Wharton Professor David J. Reibstein on Ubiquitous Marketing at Forrester Marketing Forum

Professor David J. Reibstein, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

 

Ubiquitous Marketing in a Fragmented Age

The environment is changing around us… war, the economy, global warming, globalization… lots of turmoil.

Are we considering the implications of the global financial crisis and recession?

Moving toward a new marketing paradigm: Reverse Marketing. It’s not us telling them, it’s them telling us.

Foundations:

• The changing consumer dynamics: Customization, Communities, Channels, Competitive Value, Choice.

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• The centrality of the consumer: Who are customers and what are their evolving needs? What product/service offerings will meet target segments’ needs and offer competitive advantage?
• The choices are immense, getting more and more complex. But because of better tracking we can demonstrate better value

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• Changing content: Top 25 mobile apps on iPod Touch/iPhone: 12 games, 4 entertainment, 3 social networking, 2 music, 1 travel, 1 utility, 1 lifestyle, 1 news (comScore April 7, 2009)
• Proliferation of social media: Blogs, video, Wikipedia, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, the portals (Google, Yahoo, Windows Live)

Innovative examples of Reverse Marketing

• General Ray Odierno – in charge of Iraq, changed face of how we manage a war. He has Facebook page. Went on CNN – got 10x increase in friends from that. How wild – being a friend of this general. He wanted to hear from people, get a real connection and find out what people needed to know.
• The YouTube Presidency – Obama has done “wonderful job” of listening, taking in questions of what people care about. “You tell me what it is you want to know.”
• Ford Fiesta: Fiesta Movement – 100 cars, gave to ‘agents’ – they get em for 6 months, drive em, take pictures, say whatever you want about them, put the pictures up on Flickr, communicate to people
• Nike+: started blogs, not taking control
• Dell Ideastorm
• P&G – welcoming next game-changing innovation online – Connect + Develop
• Doritos: Crash the Super Bowl

Question: What are YOU doing to engage your target stakeholders as co-creators, co-producers, and co-marketers of your products and services? Are you giving up control? Can you more?

Is your marketing plan consistent with the new model of reverse marketing?

Budgeting in a Down Economy

* Marketing budgets are challenged during these times

* Easy to cut

– Fungible

– Built stock

– Hard to spend without evidence it provides value

He cited a quote from another conference speaker: “Now is the time to be investing in your brand.” He followed up asking when’s NOT the time to invest in the brand?

Opposing forces:

• Best time to cut: Generates cash, stock, fungible
• Best time to invest: rates are low, more relative impact, less noise

Wired Magazine: in 2000 had 231 pages. 2002: had 113 pages. Readership almost the same between the two. Cost was fairly comparable. Which had greatest impact, an ad in which issue?

Impact of spending during a recession depends on competitive spending

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Summary

• New environment calls for new practices
• Best time to invest or opportune time to withdraw from the woodpile
• Measurement is key to maximizing return on marketing investment

Find more from David at MarketingNPV