Marketing in a time of mass change, Web 2.0 and accountability

I have spent most of my allotted blogging time in the past few days browsing the vast web of available information. There is so much out there, available for everyone to read. Consumer opinions about brands, thought leaders prospective on where the market is going, case studies of success and failure, and research on a variety of subjects.

My reading path started with people I know. Following my own blogroll, I found a number of links to blogs and research studies of interest. As I absorbed all of this information, it is obvious that the world of marketing is changing. The world of how businesses communicate with, and listen to, their customers is changing. How will this change the marketing function?

In a study by CMO Council, they found that marketers lack direct contact with customers. Another New York Times article "To Charge Up Customers, Put Customers in Charge" identifies opportunities for marketers to engage customers with the brand and help in designing relevant products. (Disclaimer: this link will not provide full text unless you have a New York Times login. This is a topic for another time. What do publishers do in this time of mass content availability? Why bother reading articles behind a registration page when so much is available to me for free?)

While marketers need to get closer to customers, there is this vast sea of information already available and being discussed on the Internet. Marketers should be required to get out there and find it, read it and participate in it. They should get out of the office, visit customers and employees to learn more about their organizations' ability to deliver on the brand promise. After all, that's what the brand promise is all about - a PROMISE to deliver value, to serve a need.

What is evolving is a more honest landscape. Companies will be held accountable to deliver the value promised. What is critical to success is how well does your organization deliver on the brand promise? Everyone is watching. No matter what advertising dollars you spend, what consultant you bring in to craft your value proposition, what PR agency you hire to take your message to market, the customer is in control. They have the megaphone to tell the world about their experience with your brand. Are you listening?

It's a challenging time in marketing with several factors.

* NEED FOR CUSTOMER INTIMACY. Get to know your customers. According to the CMO Council study referenced earlier, most marketers rely on their CRM systems to help them understand their customers, yet 40% rated their systems as "weak". Get out and talk to someone, even if it's only on the web!
* MEDIA FRAGMENTATION. The media landscape continues to change. Consumers are in control of how and if they consume advertising messages. TiVo, RSS, satellite radio and of course, the Internet, are disruptive technologies that is changing the way marketers get their message to market.
* SOCIAL MEDIA. The connectivity of consumers and the ability to easily publish your experiences for all to see, creates a brand free for all. Anyone and everyone can discuss your brand and with the push of a button publish their opinions globally to millions of "would-be" consumers.
* WORD OF MOUTH AND VIRAL MARKETING. How do you leverage this powerful consumer connectivity to spread the messages you want about your brand? How do you manage communication of messages you don't want in the market?
* THE AGE OF ACCOUNTABILITY. How do you measure everything you do and still maintain a "sandbox" to try new things? What measures matter most? (see my last posting)

I propose that marketers create a "listening" budget. Marketers spend nearly $500B in advertising annually, take 1% of that ($5B) and allocate a separate budget to listen to customers. As a benchmark, it is estimated that the blog monitoring market was $20m in 2005, we have a long way to go!

Before you tell the world how great your product is, listen to what customers will tell others. That's the marketing channel that has the most impact today.