RJM's
Insights

Last week we hung a new poster on our office wall. No matter how much I like it, this is relevant now only because of what it says: “We have a strategic plan. It’s called doing things.”

If marketing is nothing more than a gigantic chicken and egg problem, this quote from Herb Kelleher (former CEO of Southwest Airlines) solves the chicken side. Don’t stop. Just live. Go forward and adjust on the way.

Mary Meeker’s Internet Trends Report is out!

“Mary who?” you ask?

A partner at the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins, she has been covering the emerging technology markets since early in her career. Serving on the boards of companies such as Square and DocuSign, she releases a yearly report on trends on the Internet. And the report is no light reading – this year’s spans 294 slides and covers everything from monthly active users for social media to the U.S. GDP and unemployment rates.

Released on May 30, we understand if you haven’t spent the time to go through all 294 slides quite yet. So, we thought we’d take a moment to pull out the important points that we saw.

This is not a political discussion. We’re an advertising agency.

But with the amount of every company’s budget that has shifted to digital advertising in the last few years, it’s hard to ignore all of the issues going on in social media these days from a purely marketing standpoint. Because when it comes down to it, social media is us. It’s our customers. And that’s what we’re focused on. The customers.

While it may be easy to blow off all of these stories in the news today swirling around Facebook, Google and Amazon, we must pay attention. Too many companies have invested into building large marketing infrastructure around these platforms to pass these stories off as pure political fluff.

I don't like to turn lights on. Nothing against the power company, I like them just fine. But on the scale of needs and wants, light often falls closer to a want than a need. It's also, as I've been told, an unnatural habit.

When operating without light, you develop a sixth sense of where things are. Two steps, and a half step to the left prevents you from stubbing your toe on the end table. When you reach out and feel the tree on the way to the barn, be sure to stay close as there is a hole to your left. Walk through the doorway and four steps in is the light pull above your head.

Seems a little like being in business, doesn't it?

If the promise of technology has always been to make life easier, it has surely fulfilled its mission for the consumer, and left the small business owner and marketer behind to enjoy the aftermath. As the speed of both the progression and adaptation of technology continues to climb, consumers become more mobile, less attentive, and ultimately, less brand loyal.

And the business owner and marketing executive is left to try to adapt. Staying informed on all the options, and which ones make a difference, can sometimes feel like a new position in itself. 

It’s no secret that your customers’ habits have changed due to the convenience that technology now provides. Where people bank has evolved from the branch to the website to a mobile application, but are you still providing them with the same opportunities and services online that they would receive in a physical branch? We have created a guide for you to assess your digital assets.

"Hello everybody!"
"I’ve got it right here!"
"This is what will make everything better! You will really like the latest thing we’ve come up with!"
"Hello? Where is everybody?"
"I’ve got the next great thing but no one is listening?!"

Too often we think of marketing as a once and done, unconnected activity. When our marketing choices were limited to direct mail, television, radio and print, this might have been the case. It was difficult to connect each media to the other through anything other than message and brand. Now the world has changed. Not only has technology allowed us to connect multiple media seamlessly, it also allows us to create messaging campaigns that combat our ever shortening attention spans.

Marketing is a dynamic industry that is constantly changing as time moves forward. We're past the point of being limited to newspaper, radio and television as the primary outlets and the audience is somewhat different than we might perceive as well.