One question that is often put to us: why does traditional marketing fail?
As time goes by, the means used for traditional marketing seem to be dying out, one after the other.
As reported by the prestigious Harvard Business Review in its article of 9 August 2012, entitled “Marketing is dead”, tools such as advertising, branding, PR etc, are failing miserably in their main task.
Consumers have evolved with the evolution of internet, and have gone from being passively subjected to various forms of marketing, to being active consumers, who seek information and look for and compare offers online linked to a certain product.
It can be said that traditional marketing methods no longer make sense in a world of social networks, where digital word of mouth becomes a very powerful means on a human scale. In actual fact, we are not talking about salesmen who are trying to sell the latest product, but of people who are in the same position, often with the same interests, who are talking about products that they’d like to buy with other people who have already purchased them or that have more expertise in the field.
What will be the answer in the future?
Foreseeing what will become of marketing is not so easy, but one particular guideline is emerging, and is set to establish itself further in the near future. The company’s “capital”, seen as the network of clients who in turn have a network of friends and so on, will become increasingly important as competition grows. Companies will not only have to worry about selling, but also about keeping their online communities active and lively, so that they can contribute with honest feedback to improving the services or products offered by the actual company. What is more, companies must also bear in mind those users that we refer to as “hubs” (concentrators), those individuals that are inclined to have a wide range of social networks that they participate in with enthusiasm.
So, when you are developing the idea for your website, always look beyond simple appearances, spend time on interacting with your clients and taking care of your content to capture and hold the interest of those clients.
by INFINITY
