The following is a guest blog post by Emy Burback, Marketing Manager at Vanir Construction Management, Inc. in Mesa, Arizona.
Sounds like a case study you might discuss in a 2010 undergraduate psychology class, doesn’t it? In a way, it is. We are bombarded with various new terms: social media, sustainability, but what does this mean for marketers in the A/E/C Industry and how does this affect what we do?
As a marketing professional, I feel as if my brain is on a strategic steroid lately. I’m constantly challenging myself: How can we differentiate ourselves? How can we sustain growth in this economy? What should we be doing differently to become more valuable to our customers and to our community? In fact, I’ve experienced a strong learning curve in the changing marketing trends, particularly social media.
First of all, for other marketers in the room, let me say that: everything you and I know about marketing is still true. (Whew! That’s a relief!) The marketing mix is simply taking on a different life-form. While products/services might remain the same, the promotion and packaging resemble more like what we once thought we’d only see on The Jetsons. (Please tell me you’ve seen “The Jetsons.”) How do we effectively incorporate new trends into our marketing strategies?
Over the past few months, I have learned three significant realizations that have helped me re-energize and redirect my strategic brainwaves. Here are the snapshots I’d like to share with you.
1. The Web is Ever-Changing
Lucid Agency, at the May SMPS “Wild, Wild Web” program, identified the evolution of on-line marketing. The on-line business model is no longer a two way street from business to consumer. The internet isn’t just used for research and shopping. It is has changed into a communication platform to seek out personalized interaction with businesses and other consumers. Advances on the World Wide Web, especially through Social Media channels are shifting the way we engage in conversation, make decisions, and influence buying behavior. The circle of influence is not just friends and family. It’s the entire social network on and offline. Once we start seeing the web for what it truly is, we can start taking advantage of the opportunities within to implement our strategic marketing and business goals. I invite you to check-out some useful resources on Lucid Agency’s website.
2. How Social are you?
“Achieving Social Media Readiness,” a free webcast with the American Marketing Association, described the business approach to social media. If you visit this webcast, you’ll find the presenters gave a roadmap for businesses to follow in achieving social media strongholds. A few of the key benefits that Social Media brings to businesses are:
- Building an avenue to strengthen brand, reputation and trust;
- Allowing any form of communication: one-on-one or group interaction;
- Engaging in conversations and developing relationships with consumers;
- Building loyal interaction;
- Influencing the masses.
Social media is real-time, making it a highly effective market research tool. “Consumers trust other consumers.” Using it as a listening platform, you can learn: What are others saying about you? What do they think of your competition? What aren’t they saying about either of you? Where are the consumers leading the market? This will guide you to making improvements within your business, incorporate strategic promotions and value-added services.
How we use social media as consumers should really guide us on how to use it as businesses. As the business grows and improves, the business becomes more client-driven and feed-back based. Essentially, the results are the same as traditional marketing, but achieved differently. Social media channels don’t take the place of traditional marketing methods: just augment it. How do we know what social channels to use? Know your market. Ask your customer what they use.
3. Where does sustainability fit in?
Last week, Lisa Barnard from Brain-Lab presented “XTreme Green Marketing” to SMPS and addressed how marketers can apply sustainability to what they do. Similar to Social Media, it requires a corporate commitment to be successful. Marketers can do their best to use environmentally friendly products, but it ultimately needs to be a commitment of the organization. What is driven into the corporate cultural internally will naturally become a strategic decision-basis for external branding and marketing activities. Lisa pointed out that corporate social responsibility relates to marketing in “unprecedented levels of:
– Transparency
– Authenticity
– Accountability
– Stakeholder engagement
- Engagement is not a fad; it’s the way today’s consumers do business”
In conclusion, what’s the relationship between social media and sustainability when is comes to marketing strategies?
- Starts from the inside of the organization and works its way out. The ROI is realized when they are part of the strategic direction.
- Reaches the masses when effectively incorporated into strategic decisions.
- People-focused and relationship-based.
- Creates transparency in our brands.
- Creates deeper understanding of our customers and what is important to them.
- Leads to stronger relationships and brand loyalty.
- Social Media reflects characteristics of sustainable marketing;
- Social media can be used to communicate our organizations’ social commitments.
As we start to incorporate these concepts into our way of thinking, we’ll be able to create some unique, out-of-the-box marketing strategies that will boost our business and the impact we have in our community. It’s my hope that, by sharing what I’ve learned, this will be a continued discussion on how marketing professionals in the A/E/C industry can increase the value of our services through these new marketing channels. For your entertainment, here are a couple of interesting You Tube videos:
