Traditional Marketing Is Dead - Practice 21st Century Marketing

Author : John Alquist
Every business person and every buyer needs to know that traditional
marketing is dead. Its replacement: 21st Century Marketing.Customers no longer respond as they did in the 20th Century. They
don't salivate on demand, stimulated by your glitzy marketing, as
Ivan Pavlov's dog salivated over 100 years ago at the sound of a bell.Pavlov was a Russian who documented the "conditioned reflex." Pavlov
trained his dog so that whenever he rang the bell, the dog would get
food. When the bell rang, the dog would salivate instantly—even before
seeing or smelling food, a conditioned reflex.Pavlov was a Nobel Laureate in 1904 in Physiology & Medicine.
His experiment with this dog's conditioned reflex was part of his
research into the digestive system.Since traditional marketing is dead, how to you market in the 21st
Century? Since cats can't bark and customers don't salivate
any more as a conditioned reflex to your marketing tactics, how do
your market and sell now?Many answers are found in "Waiting For The Cat To Bark: Persuading
Customers When They Don't Respond To Traditional Marketing," a
book by Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg with Lisa T. Davis.No surprise: the Internet and generational differences have hastened
the death of traditional marketing.Since my 24 year employment career was in corporate marketing,
advertising and public relations, I have mixed emotions about the
death of traditional marketing.But I'm having too much fun professionally in the 21st Century to lament
the demise of traditional marketing. Here's why.There are 700 million regular Internet users worldwide. As China and India
continue to enter the modern age and create a huge middle class, the number
of Internet users globally will increase sharply.China's economy is growing at over 11% annually, far faster than that of
the United States. One commentator said that's because people in China and
India work very, very hard because they want to experience the American
Dream more than most Americans do.73% of Americans use the Internet regularly. That's about 219 million folks,
based on a population of roughly 300 million. That's the mainstream. Non-users,
of the Internet, 27% of the American population, are out of the mainstream.The authors say "The Internet is the world's global brain." And, "the web is the
glue that binds all marketing information." Why is that? It's because you find
just about anything you want to know online speedily. Google searches average
¼ of one second.We can no longer view the Internet as totally separate from store and non-store
retailing. Consumer behaviour has changed. The truth is: in the new 21st Century
marketing, online and offline marketing methods have become interwoven by
crafty consumer usage.That means you, as a business person, can no longer ignore the Internet because
you don't like it, don't approve of it, or believe your business is so unusual, the
Internet does not apply to you."New technology provides the lubrication to ease friction in a sale," say the "Waiting
For The Cat To Bark" authors. Therefore, stonewalling Internet use is like throwing
sand in a gear box.You cannot ignore the role of retailers in the whole equation. Now, retailing includes
all kinds of store and non-store retailing, traditional and non-traditional forms of retailing,
including millions of network marketing (MLM) distributors, too."Retail Bonanza Begins Online," a study by Paul J. Bruemmer, published in the May 2006
edition of "Website Service Magazine," included 83 million Americans who made 522 million
searches in 11 product categories in late 2005.25% of searchers bought an item directly related to their search inquiry. Of those,
37% bought online—but 63% bought offline. People did not buy right away—they
shopped and compared. Many bought after several subsequent search sessions.This study was conducted in the Christmas Holiday season of 2005. Over 60% of all
searchers started the search process before November 15, 2005—about a week before
the day after Thanksgiving.In addition to the Internet changing how we buy, generational differences
impact consumer marketing, too. People in their 20's and 30's were brought
up on interactive technology.As a result, they don't have fixed media viewing habits as older people do—such
as reading the morning newspaper upon arising or watching 5:00 PM newscasts after
returning home after work.That's why newspapers are experiencing declining circulations and readerships
and why large national TV networks are taking a beating by video on demand,
video downloads, interactive game networks, and Internet TV—not to mention
the hundreds of alternatives on cable TV.Marketing in the 21st Century must be reborn as "a consumer-centered craft,"
says Booz Allen Hamilton's "Strategy & Business Magazine, 2006 summer Edition.
Before, the advertiser was in control, trying to persuade the customer. Now the
customer is in control, having much more information available.To make marketing a "customer-centered craft," you must accept that traditional
marketing is dead. You need to learn and practice 21st Century marketing, with
its weaving of the Internet and online and offline marketing into a cohesive while.Moreover, to practice marketing as a "customer-center craft," you need to answer
three questions: "Who are we persuading to take action?" "What is that action?"
"What does the person need to feel confident?"Booz Allen Hamilton, a well-known management consulting firm, warns about
the "silo mentality" which exists in stodgy corporations. The company lives in a
silo and ignores everything going on outside of the silo.If you have the "silo mentality," tear the silo down and the barn, too, if necessary.
Start over. Breathe fresh air. Open you mind and feed it refreshing information
about 21st Century Marketing.Learn from the colossal marketing mistakes of American automakers. In the early
2000's, they ignored 21st Century Marketing, continuing to overspend on TV commercials and magazines and not spending enough promoting their Dealerships and marketing on the Internet.Talk about burying your head in the sand and sleeping through a major trend!
Detroit has a bad case of the silo mentality. It's putting them out of business.Finally, do what I did—graduate from 20th Century marketing, and become a
21st Century marketing maven by educating yourself.John J. Alquist is a professional speaker, business consultant and author/writer. He owns and operates Alquist Enterprises. Visit him online at john@tell-it-well.com or visit him online at http://www.tell-it-well.com
Keyword : Internet, 21st Century marketing, generational differences