We always have the age-old problem of replacing the bottle of the water dispenser in the office. As soon as it is empty one of us needs to make an effort by carrying a new water bottle to replace the old one.
One particular morning it was the turn of a fairly fit colleague… I’d like to add that being in good shape is increasingly rare here, since we are based in Emilia Romagna and love our food ?
While this colleague was carrying out the above-mentioned operation, a crowd of five or six people gathered around him to watch what he was doing (people in this area do these type of things ?).
When I walked into the kitchen and saw the scene I remember saying: “It’s like that famous advert where the delivery man walks into an office with a case of Coca-Cola bottles on his shoulder! “ Everyone around me smiled smugly, except for one man who remained unmoved.
I got back to my office and after a few seconds I clearly hear Etta James’ song ‘I just want to make love to you’, promptly muted, and everything became clearer to me.
This Coca-Cola advert is from 1997, the same year the guy who didn’t laugh at my quote was born. YouTube has bridged the generation gap.
In the 1990s, the soda giant’s advert was all about beautiful bodies and blues. However, marketing was already changing. Two years after the Cluetrain manifesto, the foundations for a breakthrough were already in place. Thanks to the enlightened minds of Rick Levine, Christopher Locke, Doc Searls and David Weinberger, we finally understood the following:
“Markets are like conversations” and whoever dominates conversations dominates markets.
The revolution has already begun and the impact of the internet on markets is analysed within the 95 theses contained in the Cluetrain Manifesto:
“A vigorous conversation has started worldwide. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways of sharing relevant knowledge at an incredible speed. As a consequence, markets are becoming smarter and faster than most companies”.
Yes, markets – like consumers – have become smarter and faster than most companies. Nowadays, customers know everything about products. In fact, before they buy anything, they make researches and find a mine of information online. In the past the role of the seller was pivotal, but now it is almost superfluous.
These days, consumers know who you are, what you do and what you sell. They are knowledgeable because the internet has made all the information they need easily available to them. So they cannot be fooled as they already know everything.
Have you ever tried Googling the words ‘market leader’ and seeing how many results come up? Well, do it and you’ll be amazed. It’s a world led by number ones, there are no seconds, no thirds, no fourths and so on…
Do you know how true leaders define themselves?
Ikea states its vision and does not use the word leader.
Apple‘s headline about the launch of the iPhone 12 only reads ‘Blast past fast’, making a simple and truthful statement.
?️ This is because communicating effectively means being yourself and honest with your audience.?️
The study regarding conversations, experimentation, and being able to wake up the consumers who are hypnotized by the so-called ‘market leaders’ is a wonderful thing and the real advantage of Marketing.
So what are the 3 disadvantages of marketing?
1) You need to know how to do it.
2) You need to know how to do it.
3) You need to know how to do it.
Incompetency is easily recognised.
So here we are:
“companies, managers, sales managers; listen to those who have studied marketing. Don’t improvise, question yourself and be curious”. Only then can you get results
It is only through actions that you can prove to be a real “Market leader”.
