Article: “Digital Darwinism”
Source: Strategy+Business
An extensive report with a global (meta-) insight on the evolution of marketing, the E-conomy, the conducting of business and the role of the consumer.
The title is suitable due to the fact that the marketing ecosystem (as the article calls it) is at an evolutionary threshold.
The transformation is occuring rapidly, those who adapt fast, who understand the new environment and the place of their prosumers will thrive, those who adapt slowly will encounter many challenges and possibly won’t survive.
Much of the insights in this article come from their conducted study “Marketing & Media Ecosystem 2010″ which consists of data from more than 450 professionals and 75 senior executives who granted in-depth interviews.
A challenging role is ascribed to the marketers who must find new and compelling ways to engage with their target audiences in the digital world. What I do find striking is the fact that many still need to grasp and learn the power and the abilities of the digital world and how create strategies that will contribute to the goals.
Education is key and like the marketing execution itself, speed is becoming important. Marketers need to harness themselves with constant modifying information and more importantly, the actual experiences and learnings.
The three traits to survive in this ecosystem ascribed in the article, are:
* Relevance
* Interactivity
* Accountability
The three traits are expressed in the following five behaviors that companies must display to thrive and benefit the advantages which the Internet offers:
* Turn consumers into prosumers
* Build bilateral brand experiences
* Place context on par with content
* Master the new calculus of communication
* Collaboration is king
It all relates to the fact that consumers simply have more choice and control over what they do, see, read and ultimately buy. Their media usage is fragmented thus being visible and engage in a relevant manner is important to influence the process and to interact where possible.
There are written lots of reports, papers and articles on this economical transformation, what I do find refreshing in this report, is that the new ecosystem not only will affect the marketers, but also agencies and media companies. With marketers I refer to the business-customer relationship.
I put emphasis on the marketers’ role out of interest, but the article discusses the new roles, responsibilities and relationships of the three as a whole.
This means not only the external environment is changing, but to adapt to it, the internal environment (within the company and between the companies) will have to change.
Here lies the biggest challenge, surely education on the new ways of marketing is important, but the will to create new partnerships, the will to truly understand the impact on the organization and the industry, to let go the conventional and the safe and to embrace the digital and the unknown is not something that humans intrinsically find pleasant.
In addition the economical and personal interests of those who are involved must not be underestimated. Think of the responsible managers, stakeholders, CEO’s and others who are not always willing to put themselves at stake and pass the decisions and strategy along.
What do you think will be the determinant of success in this ecosystem?
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