Thursday, March 21, 2013

What if Businesses could only Market Locally?


That’s the way it used to be!  In our new flat world that is connected by the internet, mobile phones and mail systems the thought of only marketing to those near you seems archaic.  The reality is it was less than 250 years ago the US post office was formed, 77 year since the first television program was broadcast and 33 years since the internet became public. 

You may have heard of Moore’s law that basically states that the capability of technology doubles every two years.  This same trend seems to be in place for the number of advertisements on the market today.  Individuals are swamped with request for their attention and money leading many to hate marketing.

I hate marketing.  And I’m sure I’m not alone in this!  How many times have you gone to check your mailbox only to return with a handful of advertisement and no mail.  The same is true for my inbox.  Ads and promotions clog up my account making it difficult to find (easy to lose) those important email.  My only solace — at least trees are not suffering for the spam I receive.

Marketing takes up time — according to this site, Americans spend around 70 hours a year dealing with junk mail.  That doesn’t even begin to count the number of hours spend deleting or unsubscribing from junk emails.  Let alone the number of hours spent being bombarded with advertisements on television, radio, web banners, pop up ads, marketing calls, spam texts, and the endless other forms of digital marketing that is emerging. 

Sells you things you don’t really need — With the number of mini storage unites in this country housing the things we can’t fit in our houses, do we really need more stuff?  Infomercials are renown for convincing people they need yet one more thing.  Take my mother for instance (I love her but…) this Christmas she decided to buy me a “cooking machine” that basically cooks your food in different shapes — really mom!!??!  Why did she think I needed that? Do we really need all the gigots and gadgets?  I say NO!

Invades my privacy — Another thing that annoys me is the selling of my information for marketing purposes.  Last year I did some comparative shopping online for health insurance and to this day, months later I am still receiving calls telling me they are calling regarding the quote I requested.   I won’t be making that mistake again!

Often stretches the truth — “You have been selected to WIN!” . . . right!  Deceptive wording, images and claims of what a product or service will do for you is seriously a problem.  The FBI reports almost 100 million mass marketing fraud cases on the books that are pending.  It not only hurts consumers it costs tax payers money!

Contributes to environmental loss — with the boom of marketing has also come the boom of consumption.  Without factoring in the actual products consumed, junk mail alone kills 2.6 million trees each year and produces 1 billion pounds of landfill each year according to this site.  If that weren’t enough, the pulp and paper industry is the single largest consumer of water used in industrial activities using about 28 million gallons of water each year to process the same junk mail.

So what is to be done if we can’t turn the hands of time back and just focus on selling to our local market?  Though it’s not a complete solution, the way we approach marketing in our own businesses can make a difference.

Serving vs. Selling — In my research on marketing trends I stumbled across the coined phrase “marketing myopia.”  My curiosity took me to Wikipedia where it talks about a theory that I want to believe is true.  It stands for the idea that “businesses will do better in the end if they concentrate on meeting consumers’ needs rather than on selling products.”  Theodore Levitt wrote a paper in 1960 with Marketing Myopia as the title and published it in the Harvard Review where he was an editor.  Levitt held that the myopia culture would lead a business to fail because they would adopt a complacent mindset and not keep up with what the consumer wanted (vs. needed).  Some suggest that this paper marked the beginning of the modern marketing movement.  If that’s the case, maybe we need to retrace our steps and reconsider the outcomes and obvious unintended consequences of our societal emphasis on indulging our every want.

To give just one example: please don’t make me cite the sources on statistics for health problems due to obesity that are at historic highs.  Marketing has played a significant role in this and where has it landed us as people?  Yes, it made McDonalds and numerous other businesses a lot of money but at what cost? 

My point is that as citizens of the world we are consumers that have a choice to influence the market, and marketing, by our purchasing decision and how we respond to the waste that surrounds us.  As future business owners we have a choice as to how to market and how we are going to present our products, these are real issues we need to wrestle with and find better solutions for.

In the mean time as a consumer, take 2 minutes to save yourself hours later by registering on the National Do Not Mail List and the National Do Not Call List.  Your on your own when it comes to emails.

2 comments:

  1. Too bad there isn't a list for email! Thought provoking post here! Does this mean you are done working in marketing?

    I find that I like a lot of companies who do minimal marketing (probably because I'm a hipster). Word of mouth gets commitment from me that goes right against these huge marketing budgets. Spend more money making customers for life, and people like myself will come. The devil's advocate would probably point out here that this is a great concept for more established businesses, but not as useful for those trying to get a foot in the door. They may be right ;)

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  2. My own view on marketing is similar to my view about science: it's a powerful tool that can be used for good or for ill. In its highest form, it's not about creating needs and selling people stuff they don't need in order to satisfy their craving for respect -- it's about understanding what people truly need, creating goods and services to meet those needs, and making sure people know about them.

    The underlying principles seem incredibly useful to me as we attempt to move the world in a more sustainable direction. The challenge is to market ideas rather than goods and services.

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