The Blog

The world is changing. It’s a blue sphere in constant motion; every second of the day produces a new life changing thought. Whether that thought is acted upon or publicized however, is debatable. Considering that fact, one of the greatest things about human nature is that we are prone to adaptation. As our environments change (consequently we are normally the cause of change), we find ways to change with. Now that that’s out of the way, marketing is a topic that’s been around since the establishment of trade. How else would you draw people to your wooden establishment and convince them that your corn is better than your neighbor’s?

The reality is that marketing has been an essential part of history and those who effectively master the far from dying art, are the most successful. Lets look at Apple for example. Their focus has been brand management since CEO Steve Jobs hopped on board. Because of this, they’ve gone from near bankruptcy to one of the top companies in the world. As of August 1, they held more cash on hand than the United States treasury. Are they selling any products that are necessary for survival of mankind? Are their products much different from those on the market?

The answer to both questions in my opinion, is no. I consciously know that there are phones that can do much more than the iPhone can. I also know that there are phones that are much more customizable and free from Apple’s unreasonable restrictions, but I want an iPhone. I know that a Windows computer has the same capabilities if not more than Mac computers, but I want the Mac even though it costs more. Why do think that is?

It’s all about the way Apple markets their products. They’ve successfully made it to the point where it’s sort of a social “norm” to have certain items. Apple products are now for the most part, fashion statements. I remember when the iPod first came out. Everyone at school wore them on their belt buckles with their shirts just above the clip so that it could be seen. Guess what, if you didn’t have one, you felt left out. Fast-forward to a few years later and it’s on a greater scale, meanwhile the main beneficiary is Apple.

So now that we’ve established the importance of marketing, how has it changed over the years? Well for one thing, you’re dealing with a new generation. Before, you had all the power and control when it came to your audience. Flash the ads on the television or radio and no matter how reluctant a viewer, the reality was that they had no choice but to watch. That was then, nowadays, people have much more control. With things like Tivo and the Internet, your audience decides what to watch and when to watch it (same goes for all other types of media). Not only that, the generation isn’t on the floor with their mom and dad, watching The Brady Bunch anymore. They’re on Facebook, Twitter or YouTube and spending countless numbers of hours a month there (I know because I am one of them). So how can you reach an audience that is no longer passive and won’t sit through your boring pitches? It’s simple, change your tactics.

First, go to where they are; don’t wait for them to come to you. Second, ask what they would like to see or what types of products they’d like to see advertised. If your product isn’t included on their lists, then you save you time and money. The fact is, people are unlikely to buy a product that they’re not in the market for. There’s been several times on YouTube where I’d be watching an ad and right before the time is up, they ask if I found the ad relevant. I normally said no in hopes of eliminating them completely but if it were for a product that I was in the market for, I would have definitely said yes.

If you look at some of the ads on those videos, they are a lot of the times relevant to what the video is showing. The fact of the matter is, if I typed in “ how to play blackbird” into YouTube, there is a huge probability that I’m interested in the guitar. Maybe I want a new one or maybe I want local lessons. At this point I don’t even watch television anymore so I, like many others, won’t sit and endure just any product pitch.

As far as Facebook and twitter, those are respectively the 2nd and 9th ranked sites on the Internet. That being said, there is a high probability that your market is there, so why aren’t you? Every company should have a Facebook and Twitter profile in my opinion, even if it is just informative. The point of those sites is self-expression. As it is “cool” to own Apple products (I think I might be on my way to becoming a fan boy), I want to “like” Apple on Facebook so that my network knows, “ hey, I’m cool”. As dorky as that sounds, that is the simplified version of the image you need to create for your company. People should want to be associated with it. Additionally, I’ll add that if you have people on your Facebook constantly pitching products at me, I will “de-friend” or “unlike” you.

That brings us on to the Twitter regime. Twitter is an amazing way to interact with your customers (the key to modern marketing – interaction). With it, you can easily find out what they like, their issues and inform them of your upcoming products. Like anything however, it can easily be abused. Consider this situation, you are following 50 people; one of those is a company. We’ll say that the remaining 49 update their statuses about 5 times a day. If you as a company are updating you status every thirty minutes, you’re spamming that person’s feed. So what’s the result? Your number of followers goes down by one whether or not they liked you. One of our practices at Agora is to update the status every 2 hours and respond to questions every hour. This way we remain visible and give our community an efficient response time without spamming everyone else.

So what are the lessons to be learned here? Target your market, go to the places that they spend most of their time and be courteous. They now have the power to choose what they will allow themselves to be exposed to so keep it relevant. Additionally, one last piece of advice, don’t use them to market your products alone. Give people information that they would like to know about as well. For example, we do not work with nor endorse Game Informer in any way shape or form. However, they post information on their site that is relevant to our audience, information that we do not specialize in producing. Since the majority of our community are gamers and would like to be kept informed, we link to some of their updates. So now that you know what it takes to formulate a success like Apple’s, what will you do with it? Let us know in the comments below or on Twitter.