Marketing: Seducing the Prima Donna
Today I was at the Online Dialogue and Marketing Forum ODMF in Zurich Oerlikon. About 200 marketeers – representatives of enterprises and marketing agencies – in black suits and with sober faces had assembles in a conference centre to hear about innovations and methods of web-related marketing – search engines, website-optimizing, e-mail trade… An aura of smartness surrounded most of them, you could nearly grasp the ambience of intelligence focused on “seducing the prima donna”, the consumer, as one of the presenters called it. One of the first speakers introduced the distinction between the “digital immigrants”, those born before 1980, who had grown up in a world without internet and electronic media, and the “digital natives”, the afterbornes, who take the new media as a natural part of their lives. I belong to the immigrants, though I feel quite well in the new world…
It was interesting to observe these condensed thought energies of marketing specialists, ready to sell their services to whatever has to be marketed. The online market has other rules and mechanics than the traditional media market, and the behaviour of the people, too, has changed with the online world. Customers have become more independent, volatile, deciding themselves about where to stay and where to click. An enormous creativity from the side of the specialised agencies has brought about fascinating approaches to capture the attention, and award-winning examples were presented.
The energy of marketing can be directed into all kinds of directions, but normally its master is money, not man. When the energy is steered towards life-supporting products and attitudes, this will surely have a great impact on mass consciousness. It is a matter of good will to use the instruments for the general well-being and not for manipulation, may it go to realise goals of good will.
You might be interested to read the blogposts on Vampires of Attention, or on Marketing and Commitment.
Direct marketing on the market
