Marketing in the 1st Degree

Today all the rage in marketing is trying to find ways to crack the digital code. How can marketers reach more customers for less?  How can we monetize social media since the bank will not allow deposits of Face Book "likes" as currency?  What's the right mix?



Consumers bombarded with media



Consumers find themselves in a media war with push media such a TV, Radio and other traditional media just intercepting them with messages. Simultaneously consumers are pulling media through social channels such as Twitter, Facebook, Aps and other web content.  Finally to add another layer of complexity within all the pushing and pulling is the device all these marketing interactions are taking place on.  As a marketer should you be conquering on-line desk top?  The Lap Top? Mobile Phone?  Tablet? 

Are there tradeoffs with traditional media where it should be abandoned?  Think about it, you could abandon push media like TV but Television and on-line video are growing at a substantial rate (about 9% since 2008).  TV is not just viewed in the living room anymore as its consumption occurs on many smart devices.  So if you want to own mobile, you might need to own TV and visa versa.  You can own Internet radio like Pandora being consumed on any connected device or traditional radio being consumed in automobile during high drive time.  You see, the lines are truly blurred.  If you believe one media is right for you to reach your audience there may be many expressions of it across multiple devices.  Like it or not you’re in a whole new game as a marketer.



Technology is evolving behavior



What's really happening isn't a revolution rather an evolution of marketing.  In many cases the same types of customer interactions are happening in new ways.  If you cancel your TV production budget because you exit TV you can quickly  find yourself replacing that budget with a new one because of the need to develop video for on-line and mobile purposes.

While all these mysteries on how best to reach a customer for less you may want to focus on how to improve ROI across all touch points and then choose the most profitable for your situation.  I call this "Marketing by Degree" with the goal always being "Marketing in the 1st Degree".

Here's how it works, first put aside all prejudices, likes or dislikes for any particular media you use to connect with customers.  Look at your mix and break it down by marketing degrees:

Marketing in the 3rd Degree: Mass marketing.   Don't know the customer outside of broad segments like Women 25-54.   However you can reach the masses somewhat efficiently.  Think about newspaper, TV or Radio.

Marketing in the 2nd Degree:  You know the customer or something about them but you are not sure they are in the need state to buy what you are selling.  Think about a customer who has a private label credit card such as a store credit card.  The store knows the customer’s credit line and availability.  May not be sure she needs right now what you’re selling but she can afford it so you make an offer to her in her credit card bill with a coupon.

Marketing in the 1st Degree: You know the customer well and or you know the customer has a high likelihood of being in the market for your product or service.  Think about a person in your CRM database that has identified she has school age children and it is back to school time.  You may send her an email with a school supplies offer just when she is in need of such items.

The ultimate challenge for marketers is to look at their overall marketing mix and drive the productivity by marketing by degree.  Continuously attempt to turn whatever marketing vehicle you have up one degree to strive for improved ROI.  At the end of the day it's not necessarily about "which media you use" but "how effectively you can use it" to make money.  Going to a media or running from one based on the suspicion of a trend or future migration could put you in the situation of leaving money on the table.

Things to consider and questions to pose to yourself:

- What degree is my email campaign?  Just because its email doesn't mean it can't be 3rd degree mass marketing where everyone receives the same offer and email.  Can you customize so the knowledge you have about the customer could change the content to be more personalized archiving a higher response rate?

- What degree is my traditional marketing approach?  Pure demographics? Can the media buy and message be refined to appeal to your target even more?  Perhaps its distribution can be refined by a degree?  Today companies with large CRM databases are exploring ways to send specific advertisements to customers through their cable providers.  Imagine how much TV could be turned up a degree if two neighbors watching the same TV program actually received different commercials based on their interests or current need state!

There are many ways to increase the marketing degrees in your marketing mix resulting in an increased degree of confidence and profit from your marketing overall.  So turn it up!   Leave behind what doesn't work without prejudice.

What ways can you think of turning up your marketing mix by a degree?  Please share or comment.