When Bill Lee wrote the article Marketing is Dead in the Harvard Business Review he cited research done among CEOs and decision makers; “73% of them said that Chief Marketing Officers lack business credibility and the ability to generate sufficient business growth, 72% are tired of being asked for money without explaining how it will generate increased business, and 77% have had it with all the talk about brand equity that can’t be linked to actual firm equity or any other recognized financial metric.”
In other words they think us marketing people are a bunch of con artists; promising steak but only delivering sizzle. And expensive sizzle at that. And this thing called social media and its big brother ‘word of mouth’ has come along to make things even worse. Ask Mitt Romney or the brand manager of our very own Single Barrel, if you need proof.
There is no doubt that brands need to embrace social media. Even if they don’t use it themselves, they must at least acknowledge how it has changed the balance of power. But I also think that there is an opportunity here for brands to get back to basics with their marketing;
- To be authentic
- To decide on what they want to be and deliver it, at all touch points
- To do what they say they will do every time, every day
All of this to me is marketing and it’s far from dead.
