- Okay, so the Democrat Barack Obama is using technology including YouTube with enthusiasm to promote his side of the story.
- Your girl friend says ‘Wearing my favorite heels, I can get taxis whenever I need.’
- So what is the value of your product, service or brand in relationship to customer needs. Does using social media like Facebook and Twitter make a difference? Do we understand marketing good enough to use social media effectively for building trust, relationships and selling?
- Find out – read on we tell you the story.
Marketing product and services is always a difficult thing to do. Your existing and potential customers will fall into particular groups or segments. These can be characterized by their needs. In turn if your product or service addresses the need more successfully than your competitor’s product, you might have a winner on your hands.
And now comes social media and suddenly everybody talks about building relationships, having conversations and establishing social networks between the firm, product/service and the client by understanding the value of their needs.
In midst of all this complexity came this simple and straightforward question via Twitter yesterday – Friday:
jowyang Ask your Marketing team to describe what they do in one sentence. Here’s my definition in 9 words http://tinyurl.com/2t7xej This got me thinking and we started talking using social media and part of our team gathering around our coffee machine. For starters, we are such a small team we do not have a dedicated marketing team. We live by the philosophy:
– everybody is in sales
Nevertheless, early today I sent three tweets to Jeremiah using less than 140 characters in my attempts to define marketing. Naturally, I tried to consider the multidisciplinary aspects (e.g., psychology, business, advertising, etc.) but using the KISS principle (see below) things seemed straight forward:
ComMetrics: @jowyang Marketing is the never ending process of connecting customers to products and services
ComMetrics: @jowyang – more like: Successful marketing raises awareness, trust and reputation, while connecting customers to products and services.
ComMetrics: @jowyang Finally my last marketing def. Marketing is recognizing a demand and successfully offering customers a solution satisfying the need
- PS. Jeremiah is so busy keeping track of the 6,000 or more people he follows, we have not gotten an answer so far. Maybe he leaves a comment below but I am not holding my breadth ;-)Incidentally, Twitter does not scale well – following fewer people can make your conversations more intimate, thoughtful and manageable
Are you making a fashion statement?
Discussions addressing social media and marketing tend to focus on brands or large corporations. In particular, how such brands can join the conversation and have a relationship with consumers (whatever this might mean is still a bit of a mystery to me).
Therefore, what is one supposed to do without a global brand or a consumer product? Ignore social media or approach it a bit different? My clients’ concerns are different when they talk to us compared to when they are considering getting stiletto heels at the store. Put differently, is there something we can learn from stiletto heels, fashion and how and why women wear them? You bet there is.
For starters, the medical community is aghast at the current direction in footwear. Unfortunately, if the heel is continually in a raised position, then it shortens the calf muscle.
As well, all the weight is forced on the metatarsal head and this can cause bunions, corns, and calluses. In fact, prolonged wear also causes degeneration of joint function. Even though 2.5 cm to 5 cm might be all we should go for, 10cm and more can now be seen ever more often.
Nevertheless, regardless of the above medical concerns, when it comes to shoes, statement heels are back:
Why women buy black high heels – the guide for everything
While such wacky shoes may not be comfortable to wear, they grab the pedestrian’s attention. In addition, attention is what women might look for.
Marc Jacobs shoe with the missing heel is a wacky shoe that attracts attention all right. More importantly, younger women can afford it.
However, walking in them on cobblestone pavements means one risks falling and, the shoe looks awful after a few times walking across such kind of pavement.
marketing 101 – what have high heels, cobblestone pavements & WordPress in common?
Bottom Line
Marketing is a funny business. Shoes may be big, clumpingly gorgeous and oddly cantilevered. As well, you may be unable to walk even a few steps in the unusually shaped heels. Nevertheless, high heels supposedly give you grace and a longer step. Hence, when going out on a date women seem to prefer wearing high heels – these are a trend-in-the-making.
I am not sure if shoe designers or manufacturers use Twitter or Facebook to develop what social media gurus call relationships, conversations and trust. I am not even sure if women care. Nonetheless, successful designers have a reputation. With some, women seem to trust their newly released designs to represent trend pieces.
There might be little relationships or conversations happening here. Nevertheless, some market research, product placement (e.g., Gwyneth Paltrow wearing your latest spiky piece) and advertising does help in moving your summer footwear out the door.
Besides all this reflection, selling heels is one thing, selling a soft drink is another and being a small company, selling technical services is once again a different challenge when it comes to marketing (e.g., no budget). Whatever it is, I believe what I wrote here, namely:
ComMetrics: @jowyang – more like: Successful marketing raises awareness, trust and reputation, while connecting customers to products and services.
Social media and the web can help in raising a micro businesses’ profile. In fact, if your customers and potential clients read your Twitter tweets and, more likely, your blog posts you might even connect with them.
What is your take on this, please; submit your comments, critique or better definitions below.
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