Marketing Trend 2014 (& way beyond): Back 2 Basics.

It’s that time of the year again. End of year is always a good time to look back. But more importantly, it’s a moment to look ahead. That’s what most of the trend reports do. They predict what’s going to “trend” in the upcoming year. And that’s exactly my biggest issue with trend reports.

Trends are not limited to a small time span of one year. So basically, all trend reports are talking about what’s going to “hype” in the upcoming year. That’s a shame. Because a hype is not structural. A hype is not significant. A hype can project a wrong image. It can be torn apart from the deeper parameters that are the rationale behind a trend. And yeah, marketers just love jumping onto hypes – for better or for worse.

Back to Basics Marketing: 2014 – 2020

I’m not willing to look cocky here but since a couple of years now, one can notice marketers who drastically alter the way they think, see and do marketing. What’s more important, they’re being successful while doing so. It’s my personal believe – and hope, if I may be that naïve – that as from 2014 this way of thinking, seeing and executing marketing will become dominant.

Back to Basics Marketing has an in-depth rooted hate towards the artificial distinction of Digital Marketing vs Analog Marketing. It doesn’t really matter what media holds the content. The medium is not the message. Marshall McLuhan was wrong. Oh wait, he was right when he coincided the phrase. Today’s media evolutions prove that he’s wrong.

Back 2 Basics Marketing

In practice, back to basics comes down to the fact that “content marketing” is “media agnostic” – it can be online, social, print or face-2-face. The real question is who your target community is and what’s the best way to reach out to them. There’s e.g. less clutter in print marketing today. It means an opportunity for your business to get noticed. Is going back to “older, traditional” marketing matter the true meaning of “back 2 basics marketing”? No it’s not.

Back 2 Basics Marketing is not so much about going back to adult media

Back 2 Basics Marketing goes way back in time. Back 2 Basics Marketing deploys the tactics that were valid in the age of the cavemen. Those are still very powerful today because we all still have cavemen brains.

Throughout mankind’s evolution and consequently the evolution of communication media, marketing altered those tactics in favor of quick wins though. But as evolution continues, those quick wins disappear. The very essence becomes more important.

Back 2 Basics Marketing

The essence of Back 2 Basics Marketing

To describe characteristics of Back 2 Basics Marketing, one can look at how “Marketing” worked in the age of the cavemen. Let’s dig a little deeper into that.

Cavemen initially had no media except for their own voice. Speech was important. It was the manner to transmit information from one to another. This not rarely occurred in “community gathering” fashion, to know, gathered around a fire.

It was the perfect moment to inform people about specific skills, knowledge and expertise another community-member possessed. The way information was transmitted was mainly through telling stories. Stories are easier to remember, pass through, etc. than e.g. bulleted lists.

Furthermore, discussing one’s “business” ( = something he could provide to the community) in a public forum (the fire) resulted in a strong focus on delivering quality and servicing customers. Successful cavemen entrepreneurs made sure their quality & service was endorsed over and over again by customers around the fireplace. Today we call that customer advocacy & ambassadorship.

Finally, because of the above context, there was no single cavemen offering “crap” to the market. Crap couldn’t survive very long. All products and services had value that exceeded the pure financial one. Crappy products, services (and hence brands and enterprises) were put to flames during the community gathering.