Change in Marketing Part I

Between reading Thomas L. Friedman's The World Is Flat - Release 2.0 and seeing Over The Hedge with the kiddos today, the general topic of "change" has been flickering in front of me like and old black and white movie.

While Friedman's book certainly backs his own political views and agenda, the facts he presents are undeniable. The world is flattening, jobs are being in and outsourced more rapidly than ever, and it's up to you (the individual reading this) to keep up or even stay ahead. Whether you are Vern the turtle in Over The Hedge or the IT worker whose job was transitioned to India, you can beat change or it will beat you.

Friedman's analogy of the optical fiber that connects the world today is no different than the railroads that joined together small towns across American 150 years ago. Imagine the local tradespeople who now realized their products all of a sudden had to compete in quality and price with those from 12 other towns. If the local seamstress or blacksmith had always provided top quality at unbeatable prices, he'd welcome the competition with open arms because his or her wares could now compete in all 13 towns. If the tradespeople had simply been comfortable, they were probably right in fearing the competition. This is not a new lesson, though, and OTH and TWIF are certainly not the first to teach this lesson. Yet after this message has manifested itself thousands upon thousands of time throughout history, most people still fear a larger market and more competition. What they really fear is that they may not be up to par with in their field.

The same goes for marketing. Consumers are changing how they consumer media whether or not we, as marketers, change how we dialogue with them. The question all clients and agencies seem to be asking right now is What are the risks associates with advertising in new media? How about what the risks are if we DON'T advertise there? There's an easy answer for that.