Magnus Marketing Blog

I got to thinking more about the meeting with The JS Group. I asked my clients about the idea that a CIO will research and call people and the salesforce is a dead concept - the idea was met with laughter.

Interestingly The Star Ledger reported that a number of IT Managers and other professionals still preferred telephone contact at their desks as a means for communication over texting, email, and other forms of communication. Another article in today's Wall St. Journal discussed the collapse of the new tech bubble involving social media/networking and the fact that the losses won't be so great this time around due to the cheap nature of technology and lack of investment in most derivative works. Sure, Facebook, LinkedIN, and MySpace will survive, most others will not. Like the Internet - social media will just add more crap and information (now of a highly individualized and personalized (scary) nature).

I was thinking about that - now the "unwashed" masses have a forum to blog, podcast, and post - how will anyone tell credibility from anything? Now folks are beginning to drive the writing of TV shows. Why does a minority vocal group decide what I want? OK, Heroes does suck this season, but.... the information overload isn't going to be a couple of pages of boasting b.s. on a website, it will be "thought leadership" from self-proclaimed experts and others who speak on behalf of those who purportedly cannot. And, with the new Yahoo application - now I will also know where you are when you write your stuff. It is scary stuff really. Consumer totalinarianism.

Why do we continue to give our power as suppliers away? Why do we yield to the masses? It is marketing's fault for allowing so much information to be given away - and it was given away at a high price. It is not demand creation as it is demand entitlement - in that case - no salespeople are needed - because every Tom, Dick, and Harry will be bullying his way to get what he wants regardless of cost, service levels, or anything else. Why have we given our power away?

If companies were to fire every marketing person today, business would still survive - to rid business of sales - likely they would fold. Many companies that don't have marketing departments or do limited marketing manage to get clients. In fact, maybe what is needed is to do that and stop the bleeding of information and power to the consumer.

Actually, it would be nice if marketers would stop with the power struggle and start teaming with sales to a) focus on getting business which marketing has not proven to do well and b) empower them with the capability to get business which it seems they are losing the ability to do as well.

Marketing has failed in many ways if Sales are dead man walking and there is no one to blame but themselves.