What We Talk About When We Talk About MarTech

Here goes.

I don’t think the average marketer knows how to do their job.

Yup.

And with good reason. First, allow me to step back.

When I started my marketing career in 1997 as a brand manager, we had a handful of channels to reach consumers – media (TV, Print and Radio), and in-store (if you could ever get listed). You could use other tactics – public relations, celebrity endorsements, partner marketing, sponsorship, sampling and direct mail and even guerilla marketing. In some cases you could combine these tactics too.

It was easy to master this part of marketing as there was little change over 40-50 years. Longer in some cases.

Then this thing called the “internet” came along and we had the birth of “digital marketing”. Brands did not want to miss out so they created web-sites that did not do much – it was called “brochure-ware” and yes, I created a few in 1999-2000.

The internet was a mess. Brands had to worry about being discovered – first it was the AOL keyword then it was portals like Yahoo; along came Google and other search engines and the made internet more discoverable.

In 2006, the iPhone came along and other smartphones and the birth of apps, second screens. Now everyone needed an app and there was a huge race to build them – it was about getting “precious real-estate”on the phone. No one could have possibly known back then just how impactful both Apple and Google would have been on the marketing and advertising industries.

Along with the proliferation of screens, there was the growth of social media and the myriad of other digital products. Friendster, MySpace, ICQ, AOL Instant Messenger, MSN Messenger and more. Just as one platform became popular, a new one came along and unseeded it (Instagram, YouTube, Reddit and now TikTok).

Over time, as connectivity speeds got faster and processors improved, we started shopping for more and more online.

And then, to make matters more confusing, brands could sell directly to consumers.

Great! Who needs brick & mortar? Problem solved!

Nope.

Many brands were not selling more stuff to fund all these different channels.

And those who could afford to “find consumers where they are” started to invest in social media teams, “performance teams”, “growth teams”, and all the technologies that promised to enable them.

Some companies started to “build in-house” while others saw budgets spread thin to pay for all these new channels.

AdTech meant you could advertise to any consumer on any digital platform - HA!

MarTech meant that you could personalize your messages and reach consumers “with the right message at the right time” - HA HA!

All of these great products meant marketers could save money, drive better ROI which was how they could afford to fund all these software licenses, and hire all the people to do the work.

Except this did not happen across the board.

Why?

Well, let’s consider the following:

1. ‍Marketing is often funded by Sales and Profits: If you don’t sell more stuff, it’s hard to get budget increases. So for brands who started to invest in new and emerging channels, if they did not drive more sales, then really budgets were shifted. (Ask how many brands have increased print advertising budgets over the past 10 years?)‍
2. Most categories are not growing and stealing share is expensive: For brands in categories which are flat to barely growing, a lot advertising is really about stealing share. This type of marketing is expensive. ‍
3. Digital created more fragmentation: It’s great to watch TV shows and movies without ads. It’s great that folks can watch short videos. But to reach all these consumers has become more difficult – in some cases, brand shave to create their own content, or build teams to create a presence and more.

So what is a brand to do?

Some call it back to the basics. Some call it a focus on building authenticity, and trust. In reality, it's about getting close to the consumer. And in a world of digital touch-points, getting close to the consumer must work in both online and off-line environments.

So how do you do it?

You talk to them.

‍HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED:

1. A Mutual Exchange of Genuine Value – Keep the consumer front of mind, ALWAYS; you need to create experiences that benefit the consumer – save them time; offer something personalized and relevant; cater to their unique preferences - not their unique clicks. ‍
2. A Creative Platform - Well, a creative technology platform. One that enables you to create engaging consumer experiences that transcend just "creative" - experiences that collect declared first- and zero-party data from consumers – data about their intents, preferences, lifestyles; psychographic data that complements their about their demographic data. ‍
3. Data Ownership - This data MUST be owned by brands. Owned by YOU, THE MARKETER. This is critical to winning the privacy game and it will be your competitive edge for years to come. ‍
4. A System of Record – All this valuable data must flow into a key system of record (or a few) so that you can make it actionable throughout any customer's lifecycle.

If you work in marketing, you have likely invested in many digital platforms and technologies – so what you need now is a creative technology platform that agnostically weaves through of all of these investments and one that consumers (and your business) get value from.

 The promise of digital has largely gone unfulfilled. Until now.

 At Jebbit, we welcome having a fulfilling conversation with you - So that you can build a meaningful relationship with them.