The Renaissance Society: How the Shift from Dream Society to the Age of Individual Control will Change the Way You Do Business by Rolf Jensen & Mika Aaltonen

Author:Rolf Jensen & Mika Aaltonen [Jensen, Rolf]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: McGraw-Hill
Published: 2013-05-02T14:00:00+00:00

IF THE QUESTION IS MARKETING, THE ANSWER IS FAN MANAGEMENT

In marketing, new ways of doing things come about gradually, as they should. Today is not like the popular TV series Mad Men, but you can easily recognize the way marketing people worked during the 1960s. There is no revolution waiting around the corner; there is time to adapt. Adapt to what? One change is the personalized ad—from the company to you and you only. The other one is the fan group, the ambassadors, just as in sports.

The direct message to you only is something that some companies are already doing. Amazon is one example. Just like the good salesclerk who knows her customer, Amazon finds out what you have been buying and suggests other books on the same subject. Is this an invasion of privacy? Well, you allow the company to invade and make sure that the offers you receive are relevant ones. Is this the end of mass advertising? Not for the next 10 years, but in the long term.

Fan groups thrive beautifully in sports, and they have been popular for a long time. Now the fan group concept has been introduced to the marketplace thanks to social media. There is one difference, however. The sports fan will support his team irrespective of its results or its quality. The best team will be on the top, but the losing teams have fans, too, fans that stay loyal even when the team keeps losing (OK, there is a limit). As fans, we are not looking for the best product available; we choose with the heart, and we pay to watch our team lose. In the commercial marketplace, however, you buy the best product, not the inferior one; you are not loyal. Perhaps you are when it is about Pepsi versus Coke or about diapers, but those are exceptions. Suppose this product-blind loyalty to sports teams could be moved to your company? Suppose you had a club of loyal fans, customers who were willing to buy the product irrespective of its quality? It would be a nice situation.

The “service” (the sports game) is human; you can identify with the players and you are part of a tribe (“You’ll never walk alone,” as the song used by the famous Liverpool Football Club says). It is competitive; your team may lose today, but perhaps it will win next time. Your commercial product is a product; it has no feelings. Perhaps it is a branded product, but its appeal to your heart is weak. Stick to the rules in the marketplace; make sure that yours is the best product, that it has the best quality and the best price. OK, a few companies do have fan clubs (Apple and Virgin Group, for example), but that’s because they have CEOs with charisma, and you can’t learn charisma. They are the exception to the rule, and they may lose their fan clubs with a new leadership. What you can do is buy into the exciting story,

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