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IT’S OFFICIAL — THE INTERNET RULES.

Posted on by Ed Sucherman

An African dictator/murderer, a fellow named Kony, is an international war criminal and has been wanted for several years. His story has been on all the TV news programs, both network and cable, with handsome guys and beautiful newscasters and world-renown experts and famous journalists covering the story, plus the news departments of all the top news radio stations and major newspapers, without much effect.

As I am sure most of you know, in the past couple of weeks, a group of young activists put together a 20-minute You Tube video on him, “Kony 2012.” It has gone viral and now 70 million+ people have seen it. Suddenly, he is hot news, is being sought out and will probably not survive much longer.

Obviously, the Internet is now the driver of information. The Internet came first and TV news picked it up. TV news and the entire media establishment spent years on the story, but the Internet made the impression. The Internet got the job done.

I have been thinking of client web sites (and describing them) as the hubs of marketing efforts, with all the spokes connected to them and pointed inward. In other words, all roads led to their web sites. Now, it’s pretty obvious that the Internet it is no longer the hub, but the driver of information. I now believe that communication begins on the web site and moves outward to other marketing efforts, including TV and cable TV.

Of course, the Internet is free, so most everyone over 2 and under 100 uses it freely and constantly. The challenge for each marketer is to somehow stand out from this immense crowd, so that every message is not just efficient, but effective.

My last blog indicated that some major international corporations were supporting their Internet efforts with old-fashioned direct mail. Whatever the backup medium, certain things will not change: great design and brilliant creativity will always win out. And the Internet rules — everything else is a secondary medium.

2012 Marketing Prediction #2

Posted on by Ed Sucherman

MARKETING PREDICTION #2 FOR 2012: THE EMERGENCE OF GUILDS

In terms of strategic marketing, I believe the concept of Guilds will begin to emerge in 2012. Let me explain:

I am reminded of a classic Harvard Business Study that I first saw in the mid-1980’s, while getting my MBA. It was named Marketing Myopia. It presented a huge problem that Hollywood had in the 1970’s: the movie industry was dying. The new phenomena of VHS tapes, which presented movies on the cheap and at home, and cable TV, which allowed people to segment themselves according to their tastes, were crushing the traditional mass-movie market. The giant film studios sat half empty. Movie theaters were empty most weekdays.

The answer was a simple shift in strategy. Hollywood stopped defining itself as the movie industry and started defining itself as the entertainment industry. And everything changed. VHS tapes became a new market, not the competition. Cable TV became another new market, not just for its movies, but for its studios – filming for all those stations with 24-hour a day of programming. Entertainment of every segment and every taste meant multiplex movie theaters filled smaller screens and different films for different audiences. Food was served, and restaurants were attached to the movie theaters. Hollywood never looked back.

Part of this decentralized outlook meant that the movie studios no longer had exclusive contracts with the stars and crews (less overhead). Today, when you want to film a movie, you rent a studio, bring in a screenplay, and hire a team for the project – producer, director, actors, sound screw, lighting specialists, cameramen, distribution company, marketing company, etc.

Why not do the same for other industries? Let’s look at residential construction. Many fewer custom homes are being built, but there is plenty of need for high-end remodeling. The homeowners no longer need to go to (and pay for) a builder to get great craftsmen – they can hire them directly and independently, as a team for that project (a superintendent, kitchen cabinet company, electrician, plumber, floor company, lighting company, appliance company, tile company, painter, carpenter, countertop pro, etc. to remodel a kitchen).

If the homeowner goes directly to the craftsmen, then the craftsmen can no longer depend on builders to bring them business. They have to become businesses themselves, and these are not business people – they are crafts people. But they need the money, power and business acumen of builders. In other words, they need to pool their money, networks and efforts for the common good. They need to share customers, prospects, offices, office help, accountants, lawyers, health insurance policies, marketing companies, etc. They need to form Guilds.

I believe Guilds, or something like Guilds, will begin all across America, as our new economy emerges from the Great Recession and gives birth to many more specialty and craft businesses in almost all industries. Guilds – not unions for individual workers but Guilds for individual companies – will be coming to your industry and your town soon, starting in 2012.

2012 Marketing Prediction #1

Posted on by Ed Sucherman

MARKETING PREDICTION #1 FOR 2012: A MEDIA CHANGE

It is November of 2011. I believe that the recession will ease, the economy will improve, and even the job market will get better, albeit slightly, in 2012. That’s because it is an election year, and pragmatism will win out over ideologies.

Technology has officially changed media. Print has begotten radio, radio has begotten broadcast TV, broadcast TV has begotten cable TV, cable TV has begotten the Internet. Today, because of DVRs and the cost of professional production and editing (not to mention commercial time), the Internet has become the supreme, overwhelming champion of media – not just the most efficient, but the most effective way of reaching and influencing nearly every consumer and business category. But recently, another change has occurred: e-marketing has become so overused, and everyone’s e-mail in-boxes have become so ridiculously swarmed over, that each e-mail blast is suddenly less effective. People are just deleting them en masse. So guess what large marketers are using to supplement their e-campaigns? Direct mail. Print. It’s back to the future.