Why the old lines of demarcation in marketing are, thankfully, starting to blur
We live in an either/or world — be it left or right brain; church or state; branding or direct response.
The reality is, however, that there is no line anymore that divides one bucket from another, one department from the next or one consumer from a brand. Instead of a dichotomy of extremes, perhaps we need to consider a different paradigm, one in which “and” replaces “or,” where balance and equilibrium take precedence over a binary or mutually exclusive outcome. I call it the “and” economy.
Not long ago, I gave a keynote speech about the “and economy” and highlighted the following points:
• If we can’t measure it, it isn’t real.
• Branding without direct response is negligent while direct response without branding is naïve.
• New does not replace old, and old should not dominate new — but this is no excuse to get sucked into incrementalism.
• Consumers and marketers work as partners, not adversaries.
• Consumers reject silos of all shapes and forms.
In this new methodology, the direct marketing industry has a major role to play and it is not inconceivable that the often subservient direct response capability could become a lead — if not the lead — in the integrated marketing communications space. Why? Put simply, direct marketing is built on measurability and accountability.
That said, the direct response space is also going to have to simultaneously learn to balance short-term gain with long-term benefit. At a time when the “tipping point” dovetails with the “long tail” in DNA-like strands, direct mail will similarly morph and intertwine with a conversational layer of community, dialogue and partnership.
Where direct mail was once either an outreach tactic or a fulfillment mechanism, marketers must now consider whether it can be both, whether mail can help them balance push and pull. The B2B space understands this all too well. There, platforms of sustained thought leadership are counterbalanced with lead-generation tools like white papers, consultations, starter kits and instructional DVDs.
(It’s also in this same spirit that marketers must strike a yin-and-yang balance between electronic fulfillment and traditional mail, an effort that will prove to be as much art as science.) There is no distinction anymore between above- and below-the-line. Soon, there may be one real line remaining: the one between status quo and innovation.
The question then becomes simple: Which side of the line will you find yourself on?
Joseph Jaffe is president and chief interruptor of crayon, an advisory group.
Large Business, Medium Business, Opinion, Small Business
