Coming From Under The Shelter

By Brent Eastman
Alchemy

The stretch of 2008 through 2010 was a rough time on many people personally, and also on companies, both large and small. It seemed as though the sky was falling (and in some ways it was) and many people responded drastically to avoid damage. They ran into a proverbial bomb shelter, closed the lid, and locked themselves in tight, waiting for the air to clear.

Now, in 2014, the rays of light have started to come through (and stay). The toxic levels in the air are acceptable to breathe again, the dust has settled. So many companies are opening that hatch, crawling back into the light. But, much like the scene in those post-apocalyptic sci-fi movies, the landscape has completely changed since 2008, and the whole world looks different. Media has changed, social media has matured, and consumption has become drastically more democratized, throwing a number of companies off kilter. Many want to crawl back into the shelter and wait it out, but it’s no longer a smart option.

The Brave New World
When the fallout started, they started cutting. Laying off staff, reducing or canceling marketing initiatives, pulling back technology investment, staying cautious in a safe way in a typically sheltered area of their market.

Now the clouds have cleared, it’s a brave new world. Markets have changed, consumers have changed, technology has changed, and it has brought with it paralyzing confusion for those companies looking to re-enter the marketing fray. No longer are typical publicity initiatives gaining attention, no longer is that direct mail piece even worth it. Social media has changed drastically from “should be there” to “how integrated should we be (and on what channels)?” Mobile technology in some ways has become a disruptive technology advance for the marketer. People interact very differently with your digital presence than ever before, and just having a website up and running is no long good enough (and in some markets, applications are booming). Modern advertising is no longer simply migrating the same old traditional ad plan to a new medium or digital platform. Ads have gone native (and if you don’t know what “native advertising,” you’d better look it up).

So many companies have had similar reactions to this new landscape. Fear and paralysis. Not moving for not understanding where or how (or why) they should be messaging and engaging with these new customers.

One Step At A Time
So how should a company move forward? Take the time to understand what is different since coming out of the hatch. Relearn about your market and target clients. Audit your current message, delivery message and technology and make sure it still fits the needs of your clients (and SEO, and mobile, and content, etc). Put a plan together to start taking a step at a time to realign your message, your target and your delivery. Change will be needed. Understand that before you start anything and it may make your leadership team uncomfortable, yet it still needs to take place.

Unfortunately, the companies that are not understanding the world they sit in, still doing things like they did seven or eight years ago are just getting farther behind by the minute (and dollar spent).

Generally these changes happen on a regular basis in marketing, but it feels gradual (since companies adapt on a regular basis as things arise). It’s different when you have been in a holding pattern for half a decade and the world moved on without you. A major step is needed to get back in alignment, as painful and scary as that may feel.

Brent Eastman serves as Chief Brand Alchemist with Alchemy, a Troy, Mich.-based brand strategy and market engagement agency.