Three Pronged Marketing
by John R. Sedivy
There has been much talk about inbound and outbound marketing, old (traditional) and new (permission) marketing. Which is best? Which should you use? I will set out to answer these questions in this article.
Something interesting happened this past week which has further solidified my opinion on this matter. We had written in the past about how Amy had launched her wedding cake design business asa boston and has been working hard at building momentum. I have been working with Amy on this business, more as a business advisor (I am not one for baking or culinary design, although I appreciate both).
Now on to the interesting part. An acquaintance in our community mentioned that they had found a print advertisement for asa boston in The Knot Boston magazine. At first he did not realize that it was Amy’s ad. He had reviewed the ad and then went to the website and then it hit him – it was the same Amy that he knew from Cape Cod! Prior to seeing the ad and reviewing the website he and his wife did not realize Amy owned and operated the wedding cake design business.
Old or New?
So back to our original question – which is better – old or new marketing? Neither. You should use both – a combination of the two approaches. There are elements of both old and new which when combined can create an optimum marketing approach.
Elements of old and new marketing can effectively blend and correlate (in other words create meaningful associations) various aspects within the individual’s mind. Consider the opening example. The individual saw the ad in a magazine which prompted a visit to the website, which led to a conversation with his wife, which ultimately led to Amy being directly contacted. If either the outbound marketing (the print ad) or inbound (website) would have been missing the end result may not have occurred.
The Three Pronged Marketing Approach
This experience reminded me of the Cape Cod Branding Marketing Plan that I originally presented for my final project in business school. The basic approach is summarized in the diagram below.
As shown there are three sources of anticipated revenue from marketing – print media, electronic media, and word of mouth. Print media includes magazines and other print advertising relevant to your industry. Electronic media is meant to encompass electronic advertising accomplished on the Internet such as social media, search engines, and electronic marketplaces. Finally word of mouth reflects an individual who uses your product or service, had a great experience, and passes it along to their friends.
It is my opinion that word of mouth is the most powerful. Personally I hold recommendations from friends and other like-minded individuals in very high regard. This is one reason why I view electronic media as the second most powerful prong of this approach. In many instances, such as the use of social media, electronic media is a tool to pass along word of mouth but at a much faster rate. Add to the fact that electronic media requires very little investment in terms of money or time (for either advertiser or potential buyer) when compared to print media and you have one powerful medium. The ever increasing use of electronic media is one reason why viral marketing is receiving increasing attention in recent years.
The value of print media is where my opinion drifts from others. I have been noticing an increasing trend of a general devaluing of print media, and some would argue that it no longer has value. I am not arguing that print media has not dropped in overall value, my opinion is that it has simply dropped due to the emerging popularity of electronic media. Print media is not being replaced by electronic media, it must now share the space with electronic media.
Marketing Harmony
With the Three Pronged Marketing approach each prong augments one another and provides a reinforced, complete picture through correlated information. Returning to the asa boston example, the individual randomly located Amy’s advertisement within The Knot, which prompted a visit to the website, which led to discussions with his wife and Amy being contacted.
If one of these elements were missing, the message may not have been correlated and therefore the end result may have been missed. Since each element was present, they all worked together to form a picture to the potential buyer. This is the main benefit of the Three Pronged Marketing approach.
In closing I will say that there is no single recipe for success here. The right amount of marketing in each instance will vary from individual to individual and from business to business. If money were no object I would attack all three (print, electronic, and word of mouth) at once, equally. This would provide for maximum exposure.
However, as is the case with many entrepreneurs and small business owners, money is an object, especially when first starting out. In this instance my recommendation is to focus on word of mouth, place products in the right individual’s hands and once they are satisfied customers, they will evangelize (advertise) for you. In parallel I recommend electronic media – you can begin here with no money whatsoever, and it can be an effective way to get the word out. Finally, as funding becomes available, allocate money to print advertising.
Old vs. new marketing is not an either/or question, but rather how to best combine elements of each based on your unique situation and needs!
-John R. Sedivy of Cape Cod Branding
The Beginnings of Viral Marketing
by John R. Sedivy
Undoubtedly you have heard of viral marketing, or at a minimum something going “viral” especially in a social media context. The essence of viral marketing is that the right message hits the right target at precisely the right time and spreads at an unbelievably rapid rate. How does this occur? A little skill, good timing, and a whole lot of luck. But what makes a message, individual, product, service, or business go viral? If there was a definitive answer the same promoters of individuals, products, services, or businesses would produce hits time and time again. However this, more often than not, is not the case.
