Actually, it might be.
A different world order is already shaping the country.
Consumers’ spending habits are changing, largely through necessity, and businesses are having to adjust quickly – or perish.
Companies are being forced to rethink their strategy and justify their existence.
What worked for marketers in 2007-2008 is no longer indication of success in 2009.
To the contrary, sticking to outdated and less effective ways of reaching consumers may actually land businesses right where they don’t want to be.
In this year of immense change – one that will be defined by cost-effectiveness and value - marketers and businesses will be seeking better ways to develop, optimize and hang on to relationships with their customers.
They’ll be forced to think beyond the traditional – to go social, to go mobile, to think more marketing pull and less advertising push.
And they’ll be looking for a new reality to lead the way, with compelling ideas to reach consumers through emerging mediums, and embrace change head on.
Although it might not feel this way right now, we see 2009 as a year of great opportunity, the start of another era in marketing – the era of choice, consumer preference and new, respectful and engaging media.
Following is our take on how the marketing landscape will play out through the year, and what businesses and marketers – regardless of their industry - should be thinking about to see it through another New Year.
Here are ten tips for thinking beyond the traditional:
10. Cash is king…and so is the consumer
This year, marketers will need to transition their messaging from an invasive push model to a consumer preference-based, permission-based model.
These consumers – we call them the Choice Generation – have the highest potential marketing value, but the least tolerance or responsiveness to traditional advertising.
They want choices. They decide how, where and when they interact with any business or retailer.
By offering consumers their choice of communication channels, marketers can significantly increase the relevance of their marketing messages, while increasing impact and customer responsiveness.
9. Let them have cake and coupons
With consumers’ appetite for money-saving tools and the explosion of mobile phone use approaching critical mass, mobile coupons are gaining traction – at last.
Mobile coupon usage grew 119 percent in 2007 and might just be a retail savior this year with consumers hungry for discounts.
The convenience of redemption, immediacy of value, and efficacy in driving both revenue and brand recall is driving this trend – nearly 3 billion coupons will be sent to mobile phones by 2011.
Watch as more businesses embrace the mobile medium as a legitimate marketing portal, the more mcoupons will flourish. Let consumers have their cake and it eat, with mobile coupons.
8. See kids? No-cost can be fun
Each year, there’s a group who’ll predict the rise and fall of social networks and Web 2.0.
Not this year.
Activity on social networking sites increased 93 percent between 2006 and 2008.
And because of the economy, the online population spent only 10 percent of their time shopping, down from 12 percent in 2006, but spent more time Facebooking and socializing online (up 18 percent since 2006).
The typical U.S. social networker makes up a very attractive demographic for marketers: young (18 to 29), female, spending an average of $101 a month online (that’s 26 percent more than non-social media users spend online) and influential, connecting with an average of 110 people in a typical week.
That’s something, huh?
So while marketers and advertisers figure out how to monetize these social environments without alienating their audiences, it’s expected that this year will only increase the scope of social networks as they prove to be the ultimate no-cost entertainment.
7. Give us some privacy, please!
Hand in hand with an increase of consumer data collection by marketers is the need to do so responsibly. 2008 saw new legislation enacted with this in mind: the Telemarketer Sales Rule.
Mandated by the Federal Trade Commission, all prerecorded sales calls must now provide an easy opt-out feature, and by Sept. 1 be delivered only to recipients that have provided their express consent to receive these messages.
To us, this move signifies that permission marketing has officially shifted from a preferable practice to federally mandated one.
This ruling reinforces the importance of permission-based, or preference based marketing, and calls attention to the value of those campaigns shaped by consumer consent, choice and preference. Amen!
6. The bold and the Innovators
Squeezing out efficiency is only half the battle. If the doomsday economists are correct and this recession does end up dragging well into 2010, marketers who have optimized their existing customer relationships, engaged in the most cost-effective marketing tactics, and looked at better ways to engage their audience will stay in the running.
