It's Time For Empathy Marketing
from the marketing-is-not-a-one-way-street dept
While most people think that marketing is about "convincing someone to buy stuff," that was not its original purpose. Instead, that's what it's become for many. But the real purpose for marketing was supposed to be to listen to what the market was saying, and help create products that met their needs. The good news is that, with the economy struggling, some are starting to go back to that definition. David Churbuck, who works in marketing at Lenovo, is predicting that marketing is starting to go through a massive change towards what he calls "empathy marketing." It gets beyond the old "four Ps" of marketing that we were all taught in marketing class, and gets to actually taking the time to actually talk with (not to) your customer -- and some of the time that means having the brand shut up and let everyone else do the talking.This is one of the benefits that we've seen in preaching the message that content is advertising and advertising is content. Traditional advertising (and, increasingly, marketing as well) has been about a one-way street: pushing a message and trying to get it ingrained in people's heads. It's had little to do with getting people to interact, embrace and share. But when you actually take the time to recognize that marketing and advertising should be a two way street, where you're holding a real conversation and everyone is getting value out of it, you start to get beyond "pushing a message" and really get to a place where good things happen. It's what we've been helping plenty of companies do via the Insight Community. Companies like Dell and American Express have tapped into the community to create discussions and generate insights in ways that are useful to everyone.
Users find more of what they're actually looking for, build up better trust in certain companies, and actually are a part of the ongoing process and discussion. Companies get to better interact with customers or potential customers, and get real advice and feedback in return. Whether it's called conversational marketing or empathy marketing, it's a good thing: it's a return to real marketing, where it wasn't about convincing people to buy, but really interacting with the market to figure out how to provide what it needs, rather than telling the market what the marketers want to sell.
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Filed Under: conversational marketing, empathy marketing, marketing
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Mike, out of curiousity, how many of your experts are actually still college or university students in their first year of their degrees? What is the actual requirement to be an "insight expert", besides having an opinion and perhaps a blog /zine for a couple of years?
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That took, like, a minute and a half.
Seriously, Harold, do we have to spoonfeed you information?
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It's ok though...I, like many others here at TD are learning not to take you very seriously.
But for those who DO care about the truth...here's something we should all watch...Mike has been kind enough to pass on to you some of the coolest pertinent of info mentioned in this Trent Reznor interview....but still, ain't nothin' like the raw data....
PS...Harold, don't bother linking... the entire interview is in L33t.
http://www.thedailyswarm.com/headlines/trent-reznor-answers-questions-digg-users/
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Most importantly, when you start debating me rather than the content of the site, you have already lost your way.
@nick: My point is this: "expert" implies relevant experience in a field, at the top levels or beyond. So an "expert" in business who is in their first year of an MBA and who's entire experience appears to be running a blog isn't exactly what I would consider an expert. perhaps the term "consultant" or "opinion provider" might be more relevant.
As for age, well, would you suggest that Richard Branson should have stopped at 30? Has he had no good business ideas since? Should Steve Jobs have stopped working for apple after 26 because there was nothing left for him to do?
The younger guys are coming up with some innovative ideas for websites and whatnot, mostly because they aren't constrained by things like actually having business plans that include a route to profitablity. Taking the occasional grand slam (such as Google or Amazon) as the rule rather than the exception is, well, misleading. The internet is littered with the ghosts of "great ideas" that were entirely unsupportable as businesses.
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According to Insight Community Acceptance Standards for expertS Document revision 1.4 (The IC-ASS) do note, there were a few new additional requirements ratified on March 28, 2009.
Most notably, the community now requires face pic and thoroughly documented contortion skills.
Per IC-ASS 1.3, the previously accepted practices are enforced: Here's a quick rundown. The Community typically holds a conference-call/voice-vote the 3rd Saturday evening of the 2nd month after your application is prioritized contingent on receipt of results from our 3rd party feasibility test. Blood platelet counts must *still* be above 350,000 per μl³. Based on the statistically 3D-matrixed strata of your application, responses, and interviews of your 3rd thru 5th year primary education teachers, can we accurately determine if you'd be up to the tasks.
To help streamline the process, please provide a link to your Youtube Channel with no less than 3 videos, each at least 5 minutes in length, detailing your contortion abilities. Oh, and to remain in compliance with EOE laws, we're seeking more female contributors.
Thanks and Good luck!
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Wierd Harold, I am one of Mike's experts, and I have been out of school for 10 years. Insights from young people are exactly what we need. When was the last time someone over 35 came up with an innovative business model in the past 15 years? It is college kids in their dorm that started Facebook and Google. It is precisely because young people do not have the baggage of having to defend old decisions, they don't have people telling them what is not possible for most of their working life. Schumpeter wrote "On the Concept of Social Value" at age 26. http://www.jstor.org/pss/1882798
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informative
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Marketing
What I want is to be surprised on quality, approach and price. I want an end to patronising adverts, to misleading illogical surveys, to stupidly inflated claims backed with shoddy goods. I want an end to 'Infomercials', 'Advertorials', ‘Partnerships’, marketing blogs, and all the tired thinking that goes along with them. Empathy Marketing (and I’m already starting to hate the term) isn’t the answer – it just sounds patronising. I don’t always want to be part of the discussion – I’d like some silence.
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Marketing
Then, somehow, we got into an ego-trip on "best price". To get the absolute best price you cannot indulge in the luxury of balancing benefit (marketing with the consumer); too expensive.
Lately I have noticed a movement toward cost-benefit again; I have friends who have stopped bragging about the price they negotiated, and instead say things like, "cheap; but not what I want".
With that sort of attitude, balancing cost-benefit makes sense again, and that means emphasizing true marketing.
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You cannot be serious !!. You don't refer to any information that inspired this assertion so perhaps the you now think that facts are whatever the Masnicks dictate ?!.
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I hope David Churbuck can feel my pain.
This Lenova desktop has had problems since day one - two months ago.
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Right On!
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