This is where luck comes in. But one’s luck certainly increases with skill. Knowledge, and the subsequent application of gained knowledge is power – and therefore educating oneself on viral marketing techniques may increase the likelihood of producing a viral hit, or at a bare minimum, recognizing a viral hit in the making. Increased knowledge increases the likelihood that one may hit the right timing and eventually skill, timing, and luck are all present and the stars are aligned.
But there are techniques for creating a viral hit which may be used to increase the likelihood of doing so. At a minimum one must understand the system and the processes the system uses. This is the subject of Media Virus! by Douglas Rushkoff.
Spreading The Virus
A virus injects itself into a cell and instructs the host cell – “spread me.” If the virus is executed properly the process continues over and over again until many, a majority, or even all the cells are infected with the virus. So it goes with a media virus.
A message originates from an individual or organization. It may die off at the first recipient – if indeed it does reach the intended recipient. It may spread to more individuals, it may spread to many individuals. It may spread to all individuals. One should be so lucky!
Viral marketing has been around since at least 1994 when Media Virus! was first published. So why the sudden interest in viral marketing? The Internet is coming into it’s own.
Sure the Internet has been around for some time – initially developed by The Rand Corporation in the late 1960’s for defense applications – however the masses are just now beginning to embrace this medium. And it isn’t even close to reaching it’s full potential. Something interesting I had learned when first starting my business – individuals and small businesses are slow, slow to move and slow to change. Surely this is not true of all individuals and small business, but certainly a large number. People stick with what they are comfortable with and therefore resist change.
The masses are becoming comfortable with the Internet. Research, reading, social networking, shopping – you name it. This comfort and subsequent embrace of the Internet is increasing the rate at which information is spread, and in my opinion this rate of information transfer only stands to increase exponentially over time.
This is a ripe environment for a virus to flourish.
Embracing Chaos
One of the most fascinating aspects of Media Virus! is the unique combination of systems thinking, chaos theory, and how the mass media works. Prior to reading this book I thought I had a reasonable understanding of how the media worked, I was mistaken.
According to Rushkoff the media is a living organism which continually evolves over time. Complex systems theory states that a system operates optimally when operating at the edge of chaos. The trade-off is that optimal operation is often unpredictable. As with any living organism it is impossible to predict with perfect accuracy the behavior of the organism (in this case the media), thus is impossible to launch a hit virus consistently over time. What can be predicted is the nature of the chaos and the need for feedback and iteration.
Feedback is simply a means of responding to received information. For example, initial forms of television did not possess information feedback – a viewer was static in their viewing of a television show and did not have a means to respond to the producers of the show, or at least if said feedback was present – it was rudimentary, say in the form of snail mail. Fast forward years later and viewers of a television show can vote instantly on content through such means as phone calls, texting, and even the Internet.
The Internet is the ultimate form of feedback. If a news agency or independent blogger reports a story that is relevant to the largest possible amount of people and that is different from the competition – they can end up on the front page of Digg or some similar website which continually pushes the awareness of stories higher and higher. Of course, like it may be viewed on Digg – a story can lose momentum just as quickly – just like a real virus. This is instant feedback.
The other component that must be present is iteration. This is simply a process continually repeated over time. Wash, rinse, repeat – that is iteration. Original television possessed iteration – producers would continue to churn out the same material over time – this worked because feedback mechanisms were limited. However, given the fast feedback of the Internet, future iterations can be greatly improved in amazingly short amounts of time. This is true process improvement.
Such systems (for example the media) are chaotic in that they are difficult to predict as a result of their rapid evolution. Feedback and iteration make them chaotic, which in turn reduces predictability over time, yet makes them optimal for their stated function – the spread of information.
Playing The Media
Media Virus! contains many examples of individuals learning the system and manipulating it to their advantage. For the reasons discussed above past performance is not a predictor of future success, however some have come incredibly close to doing so. Sometimes this was unintentional (at least initially), but may also be intentional. Another fascinating aspect is that I noticed that the individuals who had become aware of the working of the media (and similar chaotic systems) were not particularly well funded. They were grassroots organizations – therefore there did not appear to be a correlation between money and results.
There are some interesting examples of individuals and organizations playing the media – essentially trapping them into reacting the way in which they predicted. Sometimes – due to the nature of feedback and iteration – the results were completely unexpected – a smashing success or a fizzling dud. Again, this is where the luck part comes into play.
