Aug 6th 10 Posted by Bob Sevier in Featured Articles, Integrated Marketing

The Next Evolution in Marketing

I recently read Gilbreath’s The Next Evolution in Marketing. He makes the case, much like Godin and others, that today’s audiences are tired of intrusive, self-serving advertising. He believes that the only way to connect with your customers involves creating marketing with meaning.

The idea of marketing with meaning is not new. What is new, however, is that most marketing had meaning for the people creating it, but generally much less meaning for people receiving it.

Lurking beneath the surface is a concept is called “centricity.” Too often, marketing is institutional-centric (what we want to say) and not so much customer-centric (what the customer wants to hear).

Marketing that is not audience-centric he explains, is in large measure why most marketing fails.

Creating marketing with meaning that demands a customer centeredness is counterintuitive. As a guide, Gilbreath offers us a Maslow-like pyramid (see below). At the very least, your marketing must offer solutions. Once you have gained proficiency at the solutions level, you must then seek to create marketing that allows your audiences to connect not only with you, but with others. Finally, your marketing must help people achieve some improvement goal or objective.

I think most of us are capable of creating marketing that offers solutions (10 ways to help you get into college).

Marketing that offers connection (join a social network of like-minded prospects) is also relatively easy.

The challenge, I suspect, will be marketing that helps prospective students, donors, and others achieve a level of improvement. Interestingly, this is a promise that most colleges make…and keep. So imbedded within this top level of marketing is another conundrum: how do we differentiate our product from the product offered by our competitors?

Gilbreath notes that this level of marketing might require us to give away some of the products, services, and experiences that we once tried to sell. This is what MIT does. A significant portion of MIT’s courses are available online at no charge. Making these materials available clearly helps students and others improve themselves, their families, and perhaps the world.

Gilbreath has raised the bar and I suspect that schools that become comfortable with, and proficient in, developing marketing with meaning will garner a significant and enduring edge over their more faint-hearted competitors.