I have started blogging about marketing issues at the Marketing magazine website. You will find my latest thinking and reserach on marketing-related matters there.
Also, don't forget www.rightsideup.net and www.ctrl-shift.co.uk
The world of marketing is going to be transformed by individuals becoming empowered to manage and use information as a tool in their own hands, and for their own purposes. We at Mydex have just published a White Paper on the revolutionary implications of the Personal Data Store.
. (Alan Mitchell 30 September 2010)
There is a huge new research agenda opening up around markeing metrics.
I blogged about this issue here. (Alan Mitchell 3 March 2009)
The first phase of consumer empowerment revolved around product choice. The second phase, which really began only about ten years ago, revolves around information choice - choice about which sources of information to use when making decisions. The third phase revolves around empowering processes - consumers' ability to exercise voice as well as choice (see The Mydex Project and Volunteered Personal Information below), new ways of doing things that 'improve my metrics' (my time, money, attetion, energy etc).
These second two stages are transforming the relationships between individuals and organisations - yet most organisations are carrying on an usual, as if nothing had happened! I've helped found a new company to research these developments and help organisations respond positively and pro-actively. It's called Ctrl-Shift (www.ctrl-shift.co.uk). Have a look at its web site and tell me what you think.
In the course of trying to make and implement the decisions that will improve their lives, indidivduals generate a huge amount of new information: about what their plans and preferences are, what information they need, what they are doing right now, and so on.
Potentially, this is the utlimate source of marketing information: information about who wants what, when. It could drive everything marketers do - innovation, communications, sales, service - to achieve much more at much lower cost. Because, with this information, marketers know what will create value and what won't and don't need to guess any more (at least, not as much!).
But how to capture and share this information? What sorts of processes, mechanisms and incentives do we need? What are the 'rules' both sides need to adhere to create a workable system. I've helped found Mydex (www.mydex.org) to help address these questions. If you want to know more, get in touch with me.
I wrote about VRM (Vendor Relationship Management) in the Financial Times on September 15 (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6dd60fd2-80e3-11dd-82dd-000077b07658.html).
VPI is a disruptive innovation with the potential to transform relationships between individuals and organisations, including marketing. See special page.
Recently I published this article in Marketing Week.
It suggests that traditional marketing metrics, which try to link corporate benefits such as improved sales, market share or margin to specific marketing actions, see only one half of the equation and are therefore unable to learn anything insightful. A bit like looking at the equation e = mc squared , but only being able to see the 'e' bit or the 'mc squared' bit but never the two together.
A few companies have expressed interested in exploring this further. What are the crucial consumer KPI's? How do they differ by consumer segment or occasion? What are the links (if any) with traditional marketing metrics?
It would be neat if a group of 5-10 non-competing companies wanted to get together to research these questions in more depth. If you are interested, get in touch with me.
The alchemists dreamed of turning lead into gold, and failed.
Modern marketing dreams of turning human beings into assets of its brands. It, too, will fail. So what is the alternative?
This is an edited version of my keynote speech to the Thought Leaders International Conference on Brand Management in Birmingham, April 2007.
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