Evolution of Marketing

Take your favorite e-reader, for example

Smarts | January 2012

photo: Glenn Pebley

In today’s ever-connected world and with people becoming more proactive consumers, it is naive to think that marketing can exist in a segmented department of your business. Marketing now extends into every element of your business, enveloping how your company is seen by your clients and prospects. It is your office culture, your outfit at meetings, your handshake when you meet someone and messages on your invoices. Marketing has evolved way past tag lines and Twitter updates.

It is now essential to think of marketing as branding — and branding as marketing.

Al Ries, a writer for AdAge, predicts that in the near future companies will replace the term Chief Marketing Officer with CBO, Chief Branding Officer. He emphasizes that business should not solely worry about sales and profits, but also focus on building a successful and respected brand and the sales (and therefore profits) will come to you.

Ries cites a great example with the Amazon Kindle versus the Barnes & Noble Nook. Barnes & Noble actually released an e-reader in the late 1990s, but because it was too focused on profits, it pulled the entire concept after disappointing sales. The company did not give the device the chance to infiltrate the market or the consumers’ minds. Meanwhile, Amazon actually lost money over the company’s first nine years in operation. It has always stayed focused on branding and its position in the market. In 2007, the company launched the Kindle and it was an instant hit. Now, your business may not be in the position to lose money for almost a decade, but the message is still there — you must focus on your company’s branding over sales in order to be successful.

At Silver Square we embrace the notion that branding and marketing are synonymous. We want all of our clients to continue to grow by giving them new and different ways to be branded and recognized in their markets. To check out some of the unique branding ideas we have come up with, check out the Brenneco Fire Protection Sprinky Award or the Jackson Systems “Cash Cow” campaign. — Emily Bauer, Marketing Specialist