Recognition Marketing - What To Look Out For In 2008
Be Prepared For The New Year
By David Miranda
2008 will be an interesting year. It is a presidential election year with the most diverse slate of candidates in a generation. US. economic growth is slowing. World oil prices remain high. Toyota is expected to claim GM's long-held spot as the world's Number One automaker. The American dollar is soft against major world currencies. Credit is getting tighter after the sub-prime debacle. The Summer Olympic Games will be held in Beijing. Yes, it should be an interesting year, but there are a few areas that a marketer should pay special attention to since they will have a dynamic impact on marketing strategy moving forward. These include:
- The privacy issue - The assault on privacy has been both overt (opt-in/opt-out programs); covert (Patriot Act; data collection such as from cookies without the expressed prior approval of the consumer) over the past few years and criminal (ID theft, mishandled, stolen or lost consumer data occuring both in the public and private sectors. Marketing Implication: The Do-Not-Call List will be followed by Do-Not-Email, Do-Not-Mail, and Do-Not-Text lists, etc, etc.. Opt-in programs will become the norm. It will be more difficult in the future to get consumers to provide confidential information and there will be more government oversight due to consumer backlash. Search engines and other web sites will be required to get a consumer's prior approval to collect data from personal searches, browsing/surfing, etc. Bottom line: Advantage to the consumer.
- The copyright issue - As this article is written, there is a prolonged writer's strike that has put the brakes on many productions in Hollywood. The main sticking point? Writers want a piece of the revenue derived from new channels of distribution of their work, e.g. the internet, mobile, podcasts, etc. Video-sharing sites, like YouTube, are the targets of litigation regarding copyright infringement with the copyright owners demanding either compensation or removal of their protected material. Other owners of copyrighted material such as magazines, newspapers, book publishers, etc. are seeking financial remedies for the unauthorized use of their content by third parties. Marketing implication: The free ride is over for those financially benefitting from using unauthorized copyrighted content. It is the distributor of the content who must either pay or do without. This includes search engines, audio & video sharing sites, etc. Bottom line: Look for a change in current business models.
- Great ideas will cut through media clutter - Media channels have proliferated and will continue to do so as newer channels, like mobile, find their critical mass audience. Consumers, using new technology, are now determining their own individual media consumption patterns. In this world of uber-choice and uber-noise, great creativity is the key factor in cutting through the clutter. Marketing implication: Great ideas will be the most valuable marketing currency for a brand. Bottom Line: If your marketing is very, very, very good, it's not going to be good enough. It must be great, driven by world-class creativity.
