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By Jeff Kear
I was recently reading an article in the Atlantic Monthly about how, during the 2004 Presidential Election, for the first time in decades, more Americans collectively sought their news from outlets like CNN, Fox News, The Nation and National Review than from the 3 major networks. Couple this with the sobering fact that more people under 30 turn to shows like Comedy Central's Daily Show than network news, and it's pretty obvious that a major shift is underway ... and not just in how news is delivered to us.
This dispersion of the old mass audience should come as no surprise to marketers, who for several years now have been trying to adjust to a world where mass media is not always the answer for effectively boosting awareness, market share or revenues.
The proliferation of cable channels and Web sites, FCC deregulation, even blogging and instant messaging have helped make our world one of custom communications, with each individual having more and more choices as well as control over what information they receive and how it is delivered.
But how did things get so diffuse, so diverse and so difficult to get our heads around so quickly?
A very apt explanation for this comes from a McDonald's executive who, when asked why the company shifted many of its advertising dollars to niche marketing, said, "From the consumer point of view, we've had a change from 'I want to be normal' to 'I want to be special.'"
No longer do people want to merely fit in. Whether you like it or not, we live in a world of ever-increasing customization, from the personal settings on our computers and TVs to the vanity plates on our cars to our tattoos and body piercings right down to our custom cell phone ring tones. Everything is about self-expression and individualism.
What this is creating, according to that same Atlantic article, is a "wild, cacophonous, emphatically decentralized media culture" like that of the 1700s and 1800s, a time when tens of thousands of newspapers, fliers, pamphlets and other publications brought each niche its news and information. This isn't to say that mass media will go the way of the dinosaur, but it will play less of a role in the future as a communication vehicle than it has in the last 40 years.
As marketers, this leaves us two choices: hang on for dear life to our previous ways of doing business (and eventually go extinct) or dive into this new simmering brew of mediums and seek out our customers.
I prefer the latter, and I think the best path for doing this is to embark on a journey of "purposeful experimentation."
I must admit that the concept of purposeful experimentation is not exactly mine, but something I co-opted (and tweaked) from a book by Jim Collins called Built to Last. In the book, Collins posits that one of the key practices that differentiates visionary companies from others is the fact that they constantly encourage experimentation and trial-and-error among their employees.
He uses many examples where visionary companies stumbled into a landmark product or process by accident. These examples range from Johnson and Johnson's accidental invention of the Band-Aid (a company employee had been making crude adhesive bandages for a few years before company execs thought to test-market the idea) to a 3M chemist "failing" to develop a new, all-purpose glue and accidentally discovering the adhesive that made Post-it notes possible.
Purposeful experimentation helped companies like Johnson and Johnson and 3M as well as Sony, American Express and Marriott launch successful product lines and services, but I believe it can also help marketers find the best ways to create customer interest.
Let's break these two words down, starting with "experimentation." Obviously, the essence of experimentation is trying lots of new things, measuring how they perform, keeping and improving on those things that work and discarding those that don't. And this is exactly what successful marketers are already doing. They are experimenting online with blogs, RSS feeds and podcasts to spread the word about their products. They are advertising in (or creating for themselves) the specialty publications their customers are reading. They are forming relationships with niche media outlets to build relationships with their viewers (e.g., Banana Republic with Bravo's Project Runway, The Home Depot with TLC's Trading Spaces). They are creating experiences and events where their customers are immersed in their products/services.
One important thing the word "experimentation" implies is incremental trial-and-error, testing things out with small samples and budgets to see if they work or not. It doesn't mean blowing copious amounts on a medium or practice you haven't first tested (say, like spending your entire annual budget on one Super Bowl ad that everyone summarily forgets).
This leads us to our second word "purposeful". This implies having a strategy and system in place for your experimentation.
In other words: Set budgets and timelines for measuring your experiments. Take some time to research venues and technologies that might be effective. Learn more about who your target customer is while continuing to look for other audiences and applications for your product/service. However, no matter what, do not sit still, for the success of purposeful experimentation depends on constant movement and inquiry, especially in this era where many mediums are rapidly evolving and changing.
What all this boils down to is this: Are we, as marketers, willing to take the comparatively smaller risk of purposeful experimentation instead of the much larger risk of doing nothing? As former Johnson and Johnson CEO Ralph Larsen best put it, "Growth is a gambler's game." So start stacking the chips in your favor.About the Author
Jeff Kear is a principal at Kear|Stevens, an integrated marketing communications firm in Denver, CO. During his career in marketing and advertising, Jeff has created revenue-generating marketing communications for nationally recognized brands such as Budget, MetLife, Moosehead Beer, Qwest and Toyota. Before his work at Kear|Stevens, Jeff served as a senior-level creative at a few well-respected Denver ad agencies as well as a marketing and communications specialist for a Fortune 500 company.
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