(no subject)
Out with the Old, In with the New
By Bianca Jimeno
James Norrie wants you to take everything you’ve ever known about marketing and throw it out the window. In his speech before Ryerson University faculty, students and sponsors at the 21st annual Ryerson Business Forum held yesterday at the Arcadian Court in Toronto, Norrie delivered the goods on “old” versus “new” marketing. Living in the digital revolution, Norrie urged that marketers must learn from the unprecedented Facebooking, text-messaging, Youtubing and blogging consumers of today.
“This is a different social paradigm, this did not exist 20 years ago,” Norrie, the director and assistant professor of the information technology program at Ryerson University, said.
Norrie was one of four speakers that were invited to speak at Ryerson’s non-profit event aimed at students of the Ted Rogers School of Management and the business community. The Ryerson Business Forum, which consists of a team of undergraduate business students, titled this year’s forum as ‘New Media: A Fresh Connections with Consumers”. This theme touches upon the evolving relationship between the marketer and the consumer.
Norrie believes that how we’re buying -and more importantly, why- has fundamentally changed. He claims that the world of marketing is expanding to the social web, as people today go online and engage in conversations through different social networking mediums (such as MySpace or Facebook) which changes the way we consume.
In the old marketing world, the ‘4 P’s of marketing’ (product, price, place and promotion) were crucial in predicting financial success. This was done through catchy jingles in commercials and the images of advertising to send messages to consumers about their company’s products. Now, Norrie argued that in a survey it was suggested that 87% of people believe the messages sent through advertising are “suspicious and not reaching the next generation of consumers”.
In the new world, “The ‘4 P’s’”, as Norrie said, “mean absolutely nothing.” It is the rising suspicion of marketing companies and the new media of online communication (which allows fellow consumers to speak their mind) that is forcing marketers to find a new strategic approach of selling products. Companies today must also fear “brandstorm”, a concept that Norrie explains as indirect messages (such as a Facebook group supporting Dove for having the best soap or a blogger’s rant about defective iPods) having a greater impact on a company’s image than all direct messages (such as advertising).
The greatest difference between the old and new marketing world is that companies are no longer in control of their image. The consumers are. And through the Web, they have the ability to destroy businesses.
“Anyone can create a message anywhere that will sink your company’s brand,” said Norrie.
So what are the business companies to do? Not much. Some companies may try to use the Internet to manipulate consumers. Gilette had gone so far as to create an online community, Noscruff.org, in an attempt to convince consumers to shave. Unfortunately for them, consumers soon discovered Gilette as being the company behind the website and their marketing strategy failed.
Companies are now learning to re-examine their relationship to consumer as well as adapt to the new media of the Internet, according to Norrie.
“The social Web will not go away. And if you’re a marketer, how can you ignore it?”
By Bianca Jimeno
James Norrie wants you to take everything you’ve ever known about marketing and throw it out the window. In his speech before Ryerson University faculty, students and sponsors at the 21st annual Ryerson Business Forum held yesterday at the Arcadian Court in Toronto, Norrie delivered the goods on “old” versus “new” marketing. Living in the digital revolution, Norrie urged that marketers must learn from the unprecedented Facebooking, text-messaging, Youtubing and blogging consumers of today.
“This is a different social paradigm, this did not exist 20 years ago,” Norrie, the director and assistant professor of the information technology program at Ryerson University, said.
Norrie was one of four speakers that were invited to speak at Ryerson’s non-profit event aimed at students of the Ted Rogers School of Management and the business community. The Ryerson Business Forum, which consists of a team of undergraduate business students, titled this year’s forum as ‘New Media: A Fresh Connections with Consumers”. This theme touches upon the evolving relationship between the marketer and the consumer.
Norrie believes that how we’re buying -and more importantly, why- has fundamentally changed. He claims that the world of marketing is expanding to the social web, as people today go online and engage in conversations through different social networking mediums (such as MySpace or Facebook) which changes the way we consume.
In the old marketing world, the ‘4 P’s of marketing’ (product, price, place and promotion) were crucial in predicting financial success. This was done through catchy jingles in commercials and the images of advertising to send messages to consumers about their company’s products. Now, Norrie argued that in a survey it was suggested that 87% of people believe the messages sent through advertising are “suspicious and not reaching the next generation of consumers”.
In the new world, “The ‘4 P’s’”, as Norrie said, “mean absolutely nothing.” It is the rising suspicion of marketing companies and the new media of online communication (which allows fellow consumers to speak their mind) that is forcing marketers to find a new strategic approach of selling products. Companies today must also fear “brandstorm”, a concept that Norrie explains as indirect messages (such as a Facebook group supporting Dove for having the best soap or a blogger’s rant about defective iPods) having a greater impact on a company’s image than all direct messages (such as advertising).
The greatest difference between the old and new marketing world is that companies are no longer in control of their image. The consumers are. And through the Web, they have the ability to destroy businesses.
“Anyone can create a message anywhere that will sink your company’s brand,” said Norrie.
So what are the business companies to do? Not much. Some companies may try to use the Internet to manipulate consumers. Gilette had gone so far as to create an online community, Noscruff.org, in an attempt to convince consumers to shave. Unfortunately for them, consumers soon discovered Gilette as being the company behind the website and their marketing strategy failed.
Companies are now learning to re-examine their relationship to consumer as well as adapt to the new media of the Internet, according to Norrie.
“The social Web will not go away. And if you’re a marketer, how can you ignore it?”