What’s new in the market?

Irish marketeers have become accustomed to an accelerated pace of change in recent years. Simultaneous shifts and developments in technology, demography, and the economy among to name but a few areas, demand that new thinking and approaches be adopted in how we meet the challenges of post boom Ireland.

Some of the key new thinking and fringe areas that are shaping the Irish marketing landscape that we at The Marketing Society are particularly excited about in 2011 are:

New (Digital) Order

The increasing prevalence of digital platforms and mass adoption of social community spaces as central hubs of consumer activity and discourse is undeniable. This is a key boundary that has a lot of innovative and new thinking, but as yet is in a relative immature stage in terms of how marketeers have leveraged this new digital order. Although the technology platforms and consumer adoption of these platforms has moved at an impressive pace, this pace has arguably not been matched by the marketing community and it is now incumbent upon Irish marketeers to develop a new tool kit and mindset in how best to become integrated into the fibre of this more influential and yet dispersed digital platform.

Behavioural Economics Slow Movement

A relatively low profile discipline that has been growing in adoption in recent years and commanding increasing attention from the marketing fraternity; behavioural economics provides a real world view of how people make decisions in real circumstances. The psychological building blocks of choice architecture colliding with the fallacy that consumers make decisions based on wholly rationale dimensions is the key genesis of this discipline. This conflict is viewed through the lens of economic insight around choice and decision making, and results in an integration of both the hard (rational), and soft (sometimes illogical) components of decision making in a framework that more effectively allows marketeers to understand how consumers are really making decisions. Harnessing the insight from behavioural economics has the potential for marketeers to better understand and connect with Irish consumers, and evidence suggests that those at the forefront of the industry are actively working to integrate these insights to better consumer insight and impact.

The Brand is Dead, Long Live the Brand

Recent pressures requiring focus on, and in many cases downward adjustment in pricing has distorted the concept of value for many consumers. The value equation was traditionally built upon an understanding that value was a fair price for fair quality. With the focus on price becoming more pressing, many consumers are now viewing price as synonymous with value. The softer relationship touch points and communication around core and augmented benefits have traditionally been spear headed by the lightening rod of brands, which essentially focuses on the relationship between buyer and seller. Brands have been the poor relation to a price driven agenda around in recent years, and there is growing support to the view that reconnecting with customers through brands, and not solely relying on price, is essential for the delivery of value to both consumers and organisations. Price action, as we all know, can work as a short term tactical lever, but if used into the mid or even longer term becomes a blunt tool that will erode value without paying attention to the brand. Brands and relationships need to be pushed back into the value equation.

The Game of Life

Gamification, or the integration of play and fun more centrally into consumer touch points is becoming increasingly important. Proliferation of channels, and increase in availability of information from multiple touch points has inverted the relationship power base. The consumer now has unprecedented power to filter and tailor what information, messages and content is delivered to them. They pull in what they want, rather than have everything pushed at them and then try to prioritise which is worthy of attention. Consumers are showing signs of increasing levels of discernment in selecting what they allow to reach them. They are demanding more from content, be it a tailored message or offer, or something that is entertaining or humorous. This is the foundation context to the rise of gamification, where providing an innate point of fun, entertainment, engagement and even reward is important. Messages and content that have a gamified element have a far greater chance of been selected above more traditional and linear pushed messages and content. This is an area that is showing real signs of momentum among Irish marketeers and one that we at The Marketing Society will be watching closely.

This is a flavour of some of the issues that are exercising Irish marketeers.

Keep an eye here for many more issues at the fore of the industry which will be debated, deconstructed and deliberated on a regular basis. We hope that you will help us by joining in this debate – we’d love to hear from you.