Shotguns at Dawn by Martin Hayward
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Martin Hayward, Founder of HAYWARD Strategy and Futures, discusses why the recession has led to personalised marketing being temporarily put on hold:
It must be very confusing being a student of marketing at the moment.
In the lecture theatre and in the business press there is widespread excitement at the stream of news and analysis proclaiming that it’s never been easier to target marketing at individual consumers.
New streams of data, new devices and channels and new media services are all supposedly creating the opportunity to get the right message to the right person at the right time in the right place. We are told that the snipers rifle is clearly going to usurp the inefficient old days of wildly blasted shotgun messages.
Yet when that same student steps out of the lecture theatre and puts down their business magazine, they are confronted with a marketing environment that screams shotguns not rifles.
Whether you’re in the market for groceries, meals-out, telecoms, holidays or cars, any highly targeted, relevant messages are being smothered by blanket messaging and offers without a hint of personalisation or targeting. 20% off, 2 meals for the price of one, buy one get two free, free delivery, the list of deals and offers goes on. Why would anyone worry about receiving personalised deals when you get smacked in the face by bigger offers at every purchase opportunity?
So what has happened to the brave new world of relevance and personalisation?
To the confused students pondering this question I would say that the future has temporarily been suspended. We’re having the recession we should have had several years ago, as our debt engorged consumers finally wake up to the fact that the free money gravy train has come to an end.
For suppliers struggling to get through this difficult period, desperate times do call for desperate measures, so it’s a game of turnover at the expense of margin. It’s not a sustainable game, and rewarding the fickle to the same degree as the loyal is an even shorter term game. The fittest will survive and then we can begin to get excited about the brave new future once again.
Sanity will prevail and the economic possibilities of a new era of highly relevant targeted marketing will begin to separate those who have the skills to implement them from the laggards. Margins will be rebuilt, and the loyalty of customers will once again be rewarded proportionately.
So stick with the future of marketing, it’s going to be great once we get there.
Read more from Martin Hayward
Posted: January 12th, 2012 | Author: Leah.Latimer | Filed under: Customer Champions | Tags: Customer Champions, Hayward strategy and futures, Marketing Blog, Marketing Society blog, martin hayward, recession, targeted marketing | Leave a Comment »
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