The End Of Marketing
Through Brent Filson
Working with leading businesses across all major industries for 20 years, I've found that few of them ever come close to attaining their potential outcomes.
Their leaders "don't know that they don't know," which is a major factor.
They are unaware that marketing as we formerly knew it is no longer practised. It must be replaced with a growth-dynamic that works better. This dynamic is influenced by human emotions and the actions that those emotions cause to occur.
There is no doubt that emotion is a key factor in economic success. It goes without saying that those working in business need to be skilled and educated about products, processes, and clients. However, only possessing rational information will not yield significant improvements in outcomes. Additionally, we require emotional intelligence.
We define ourselves in terms of our emotions, which is a fundamental truth of human motivation. Descartes didn't quite get it right: the correct statement is actually "I feel therefore I am," not "I think therefore I am."
However, the majority of marketing plans and initiatives overlook the emotional in favour of the rational, such as market share, target identification and validation, and consumer needs analysis. Such tactics squander excellent prospects by doing so.
The "end of marketing" needs to be acknowledged if outcomes are to make the quantum jumps that most organisations are capable of.
When businesses were like big ships, with captains commanding the mates and the mates commanding the sailors, conventional marketing worked well for enterprises in reasonably stable economies. But nowadays, companies compete in white-water canoe competitions.
Exclusively rational marketing struggles to compete in marketplaces that are changing quickly.
What will take over for marketing? Let's first examine what marketing is all about in order to respond to it. Growth of the organisation is the only issue. Through planning and taking action, this progress occurs.
Today's marketing initiatives have nothing to do with action and are only tangentially related to strategy. As a result, businesses struggle along and don't operate at full capacity.
Strategy: Either we expand our businesses or we perish. Therefore, any business should have a growth strategy.
We might create a growth plan. On paper, it might appear compelling. Security analysts might be interested in it. It might make a yearly report more cheery. However, it is only a recitation of dry postulates unless employees and customers alike passionately believe it, wake up in the morning driven by it, spend each day thrilling others about it, regard it as a major stimulant of their life, and zealously actualize it in their professional activities. Only a portion of its potential is realised.
The end of marketing marks the start of success, which is currently only a distant possibility.