{"id":58062,"date":"2012-04-07T01:01:00","date_gmt":"2012-04-07T08:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/customerthink.com\/what_really_replaces_marketing_madness\/"},"modified":"2012-04-07T01:01:00","modified_gmt":"2012-04-07T08:01:00","slug":"what_really_replaces_marketing_madness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/customerthink.com\/what_really_replaces_marketing_madness\/","title":{"rendered":"What Really Replaces Marketing (Madness).."},"content":{"rendered":"
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n If there ever was a reason for me to write about the future of marketing, it was in 2009<\/a>. The theme though is as alive today as it was then. Some argue little has changed, others state the new era has already arrived. And there is Nilofer Merchant (@Nilofer<\/a>) who suggests Marketing is Dead and then comes up with 5 ways to replace<\/a> it. All in itself these five ways are things I can relate to, but they don’t make it as replacements for Marketing, in my humble opinion.<\/em><\/p>\n I recommend you read Ron Shevlin’s (@Rshevlin<\/a>) post, a response to Merchant’s post, titled: The Death of Marketing (Madness)<\/a>. The subtitle of his blog (A (Mostly) Humorous Look at Marketing in the Age of Social Media) says it all. A very welcome critical and lighthearted voice in this age of Marketing deadly replacements.<\/p>\n What Really Replaces Marketing (Madness)<\/strong> I largely agree with Nilofer Merchant that Marketing needs to change its act. I have had that feeling for a long time, before 2009, when working in Customer Services, seeing the debris of (direct) marketing campaigns, failed brand promises and what have you. Early 2009 I started reading into the works of Steve Vargo and Robert Lusch named A Service Dominant Logic<\/a> and I was introduced to the “Customer-Jobs-to-be-Done<\/a>” innovation framework. Both combined provided a thinking framework that just made all pieces I had in my mind come together. You can read about my thoughts on that here<\/a> (part 1) and here<\/a> (part 2).<\/p>\n Three Concepts Combined<\/strong> That may sound a bit posh (or a little more than a bit), but the combination of the three concepts (Service Dominant Logic, Customer Jobs-to-be-Done, Service Design)<\/span> has been a powerful one. Not only to explain the outside world, but also to drive innovation in Marketing in my current role.<\/p>\n Three Ways Marketing Needs to Change<\/strong> Secondly, marketeers need to start understanding that it really matters who you drive through the sales funnel<\/em>. Goods-logic Marketeers don’t care about the quality of the lead, Service-Logic marketeers do, because they truly care about how they make their Customers feel in the end, and because they know serving the right Customer is a lot easier and vastly more profitable than serving just any Customer.<\/p>\n Thirdly, the next generation of marketeers should understand that there’s more to value in a Customer than just their wallet.<\/em> Obviously we understand these days that a Customer’s connections matter, if only because they can tell a whole lot more about the Customer, than she will tell you herself. When seeing Customers as co-creators a lot more opportunities open up, like having them do work for you, because the Customer ends up with a better outcome, or by valuing their feedback as opportunities to improve on the Service you provide.<\/p>\n 7 Marketer Jobs in the Age of Service<\/strong> That’s it. Marketing’s new madness, according to me. Nothing really complex, but also easier said than done. And not the only ones either. You still need to sell you know, so go on and make nice commercials and create advertising. Just think different about what you are advertising for..<\/p>\n And I know it works and I know that this is a change I can “sell” to the C-level. Jobs 1 to 7, I’m doing them a little better every day.<\/p>\n Please check out my slides. They should fit the story you’ve read above. And please let me know what you think in the comments.<\/p>\n
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\nHere’s my take on What Really Replaces Marketing (Madness). I will do so following the story line of my recent Guest Lecture for the Marketing faculty, headed by Peter Verhoef<\/a>, of the University of Groningen<\/a> (The Netherlands). The guest lecture was titled: Marketing Leadership in age of Service.<\/p>\n
\nThe bottom line in my thinking is that, since Value is dominantly created in-use and is a result of co-creation between company and Customer, marketing strategies should shift their focus from creating momentum for value exchange (the sale) to creating momentum for interactions that support Customers in creating value for themselves<\/span>. And since value is something that can only be defined by its beneficiary we need to understand what outcomes Customers desire when they hire a company’s resources to get their jobs done. The Customer’s journey towards that outcome is where opportunity for marketing lies to design service that support Customers, employees and partners to co-create more (or better?) value together.<\/p>\n
\nMarketing needs to change in three fundamental ways. First marketeers need to understand that they need to let go of a (communication) campaign driven methodology<\/em>. Marketeers need to turn into Service Designers that are capable of designing end-to-end experiences. And they need not only design, orchestrate and market the experience (or value proposition in Service Dominant Logic terminology), they also need to ensure the company’s capability to deliver on the promise. And this also means involving, and taking responsibility for, company partners in the value network.<\/p>\n
\nTo make it a little more concrete I wrote down 7 jobs Marketers need to get done, if they want to make it in the age of Service. Here they are:<\/p>\n\n