There were several events that the author used as an example which occurred during the past 15 years which were viral hits – many of which I had no idea of at the time. Actually, I was unaware until after reading the book!
Striking Contradictions
One example of this sort of manipulation of the media was the creation of the term “smart drugs.” This phrase was purposeful in design. Simple and memorable due to it’s contradictory nature.
Society dictates that - Smart is good. Drugs are bad. So how can there be such a thing as smart drugs?
Even if you don’t buy in to the whole smart drugs way of thinking the simple yet strikingly contradictory nature of the phrase would likely make an individual pause and take notice. You might consider the statement. The seed has been planted. Next you may debate the subject, argue with the originator. Discuss it with your friends.
To the originator of a media virus, all press is good press.
Lessons Learned
I had taken away quite a bit from this book. As I mentioned the book was originally published in 1994 – Douglas Rushkoff was well ahead of his time! In my opinion much of the thinking continues to be ahead of it’s time, although definitely relevant.
I feel that I have walked away from this book with a much better understanding of how the media works and how viral messages originate and are passed along. At a minimum, it has increased my scrutiny of received messages. As I discussed earlier, it is near impossible to consistently orchestrate viral marketing campaigns over time – consider why there are so many one hit wonders! However, the knowledge I have received from this book increases my understanding of what it would take to do so, and how to increase my chances. At a minimum I am much better prepared to recognize a viral marketing message in the making!
Who Should Read This Book?
Anyone with an interest in systems thinking, viral marketing, and chaos theory. Given my background in systems engineering and business I really enjoyed this book as it appealed to both aspects. However, one need not possess this background to take away some solid information. Although this book was written 15 years ago – the information continues to be relevant, and in my opinion will be for some time to come.
Viral marketing is a complex process – continuous feedback and iteration are required!
-John R. Sedivy of Cape Cod Branding
BrandDigital Book Review
by John R. Sedivy
In my article BrandSimple Book Review I had discussed how Allen Adamson lays out in great technical detail the ins and outs of branding. As I discussed in that article that book was a great read for anyone wishing to develop a great brand thoroughly over time.
Having just finished Allen Adamson’s follow-up book BrandDigital I can assuredly say it is more of the same – which isn’t a bad thing. Actually it’s a great thing.
A Chance Encounter
I had first encountered BrandDigital as a Google Adsense advertisement. It wasn’t any old advertisement – it was the first ad for this blog. If you have ever used AdSense you will realize that the ads are random and based on the published content. I was intrigued by the simple style of the book so it prompted me to read BrandSimple and then BrandDigital. My only regret is that I had waited months to do so when I could have easily benefited from the information within way back then when we first started out.
BrandDigital is much like BrandSimple except that it focuses on the Internet aspect of marketing as one might have guessed by the title. As the author proves that branding is more than simply logo and package creation in BrandSimple, Adamson focuses on the digital aspect of brand creation – the Internet in general, social media, search engine, optimization, etc. and sets out to prove that branding is more than the digital tools employed to amplify the brand.
That is the main premise here – the Internet and digital tools in general, amplify the effects of a brand, not create it. If you have a strong brand, the Internet and supporting tools will make your brand even stronger, for example by amplifying the effect of word of mouth by your message going viral on social media. Conversely, if you have a weak brand without much of a foundation, these tools will do little to help you.
Serious Inquiries Only
As with BrandSimple, BrandDigital provides loads of technical information for those wanting to know every aspect of branding in the digital arena. There are plenty of solid examples, some of which are expanded from the first book. Actually there seemed to be a couple of items that were reiterated from BrandSimple, however I may have been more attuned to this as I had read both books in the same week.
In closing I highly recommend BrandSimple and BrandDigital as a set. You can read one without the other, however I believe both titles compliment one another well and are both worth reading and will be useful as a desktop reference for some time to come. Not simply a flash in the pan, BrandDigital provides solid foundational advice for use on the Web or physical environments.
As with BrandSimple, this book may not be for everyone. It is more serious than other marketing books, however there is excellent attention to detail, solid advice, and many professional interviews which serve as the foundation for this book. For those interested in branding and marketing, especially on the Internet and are not afraid to roll up their sleeves and take the time to read the book and employ it’s techniques – this is the book for you!
The Internet and digital tools are a great way to amplify a strong brand!
-John R. Sedivy of Cape Cod Branding
