A Contrarian Views Marketing Planning for 2008

I took the road less traveled, and that has made all the difference.
--Robert Frost

Heads up for a contrarian blog post that offers 3 Reasons You Shouldn’t Use Social Media Marketing. Shama Hyder, After the Launch Marketing Expert for professional service businesses discusses common considerations that are basic and yet compelling, noting the following:

• Don’t market without a plan or you’ll waste time wandering online
• Don’t market if you’re not interested; it will show
• Don’t market if you’re only doing it because it’s trendy; long term commitment is required.

Those reasons might be applied to any marketing effort. Shama walks the social media marketing talk; her personal strategy includes one Facebook profile makeover per week.

In a more traditional medium, the Wall Street Journal this weekend took another contrarian view with a look at Market IQ, offering signs of a low market IQ as well as a method for raising that foundation. The article emphasized that consumer shopping behavior is becoming increasingly complex. Examples from the food marketing business supported the illustration. The same customer who shops at Costco, for example, might also shop at Trader Joes and Whole Foods as well as another basic grocery store.

If your company doesn’t track the right kind of data across a variety of segments, then you might be at risk to act on incorrect market information. Three characteristics indicate a low Market IQ:

• A focus largely on current customers
• A tendency to base proprietary strategies on what is publicly known
• A reliance on qualitative research
• A pattern of taking a piecemeal approach

Once again the problem list might be applied to any marketing effort. Professional service businesses have similar challenges to product based ones when it comes to marketing. While I subscribe to the theory that any research is better than none, that is not true in this instance. The contrarian view forces one to reconsider.

Think about what you may have overlooked in your marketing plans for 2008.