The dynamic brand

Recently CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide announced Marketing to be dead.

I have conducted a couple of interviews with communication and advertising agencies and I find a consensus that supports this rather radical statement. Marketing is certainly not as it used to be. 

Marketing as I was taught 2 years ago is based on a control with the brand.

To control the brand image I was taught that communication must be aligned throughout the various touch points. Manuals and guidelines for visual identities, internal and external communication, brand guidelines etc. keep the communication consistent. Marketing and communication strategies keep focus on goals and help explain the golden plan to win the market internally as well as externally. 

My marketing books were out-dated before I even got my graduation certificate. 

As consumers we are wired with iPads, smartphones, laptops, mobile internet and endless broadband and consumers twit, like, pin, share, criticize and complain non stop. Consumers expect constant connectivity - and constant access – to your company.

Not only does it mean that companies must gear up for an 24-7 on-demand reality, it also means that consumers' activity related to the company is a massive part of the brand image. 

Brand manuals, long term marketing strategies, and aligned communication in touch points is impossible to uphold. Control is an illusion. 

My teenage years were defined by the (at that time) upcoming Internet. 

In 1998 at the age of 15, I was chatting and surfing away. I found it perfectly normal to join parties, which were planned in a chat room by people who haven't meet IRL yet. I called up "friends" I had never met when I had a computer problem. My parents were amazed, my surroundings scared and my classmates turned their back on me calling me an anti-social geek.    

My adult identity was defined through digital networks and now, even I find it difficult to navigate through the endless list of social media platforms. If this is what I am feeling, the older generations must be terrified. 

I also find social media frightening, as I have no control of how my communication is spread. But the scariest thought is that it is not spread at all.

Marketing managers must become emotional thinkers  

Consumers expect news to automatically float by in the stream of free information. They do not actively go look for news (and will certainly not pay for it). This means that content that is not shared almost instantly will float by unnoticed. 

To maximize the shares, likes, tweets etc. the company must learn their customer's online behaviour and peak time activity. And more importantly think content as engaging emotional stories and not information. The company’s goal is to build empathy. 

Marketing may not be completely dead

To navigate in this volatile, uncertain, ambiguous and complex world companies must allow the brand to be dynamic and flexible. This requires a strong brand core that is present in all brand activity. This core relates the communication to the brand and makes it "brand relevant". 

The brand core can be many things; it is up to you to define it. But it is not a website or Facebook page, not a sound identity or a sound logo. It is a philosophy, a feeling, a way to act: The essence of the company’s very being.