Timeless Trends (or marketing identity crisis)

You probably noticed the oxymoron in the title. It clumsily promises to speak about one simple thing-what stays the same in marketing, and mostly ?based on my own (20 smth years) ?experience in the field from all sides and angels of the table (buying, selling, mediating, creating, consuming, advertising…). Timeless is what I am interested in- those constants in our “an mass” behaviors, perceptions and actions, being participants in this endless market game of offering, negotiating and accepting, ignoring or declining offers. That is what ultimately marketing science (or art, if you like it more than math and manipulative statistics) sums up to.

As for the bracketed alternative title – I do think that Marketing is having sort of an acute identity crisis, and mainly because of the misperception that its mission is to be hyper adaptable and ready-to-answer any major tech trend (notice I deliberately didn′t use the term “consumer trend”, because these 2 are often wrongly equated), which sometime collides with its ultimate holistic goal- gradual improvement in satisfying needs of those whom we persuaded to buy from us and vice versa (advertising and promotion-persuading those who will eventually become our happy consumers).

In other words, the same as a man who changes dressing style based on whatever is fashionable at the moment, Marketing too often has troubles with maintaining and cultivating his true character, and all under the pressure of satisfying the latest “tech whims”.

Unearthing marketing's “true self” (shamelessly throwing in a bit of a Jung here) under these tatters of latest and greatest is often very hard, because trends are so powerful, that missing out on any of them sounds like dying the instant death in the eyes of the almighty customers, despite the common empirical evidence that that almost never happens (let's take it to the extremes-just ask bookstores, post offices or newspapers, I mean they are still here, right? Evolving- sure, is it hard to maintain business- sure, but still far from being extinct, what is being prophesized in business media and discourse fairly regularly).

Customer needs are changing at much lower pace than technology evolves. Just like our brains “turtle pace” evolution is incomparable with that of rapidly improving technology, our intrinsic desires and needs also don't change so significantly, as every latest issue of “Marketing 3.0 Memo” regularly announces, just because we are under the constant influence and pressure of omnipresent and ever evolving technology.

If you are, let's say, a traditional Bank on the way of digital transformation (because it is simply not a choice, but necessity), that super slick VR booth design that agency proposed for the prestigious fair might be a really cool marketing stunt, but if it is either/or in terms of your budget, you'll probably be better off spending that money to finally get that convoluted procedure for taking a consumer loan truly digital or few clicks simpler. If you're in this long term game of meaningful adoption of digital technologies in the finance sector, check out this article on Redefining banking customer experiences – Durability in CX.

Great CX is nothing but an ultimate Marketing 360 (at least if you ask an average and biased marketeer like me).

I am not claiming that a diligent practitioner of all the action points in Marketing 3.0 Memo will not get some upper hand on a market or succeed to improve some relevant KPIs, I am just saying that those who don't, and still know how to properly “market like is 999!” and follow through with their long-term customer-centric initiatives that will meaningfully incorporate latest technology (and not be simply consumed by technology trends), will be just fine and probably more successful.

It is proven that “first movers” catches a worm, but if you're not in that circle, you might as well give up the gimmicky nature of following trends and simply continue doing what you do and what made you successful in a first place, only a bit better than the last year (and by all means with the help of technology).

Consistency beats Novelty, Recognition beats Variation, Simplicity beats Complexity and Brand beats Trend… anytime.