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Technology Turns Marketing Upside Down
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Business New Haven
10/30/2000
By: BNH
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NEW HAVEN - Marketers beware: The Internet is giving your business clients and consumers more choices, which is forever changing the way you reach them. But don't be in a rush to drag all the old rules to the trash bin. Many marketing fundamentals still work. The trick is figuring out which ones to use, and how.
Such is the dilemma facing marketers today as technology literally turns their industry upside down.
Traditionally, marketing messages are prepared for mass audiences, like television viewers and readers of newspapers and magazines. Sure, niche markets are successfully targeted. And technology lets marketers pinpoint those niches right down to individual consumers. But you know what? Consumers have access to technology, too, and with mouse pad in hand, they're now in command of what they'll see and when.
These contradictions and the opportunities they bring were explored in a seminar at the Southern Connecticut Business Expo, October 18 at Veterans Memorial Coliseum in New Haven. A panel led by Patrick McHugh, senior vice president for marketing and business development at Synnap, LLC, reviewed how to reach Web-wise consumers - and, more importantly, how to stay in business doing so.
Also on the panel were: Charles T. Mason, president of Mason & Madison, a New Haven-based group of companies including advertising and public relations; Peter H. Tracy, president of Neato, East Haven, which produces labeling products for media such as CD-ROMs; and Charles W. Murphy, general manager of Choice One Communications, a provider of integrated communications for businesses, including voice, data, Internet and DSL services, based in New Haven. McHugh's Synnap helps small- and mid-sized businesses with Internet access and use, and is converting a 185,000-square-foot building in the Fair Haven section of New Haven into what McHugh calls a “power plant” for Internet data.
“The Web is not just for amusement any more,” said Mason. “It's for commerce.” A survey he cited finds 137 million individuals now online for an average 8.7 hours per week. What's more, 28.4 million households shop online, and 50 percent of the web's users are women.
Thirty-three percent of these users have connected to the Web only within the past 12 months, Mason added. And of note to marketers is that 97 percent of newcomers log on for a specific purpose. In other words, they're searching for something.
“People have very little patience for a Web site that doesn't work smoothly,” Mason warned. “That's an important point for marketers.”
A second point is the “shift in control from marketers to consumers,” he said, as the Internet surges with choices and alternatives for consumers, creating ever more business competition.
Nevertheless, Mason contends, “The Internet doesn't replace everything. It just adds to it and links to it.” Thus, the challenge for business owners is to figure how to integrate Internet opportunities into the business, he said. For instance, how can - or should? - the Internet be used for communications, sales and operations? And what percent of the budget should be allocated to developing these new approaches?
Crucial is a business model that addresses fundamental questions in this new era, Mason added. This includes: Do we truly have something to sell? For instance, he said, “If everything you offer [in a Web-based business] is free and your only revenue base is advertising, I say, watch out.”
Speaking of advertising, Mason said it's expensive to place online and off. But costs can still be reduced by focusing on niche markets, for instance, through business magazines that reach specific audiences.
And what are the keys to marketing from this day forward? Mason cited several:
• Branding - As competition increases and distribution barriers fall, product identity becomes crucial.
• Clarity - “You need to communicate clear, positive brand attributes, and to communicate this at every point of contact with the consumer.”
• Relationships - “Develop strong relationships with your customers and appreciate the long-term value of their business.”
Tracy, meanwhile, takes a bull-in-the-china shop approach to marketing and business opportunities.
Arguing that companies will drown if they don't get their feet wet in e-commerce soon, he urges: “Take advantage of opportunities and move.” And, “Burn the business plan.” Anything you put in a plan today won't be valid three years from now, he explained. “So don't get locked into it. The Web changes too fast.”
Tracy practices what he preaches, jumping into technology-based products and services when he detects a need. And he moves all the faster when told, “It'll never work.”
A case in point is his current business of imprinting labels on CD-ROM disks. There was definitely a need since unlabeled disks are, well, unlabeled. Tracy was warned that imprinting labels onto disks would affect data quality. But he tried it. It worked. And bingo. A business was born.
“We moved when the opportunity struck,” he said. “You've got to move faster today than you've ever moved before.” Indecision keeps companies standing still, he said. “And if your company tells you, 'We don't have it in the budget [to seize new opportunities],' then move to another. Because your company won't be around long.”
Like Mason, Tracy urged marketers to build brand awareness. And to use “old fashioned” marketing techniques to get people to your Web site. These techniques include direct-mail promotions (search the Web for mailing lists, he said), niche advertising in trade magazines, exposure at trade shows, and heavy use of public relations. “Public relations is the primary way to get to people,” he concluded.
Murphy reviewed technology advances of the past that are taken for granted today, and noted how technology is allowing breakthroughs for both marketers and their clients. Automation aids in creating design, media planning and tracking, and the sorting of data, he noted. The Internet, he added, has opened up business marketing potentials “to the world.”
What's ahead? Most people freely admit they don't know.
“This is just the beginning,” said Synnap's McHugh. “People may worry that they're being left behind, but the reality is that there are still many opportunities.”
“Get on the Web and see where the opportunities are,” added Tracy. “You'll see what isn't working and say, 'I can do it better.' “
But remember that despite an avalanche of change, “Some core marketing concepts still work,” Mason said. “They're still needed to build your business.”
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