In a connected world marketers need … nectar
We occasionally (and happily) hear exponents of social media remind us that marketing cannot actually make up for poor products and services – (for any length of time of course), customers eventually and inevitably wake up to shonkey products. In the past, the lag between marketing claim and customers voting in mass with their wallet was often long enough for snake oil salesmen to make a good living – as long as they kept moving, negative communication was inefficient and they kept finding new customers.
They don’t make markets like that anymore.
Two relevant thoughts to share with you from a Don Peppers’ presentation last week.
Flower attracting customers
In a competitive ecosystem, flowers compete to attract the attention of bees and other insects, for pollination.
Bright colours, attractive perfumes, visually attracting structures are all part of the flower’s marketing campaigns to attract bees to their product.
Bees are attracted by the creative efforts and visit to determine the value of the flower’s offering to them – the nectar. As a by-product the flower gets the chance to continue in the business of survival.
If the bee is impressed with the nectar she will fly back to the hive and excitedly dance to tell the other worker-bees that the flower is great and where to find it. Word of Dance spreads quickly and the good value flower can expect lots of new customers and repeat visits.
If the bee does not think the nectar is any good, she does no dance for the hive, even though she was attracted by the flower’s advertising. No word of dance, no hive endorsed business volume.
Moral: in a market where customers do not talk to each other, advertising is all you need to compete. Even flowers with no nectar can attract some bees.
If customers do talk to each other, advertising is not enough, you also need good value nectar. If you have it, you get the bees dancing.
Customer sampling a flower's products and services
Does anyone doubt that customers talking to each other is now a marketing principle? Look at this Time article on the movie Bruno and start adding bee dances to your marketing plans.
Bright foliage, pity the bees did not like the nectar
“In the old days — like, until yesterday — movie studios judged the success of their big pictures by how much they grossed on the opening weekend. But in the age of Twitter, electronic word-of-mouth is immediate, as early moviegoers tweet their opinions on a film to millions of “followers.” Instant-messaging can make or break a film within 24 hours. Friday is the new weekend… Friday figures supported optimism: Brüno amassed a sensational $14.4 million. But the movie plummeted nearly 40% its second day, to $8.8 million…Brüno’s box-office decline from Friday to Saturday indicates that the film’s brand of outrage was not the sort to please most moviegoers — and that their tut-tutting got around fast. Brüno could be the first movie defeated by the Twitter effect.”
Seems most of the ‘bees’ bought tickets to other flowers they were told about by their friends the birds?
