Fountain Marketing: oh so C21st.

Most people on LinkedIn understand 'The Internet'. Most understand the importance of marketing. Most use LinkedIn to market their brand - both personal & corporate. Most use C20th analogue models of marketing. That is they send their messages to a designated receiver. They patiently await a reply. It is the Pony Express method. Sure that system was improved by the telegraph, TV, and social media but it still relies on the same old marketing philosophy and method.

The good news is now we have the opportunity to adopt a new marketing method.

Let's call this new method, 'Fountain Marketing'. From one source, you and your corporate, you can market to a pond full of people who will all benefit from your message. Like a spray jet fountain in the local park you can make sure that you provide 'use value' as well as an attractive display when you message. How so? You can now deconstruct your message into digital packets that will find the best ways to all receptors. You no longer have to get every message right. You no longer have to ponder, long and hard, just what is the right channel for you and your messages. You no longer have to be specific in your messaging. You no longer have to think of demographics, or market segmentation, or personal bias towards you or your brand. You no longer have to validate your message.

First lesson of Fountain Marketing is C21st messages are no longer unified in transmission. Second lesson of Fountain Marketing is the receptor is not a single  individual but a collective.

You can sent mixed, confused, and contradictory messages to a collective and still have the desired marketing impact. Obama did it in 2008 when he offered Hope and Change to his diverse base. Jobs did it in 2007 when he launched the iPhone to all his Apple users. If you understand collectives then you can dispense with your brand and become a Fountain Marketer. You can spray messages through every conceivable channel that makes some type of connection with your target group. You can run messages like the Colors of Benetton - images of suffering around the planet. You can urge people to 'think different' - Jobs message to digital consumers of computer products. You can remind people that a simple piece of plastic is 'priceless' - a message from Mastercard about using their payment system.

Fountain Marketing is a fledgling concept right now. But it will succeed for two sound reasons. First, digital technology allows messaging to go around blockages that occurred in the old analogue system. Second, the C21st receptors for all marketing and public relations messaging are collectives not individuals.

What this will mean precisely for the future of the marketing industry is hard to predict. But a couple of things are becoming obvious. One is that the notion of brand power is dying. Brands are only important today as a name card or placeholder. The real marketing impact comes when the message is about the customer support being offered - including messaging about a reliable and secure payment system. More marketing messages will be about how to make the system work than about the product or service being provided. The other thing that is becoming obvious is that Big Data use in marketing is a waste of time and money. In many instances it is actually counterproductive. Marketers are trying to use these data mining techniques to predict consumers decision-making but it is imprecise and full of unintentional biases. The biggest bias is their reliance on data collected about what a single consumer chose yesterday, an hour ago, a minute ago. It tells me nothing about what collectives this consumer belongs to and thus what he or she is likely to chose to do later today, in 24 hours time, in a week from now.....

Fountain Marketing is coming to a world inhabited by you......