the rest of the world, take some responsibility and then, just maybe, things might start to get a little better.
Who comes up with these theories??????? You dinosaurs are all part of the same make up, Baby Boomer with a bit of Gen X thrown in for good measure. You guys have the blame game written all over you.
2 comments:
Hi Deb,
Interesting feedback. You state exactly what I see as the problem with marketing today. People trying to second-guess and sell brands to others with whom they have no authentic connection - and the only reason for caring is to sell something. I know this first-hand; I've been on both the client and agency sides.
Funny, I've never been called a dinosaur before but I guess that'll become more common with time. I did, however, get carded buying beer last week (I don't think it was a compliment).
regards,
Pete
Apologies Peter Kim, if I offended you.
...I never said anything about second guessing;
or only caring for the sell;
or authentic connections.
It seems that for you, there is 'your way' and the 'opposite of your way'. For me it is not one or the other. There are other ways to be an advertiser that are effective in today's world.
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