Monday, January 21, 2008

Roy Williams and 2008

A week after our stock market took a hit, international markets followed suit. Not looking bright.

Michele Miller of WonderBranding pointed out this article (prediction really) by Roy Williams, the Wizard of Ads: 2008: Year of Transition

"Roy offers a few guidelines for the next cycle of business that show you not only how to survive the rocky road ahead, but tell you exactly what you need to do in order to grow."

The Wizard points out that Marketing and the Market is changing. Rapidly. (Something Seth Godin has been yodeling about as well). His main points are here, but read the whole article.

You can see this happening with telcos and online shopping and Insurance:

"Your customer is saying, “Quality and price and quick, please. I’ve got things to do. Thanks.” Service and selection still matter, but not nearly so much as they once did. Inefficient organizations built on high-touch “relationship” selling will decline."

Managed Services is about Efficiency. Leverage strengths and strategic partnerships to develop a streamlined and expeditious offering to businesses that want to buy time and peace of mind. I still think there is a market for High Touch, but as money gets scarce, that space will shrink also. Which brings us to this point:

"Access to information is going up and Access to money is going down."

" 'Winning' has become less important than 'belonging'." This explains the rise of social networking.

"Word-of-Mouth is the new Mass Media." As communications flatten out - text, SMS, email, IM, chat, blogs, social networks, forums, and search engines - it will be harder to control what is being said about you - and it will happen fast. If you are not marketing your business, if you are not sending out a clear message, someone else will (and you may not like it).

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