Future of Marketing

Hi Marketing Associates this is an interesting article by Jonah Bloom, executive editor of Advertising Age. I think it gives a good insight into where marketing is evolving. As Prahalad the marketing guru said in his recent book, the future is co-creation by consumers. Apparently so is advertising.

There is a wealth of consumers -- particularly those under, say, 25 -- whose primary source of information, entertainment, even community is an open conversation they co-create. The ability to own and control a brand, which many marketers regard as their core job function, has surely joined mass marketing in the how it used to work chapter.

Peer-to-peer power
Yet clearly many are already managing to move beyond the one-dimensional, where-do-we-put-the-ad approach to the blogosphere and word-of-mouth. What they are grasping, and others will be forced to, is the power of peer-to-peer conversations, not only to yield invaluable consumer insight -- as Garfield outlined -- but to communicate messages to and, most importantly, with them.

The open forums for registered users to discuss anything from QuickBooks itself to their business travails are very informative. Intuit uses the posts to learn how to improve its existing products and spot new opportunities. Not only that, but its software developers blog about their work so users can see what’s coming down the pipe and even suggest tweaks.

Open-source business
The creation of these kinds of communities is increasingly common in the sector, partly because they’re culturally familiar and even comfortable with the concept of an open-source business world.

What’s more surprising is the speed with which companies in other sectors are joining the conversation. Smart agencies, too, are changing their output to create more messages or content designed as shareware and strategically seeded to spread virally across peer-to-peer networks.