The Fundamental Things Still Apply

A lot about a lot has changed over the past seven months.

It seems that time has accelerated and slowed-down simultaneously. Covid-19 and technology have pushed us places we weren’t planning to go - at least not in 2020. For marketers, communicators, and sales teams, the need to keep clients and customers engaged, and buying is paramount. Technology is seen as the means to keep customer churn at bay. But, technology is only a tool - it’s not why people buy.

Time to go back to basics. We’re enamored by what technology offers, and in that process, we’ve lost the marketing and communications fundamentals that drive business growth.

More importantly, the people we wish to engage are numbed by the pace of change. Technology has altered how we market, not who we are as humans.

A recent article in AW360, “The World May Be Changing But Marketing Fundamentals Have Not,” offers a few thoughts into why the fundamentals matter more now than ever..

Human nature is hardwired into us from millennia of evolution. As Bill Bernbach said many years ago: “It is fashionable to talk about the changing person. A communicator must be concerned with the unchanging person – what drives them, what instincts dominate their every action.” How we meet these motivations, in terms of tangible product development or the intangible brand promise and messaging, may differ over time but ultimately, they still aim to satisfy the same wants, needs and desires.

What we have done is to create a world of tactical marketing without the strategic thinking necessary to drive brands and companies toward sustainable business growth. The AW 360 article expounds further.

By ignoring these unchanging fundamentals and focusing instead on each new tool and platform we risk what Mark Ritson called the tactification of marketing: “where marketing seems to be devolving into a base tactical pursuit devoid of strategic thinking.” It makes us less concerned with long-term strategies on how to better meet the needs of our audiences and more concerned with shiny short-term tactics around how we can get them to respond to us.

So, what’s the opportunity? Here are three brainsights to ponder.

• It’s not one or the other - it’s both. New world and old world. Back to basics and back to the future. Strategy and technology.

• Balance the moment with the long-view for marketing sustainability. We like our shiny toys - technology - because they immediately engage us. And, we’re human - five minutes later we’re bored.

• Apply the fundamentals.

  • Do the research and the thinking to find the right strategy.

  • Understand your target audience, what do they want, what do they need to hear to be moved.

  • Find the best way to stand out from the crowd.

  • Put a stake in the ground that belongs only to your brand.

  • Commit to the long-view and leverage the shiny toys to get you there.