Drew Neisser, CEO of the interactive agency Renegade, has a useful post today on "marketing as service". The basic idea, a variant on my constant focus that marketing needs to provide legitimate value to all stakeholders, is when marketing "no longer talks at you but actually does something for you, then it becomes a service."
As an example, Drew cites Samsung placing mobile charging stations at airports to help travelers recharge on the road: "Samsung gets meaningful exposure, airports get happier travelers and consumers come to recognize Samsung as a helpful & reliable 'mobile' resource. The exchange of value is crystal clear."
He then goes on to critique a superficially similar effort from Kraft, which highlights heating up bus shelters and providing samples of Stove Top Stuffing to "warm up" cold commuters this month in Chicago. Sounds okay at first, but Drew's point is that Kraft is doing this in just 10 bus shelters in Chicago, while putting more energy into traditional bus stop shelter advertising all over that city and 49 other cities as well.
A more substantial commitment to marketing as service, he suggests, would be scrapping the advertising and providing the actual service more extensively in cold weather cities nationwide. "Commuters would be thanking Kraft by the bus load and telling all their friends how the kind folks from Glenview warmed them up on a frigid morning. Cities would be competing to get the Kraft bus shelter program as a way of encouraging and rewarding the use of public transportation."
Marketing as service is far from an alien concept in the B2B world. Business software companies provide free demos and trial versions; many companies have user groups and customer councils; and most provide thought leadership content in an effort to help business leaders make more informed decisions.
But how much of this activity is really just a come-on to paid versions or a thinly veiled sales pitch rather than authentic provision of value -- or, as in the Kraft example, just a token effort amid a much more extensive promotional campaign? To what extent are you really trying to serve?
(Thanks to Paul Dunay for linking Drew's post on Twitter. Follow Paul yourself for a steady stream of great links.)
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