So Whats Trending In The World Of Marketing

Ah it’s funny you should ask that question, because the other week we tuned into a 30 minute webinar by 12ahead on three contemporary trends in marketing. It actually turned out to be very interesting and so, just in case you didn’t get a chance to see it, we thought we would blog about it; aren’t we generous!

So, to kick things off, let’s look at Social Engineering; the first contemporary trend is about you, as consumers, having what’s called ‘consumer empowerment’, which basically means that consumers are taking a more serious approach when expressing what they want. The increasing impact of consumer empowerment is shifting the concept of marketing and marketing a product effectively is now in the hands of the consumer; through social media, the customer voice has become a lot greater and more powerful (you only have to look back at our blog on Nutella).

It’s not just about personalising products to meet each individual consumer’s needs anymore; this concept takes it one step further, allowing consumers to actually design and create the products themselves, unleashing what we call mass-customisation. Mass-customisation is a mix of mass production and bespoke tailoring; consequently enabling the consumer to simply provide the brand with their design and then the brand will manufacture it for them. Nike iD is a great example of this, offering a state of the art web-based design page which allows consumers to create their own Nike product, exactly to their specification. 

Frictionless commerce is next on the agenda and is based on the notion of the future of location, linking digital to offline sales and turning engagement into activation. Nowadays consumers spend a lot of time online, using social media, search engine facilities and other online platforms; this online engagement has fostered the assumption that consumers are omnichannel in the way they engage with products and services. So, as the business world becomes increasingly digital, is this really a negative concept? A great example of this is seen in Strongbow’s start cap; the design demonstrates the world’s first digital bottle which enables consumers to activate something in the room using the RFID when the bottle is opened. This is a good example where engagement turns into activation, encouraging consumers to buy more drinks, driving sales; consumers are using multiple screens throughout the purchase process, with Google saying at least 68 per cent do. We have also seen the likes of Budweiser and Heineken capitalising on this concept. Nick New summarises frictionless commerce by saying ,“Social data and location can give insights about how to make content useful and help link digital & offline behaviours to turn engagement into activation.”

Saving the most interesting trend until last, Smart Creativity, or as it is known in the big world of marketing, BHAG, Big Hairy Audacious Goals. The notion behind this is about setting a long term vision, deciding on its impact and then mapping out the goals to make it happen. Sounds simple right? Well, let’s give you an example just to reassure things, and who better than Google themselves and their notion of ‘moonshot thinking’. Moonshot thinking can drive steps into businesses to achieve business goals. Personally here at apt we see this as one of the most inspirational videos we’ve watched and it really expresses the point. So today, start with smart creativity and achieve great things.