Jeweller - August 2021

BUSINESS
Strategy
Modern marketing:
A new paradigm for success
With the rapid pace of technological change and increasingly savvy consumers,
DENYSE DRUMMOND-DUNN reveals the key to adapting your marketing strategy for today’s world.
Marketing may seem like a modern
phenomenon, but in reality it is an old
profession. For as long as people have
been selling products and services in a
free market, marketing has existed in
some form or another.
It became more formalised in the 20th
Century, in which it has also undergone
the most rapid phase of its evolution.
In the early ’80s, many companies began
to take a serious look at their marketing in
a strategic manner.
They realised that their primarily
‘outbound’ strategy – traditional marketing
that seeks to push messages out to
potential customers, via methods such
as cold-calling – had to change, because
consumers didn’t appreciate being
interrupted in their daily lives.
‘Inbound’ marketing was then developed,
largely alongside the Internet, focusing
on attracting, engaging and delighting
consumers.
However, marketers discovered customers
were still irritated by some inbound
marketing techniques, such as pop-up
ads and cookies following their every move
online. So, how can businesses keep up
with consumers as marketing evolves?
The customer is always right
What has changed over the past five years
is marketing’s deeper awareness of, if not
complete adherence to, what customers
like and dislike.
The major trends that we have seen and
their impact on marketing, include:
• Adding chatbots – The likes of
Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp allow
businesses to catch consumers on the go
with highly personalised messaging
• Voice-recognition and voice-search
technology – Products such as Google
Home and Amazon Alexa allow customers
to find what they want simply by asking;
however it is a huge challenge for
businesses because these services only
give the first search engine result
• The rise of video – Video content
has taken over social media, with apps like
TikTok influencing the development
of other platforms such as Instagram
and Facebook
Progressive
companies have
realised that to
satisfy today’s
consumer they
must move
toward what I
term, ‘customercentricity’;
putting
customers at the
heart of their
business
• Journey mapping overtakes influencer
marketing – With the increasingly
detailed data available from devices, many
businesses have shifted their marketing
plans to mirror their customers’ paths to
purchase, which are largely through online
means rather than referrals from their
‘influencer’ groups, such as family
• Zero-party data – Businesses have
bypassed the need for passive data
collection from social media apps and are
instead increasing their direct engagement
with customers through social media
polls, quizzes and competitions
Satisfaction guaranteed?
In the past decade or so, conglomerates
such as Procter & Gamble and Nestlé,
renamed their marketing staff ‘brand
builders’, in the hope of adapting to this
new world.
They failed, miserably.
The reason is that despite changing the
name, they continued to market in the
same way. With very few exceptions,
communication was still all about the
brand, rather than its customers.
98 | August 2021