We can’t market from a defensive crouch forever you know. It may seem counterintuitive to explore different strategies and solutions during a financial crisis, but this fast slowdown is actually creating a reinvigorated breeding ground for fresh ideas, the re-thinking of existing solutions and looking around for others.
This year, more bold companies and marketers will try different online strategies, and explore tactics previously thought of as “experimental.”
This year will reward the innovative and the risk-takers - those who made good decisions rather than no decision - and those who showed courage and led the way.
5. The great schlep: 2.0 migrates to mobile
Over the last two years, the mobile device has catapulted from application-heavy phone to phone-enabled pocket rocket, so imagine where what we’ll be saying two years from now.
Greater integration of web and mobile activities is already happening, especially as more digital marketers venture into the mobile space.
More applications, social computing, better mobile Web and the melding of IM and text messaging are all here. And with open-source platforms like Android fuelling creativity and quick implementation, the seemingly endless possibilities could well revolutionize marketing strategies for all of us early adopters.
4. The miracle of 2009?
While the focus of the recession has been on job losses, the housing fiasco and the meltdown of our financial institutions, a lot of signs are indicating that some small businesses have every reason to be optimistic this year.
At a time when so many macroeconomic forces are in play, Americans believe that is it entrepreneurs who will contribute to the revival of the economy.
A story in the New York Times described upbeat and resourceful entrepreneurs as having already adapted to the slowdown.
More importantly, perhaps, from the marketing industry’s perspective, the Ad-ology Small Business Marketing Outlook survey found that 26 percent of small business owners actually plan to increase their advertising spending this year.
Now that is a miracle.
3. It’s all about the numbers, baby
Numbers have always been important and this year is no different.
If a recession does nothing else to marketing strategies, it places exceptional scrutiny on cost effectiveness. As marketing is routinely considered in terms of revenue production, return on investment, and payback – it’s usually the first to go on the chopping block.
Don’t know what you can’t measure, right?
This year, an increase in measurability is already apparent through the increase of mobile and online marketing initiatives, which are more transparent and deliver more immediate result measures.
These channels routinely trump traditional media in terms of conversion, penetration, and response rates. And mobile is catching up quick. “ROI” may be much maligned, but will dictate stronger than ever.
2. Tell me you love me
Existing clients are the single most valuable asset that companies can hang on to this year. They are the engine of growth.
And a key to sustaining growth, especially during this lean time, will be to develop stronger relationships through effective communication channels. Individual connection is the driver here; one-to-one communications, the establishment of trust, and the providing of relevant, respectful and welcome information allows any marketer to pull in business rather than push unwanted products to unwelcoming customers.
Focused efforts on campaigns that create trust, encourage disclosure, and promote accessibility through voice and mobile marketing platforms will be de rigeur.
1. The marketing puzzle for retailers
As they have done countless times before, consumers and businesses will rise to the rescue of our incredibly complex American economy.
Whether this will happen by the end of 2009 is subject to a lot of speculation (and mostly negative at the time of writing), but marketers across the country should be pulling out all stops to connect with consumers at a deeper level and explore innovative marketing options to help boost their recovery and bottom line.
Today’s consumer wants to adopt a message, not be exposed to an advertisement. They desire conversations rather than commercials. And they want meaning in their lives, which will be our marketing challenge for 2009.
This year poses unprecedented challenges and increasing pressures across all industries, but we believe that marketers will rise to those challenges, and meet them with innovation and resiliency.
We are supported by an undercurrent of optimism stemming from a collective sense of resolve and as we look forward at the 10 remaining months of 2009, we don’t look with trepidation, but secure in the knowledge that even when times are really bad, the market rewards those with solid strategies and partnerships, vision and determination to make it through.
So go forth and divest, diverge, converge and invest in some new thinking and different ways, because there is still time for a miracle to take place.
Eric Holmen is president of SmartReply Inc., and has spent the better part of his marketing career seeking to redefine the nature of marketing messages and assist the industry in resisting the status quo. Reach him at
eholmen@smartreply.com or visit www.smartreply.com for more information about the company.