I am a communications strategist. Marketing is in my blood. To today's marketing girls I come from the Stone Age, but I am undisputedly a digital nativeTinsel, tar and feathers, big budgets, small budgets; it's all equally familiar to me. As a producer of corporate films and commercials, I was in the nineties hoisted on the shield. Clients found it incredibly interesting. Money was no object. We all agreed that half of the marketing budget was wasted money. We just didn't know which half. That wasn't laziness. Customer segmentation was still very simple in many companies. Age, gender, place of residence, income, family size approximately. 'One size fits all.' Ah yes, those were the days.
Everywhere you read that the consumer has changed. We know that now. In my opinion, something much more important is going on; the consumer is latently schizophrenic. That's how it is; the consumer consumes Γ la 2015. Holidays are compared and booked on the iPad, clothes are shopped online, library books are reserved from the couch and Albert.nl fills the fridge. Dad flirts via Facebook, mom plays Wordfeud with complete strangers. Everyone is always and everywhere connected. This is the sanitized version, because much remains hidden online. Whoever has access will be there.
Virtually foolish. This applies to most managers and directors. One foot in virtual existence and the index finger tip-top at all times of the day, but their reptile brain still in the Pleistocene. While the world around them screams for progress and change, the same men and women opt for conventional marketing tools. Telemarketing, expensive advertisements in trade magazines and advertorials in television programs. I'm not saying that these are bad choices. And they will certainly reach a target group. Organizations and individuals tend to get used to themselves.
But half of the marketing budget spent the old way is still wasted money. And I know which half. It even goes a step further; fan conversation trumps brand conversation. Marketing managers and decision makers those who shoot from the hip with the budget score a poor return. And have a schizophrenic sense of reality. The consumer is always on.