As marketing professionals, it can often feel like every month there’s a new platform to consider and a new method of engaging with consumers offered by the rise of technology.
We’re often told that mobile methods have changed the practise of marketing and re-written the rules of communication. A moment of panic is common for any marketer who discovers a platform they’re unfamiliar with in discussion with colleagues, and the feeling of being left behind is as pervasive as it is uncomfortable.
But is the accepted wisdom that mobile is a game-changer really the case? Once the hype subsides on a new communication outlet, the rationale for how, and indeed if, a marketing team want to leverage it always comes back to the basic principles of marketing communication; how we deliver a brands’ message, content or promotion to their target audience in the most effective way, drawing on market knowledge, customer insight, brand values and value proposition.
Whilst mobile platforms and new technology methods may form part of the methodology for achieving this, the suggestion that old tried and tested media outlets immediately become redundant is somewhat misleading. Indeed in many cases, it’s more a question or re-interpretation than of total change, such as broadcast advertising switching from television to YouTube, or from a print advert in a newspaper appearing instead as a banner advert on the publication’s web pages.
For the media outlets, these changes could signify a vast change and might seriously impact the management and profitability of some of the more traditional channels, for marketing personnel the effect of the change is one of evolution, not revolution. Each of these new platforms requires specialist personnel with a degree of technical knowledge; however the core skill set and the principles of marketing communication do not greatly differ.
Each media channel has be carefully selected, managed and connected to broader campaign activity and the skill of devising and delivering this strategy is the fundamental function of the marketer, irrespective of the tools they use.
It’s certainly true that mobile technology gives us more choices of how we reach the consumer and greater possibilities for interaction with them, but the ways in which we do this and the messages we deliver remain the same. The biggest challenge is selecting the most relevant platforms and connecting the approach, and that’s where the skill of the marketer is paramount to success.
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