do we even know the problem we are trying to solve?
In many respects certain principles of marketing remain the same as on day 1.
Finding which touch points have most influence in a buyer journey, and working out how you can interact with a buyer at those points.
The internet has been the big disruptor, throwing up a myriad of touchpoints that never existed in the pre-connected age, and also throwing up a whole conundrum around how to affect those touchpoints when many of them are outwith the control of a brand or advertiser.
Even now the vast majority of marketing spend goes towards generating awareness, getting into that initial consideration set and then tipping sales at the business end through promotions or point of sale activities.
This is in spite of the known fact that the majority of influence happens in other parts of a journey.
Those touch points directly influenced by independent reviews, word of mouth and ergo customer advocacy being cases in point.
These are the things people find as they poke about online doing research and evaluation.
The following questions are three that are worth asking yourself at the outset of any marketing program.
What should we be doing to better affect the WHOLE of a buyers decision journey?
Which touchpoints will be most influential in fixing the problem we want to solve?
Do we even know the problem(s) we are trying to solve?
With that in mind listen to Instagram's Kevin Systrom as he talks about how it's not generating solutions to problems which is the hard, but finding the right problem to solve in the first place. That's probably a big factor in how Instagram have won out in the vast sea of mobile photo applications.
'If you delight people, even just a little bit, with a simple solution, it turns out it goes very far'
Finders fee and thanks to Neil Perkin
