The principle of Survival of the Fittest applies to the business world just as it does in nature. Those businesses that are able to adapt to make the best of the circumstances are the ones that prosper. The rest slowly die out, or maybe just manage to scrape a meagre existence on the sidelines.
As business environments and economic conditions change, companies come and go, like new species replacing those that become extinct. That is part and parcel of everyday business life. But once in a while, a cataclysmic change comes along, like a flood that threatens to wipe out all those who are not able to quickly learn to swim.
Such a change is happening right now before our very eyes, even though some companies still refuse to acknowledge the warning signs. The fact is that as more and more people use the Internet to buy or research products and services, savvy businesses are harnessing the Social Media phenomenon to market more effectively to a new and widespread audience. Internet marketing is no longer about putting up a website as a flashy online brochure. An era of two-way online communication is dawning and the online marketing landscape is changing rapidly. The tide is rising fast around those who are not making an effort to keep up!
Take a look at the graph below, taken from a very informative article called Digital Darwinism, by Christopher Vollmer. Marketers are now increasingly favouring two-way media that allow communication with potential customers, and digital media tops the list with an astounding 88% of them are planning to increase their spending in this area.
Almost 90% of marketers recognise the need to shift their focus towards a new marketing model that involves digital media. However, this is not just about a change in media purchase. You see, digital media marketing does not mean simply moving the old style of marketing to a digital online platform. The key words here are two-way marketing – listening to what people out there have to say and learning from the information gathered in this way. In other words, your company has to find out what people want and where and when they want it, and then take action to provide just that.
In the article, Mike Mendenhall, Hewlett Packard’s chief marketing officer is quoted as saying,
“Brands aren’t defined by campaigns any more, but by the consumer ecosystems we nurture to support them.”
This is the second aspect of the online digital revolution – using social networks and the other tools at your disposal to build your own online community of followers, or tribe, as Seth Godin calls it. The members of your tribe are the people who use your product or service, and many of them will turn into fans who are willing to help you spread the word to their friends and colleagues, both online and off.
These changes in the marketing landscape will give smart businesses a better edge over their competitors. Hopefully, you can count yourself among the 90% of who are being proactive about these changes and are already making an increased use of digital media for your business marketing. So, where does the problem lie?
As Christopher Vollmer says,
Most players, however, are still struggling to harness the power of digital media and build new capabilities. A major education gap, especially with marketers, still needs to be bridged. Thirteen years into the online era, only about one quarter of marketers regard themselves as digitally savvy, and half claim they lack the support at senior levels to substantially increase the marketing dollars allocated to digital media.
Even assuming you are investing in digital marketing, do you really know how to go about it? Do you know how to adapt and make the best use of the new opportunities that you have? Does your traditional marketing agency know? These are the questions you should be asking, because the answers to these questions will impinge on the most important question of all:
Will your business survive the age of Digital Darwinism?
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Excellent article. A must for all business minded people.
between 2000 and 2009 the growth of the internet users around the world was about 360%, it would be foolish for a bussiness not to adapt this new way of communication, and the trends in the displayed graph support that
I agree Sydney, but so many business’s are clueless to this Digital Revolution that is going on.
yes. it’s ironic that many businesses are clueless to digital revolution. where are the funds for research and development! a good company should be flexible and adapt the methods that can better bring them to their targeted customers. if it’s through internet marketing, then let’s go online! http://johnranquist.net