Marketing Jeopardy - The Right Answer Is Asking The Right Question

Success In The New Marketing Landscape Is No Game

By David Miranda

Alex Trebek: "The Marketing Jeopardy categories are: Revenue, Market Share, Profits, Competitive Advantage, and RMOI (Return On Marketing Investment)."
Marketing Contestant: "Alex, I'll take 'RMOI" for $30 million."
Alex Trebek: "The answer is '30-sec spot' ".
Marketing Contestant: "What is advertising that is costing more but delivering less?"
Alex Trebek: "Correct. I could have also accepted newspaper ads, magazine ads, radio, and outdoor."

Every day this game of marketing jeopardy is being played out by marketers. They employ and deploy a mix of media solutions only to find the campaign has cost more but delivered less. Buy why? Simply put, the answer lie with today's consumer media consumption behavior. Today, the consumer dictates the when, where, and how media is consumed. Aided by the Internet, DVR's, and mobile, for example, consumers can now consume media on their terms, no longer, beholden to the programming of traditional content publishers and distributors. Consumers are driven by the four C's - context, content, convergence, and convenience.

Context refers to the relevance of information to the consumer based on their individual tastes and preferences, e.g lifestyle profile. Content refers to quality and quantity of the programming regardless whether it was created from traditional sources or other consumers, better known as user-generated content, e.g YouTube. Convergence refers to the blurring of lines between television, the personal computer, and mobile. Consumers expect and demand the ability to enjoy content on the channel of their choice. Convenience refers to the K.I.S.S. principle. Consumers will gravitate to simplicity, also known as user-friendliness.

The Final Jeopardy answer is change. The question is "What is the most important challenge for engaging consumers in today's dynamic marketing landscape?"