This afternoon I spoke to a group of marketing students at St. Edward's University. Other than being in love with Apple they were a great group of people.
Since they will be preparing a marketing plan for a class product launch I reviewed our launch of the new Dell Latitude which I thought was really well done.
Next I shared what I see as the major marketing challenges these new grads will face.
1) Marketers will increasingly be called on to understand more than one market. Converging forces of a shrinking developed economy workforce and an increase in the importance of emerging markets will be further complicated by marketing budgets that will not scale with the increased complexity. For US students it will mean discovering what works in China as well as Europe as well as the United States. A marketer with a global view is advantaged today in the job market, but before long it will be a ticket to entry rather than a differentiator.
2) Traditional advertising is rapidly losing relevance, and we don't know what to do about it yet. When I started discussing this the students in the class all smirked and agreed. Research says the younger the consumer the more skeptical they are of advertising. Most of the class said they not only ignore advertising, they distrust the message. The challenge for marketers will be chasing attention across multiple channels, learning how to foster authentic conversations about their brands while making the most of the diminishing returns of traditional advertising. Marketers will need to rely more strongly on the other parts of the marketing mix to deliver results.
3) The emergence of the Connected Era of the Internet changes online marketing dramatically. Not long ago the best of breed in online marketing was building a great brand site and trying to coax people to visit. The communication was all one way, the brand trying to influence the visitors. Today leading brands are engaging in conversations with their customers and not just on their own Web sites. Optimizing search across multiple countries, languages and devices has moved from a niche specialty to a mainstream core competency.
Great insight, Matt. Indeed the students of today (leaders of tomorrow) will be faced with unforeseen challenges to anything they've learned from their professor or textbook.
It is already here, where traditional advertising has lost its influence in a narrative that will soon be extinct. And don't think that online is where it is all headed. With >90% of WOM taking place offline and 4G (or WI-MAX) soon in the middle of such conversation...in what cultural, demographic or categorical box will any of us fit?
Posted by: GamePlanHayden | August 28, 2008 at 11:53 AM