As the World Changes, So Should Your Marketing Strategy.

This past Thursday started like any other. I rolled out of bed, took a quick shower (to conserve water), ate some granola while I listened to the calming sounds of my favorite Phish album, put on my 100% sweatshop-free jeans, shoes, and shirt, and drove my car to work while keeping the rpms under 1500 to conserve fuel. When I arrived, I was met by an angry fellow employee. His skin was much greener than usual and he was much bigger. While I was walking to my desk, he picked me up and threw me a hundred feet into a pile of well placed empty cardboard boxes, all while yelling about how angry he was

I later read his Blog Post explaining that he became angry after reading a “going green” article on MSN.com about Halloween candy. I could see how this angered him – I wouldn’t want my Halloween candy to be made of bark or tofu either. But I did see the value in marketing such items with the current state of the world. While our culture is in a struggle to live better, companies are jumping on the bandwagon in an effort to capitalize on the growing number of people trying to eat, live, and travel better to reduce their impact on the world and its resources.

While I see how this could cause a culture shock for many people, it is quite reminiscent of instances in history where changing conditions in the world, and the evolution of technology rising to meet these changes, have been met with resistance. When the introduction of replaceable parts brought upon the industrial revolution, many skilled workers, such as gunsmiths, furniture makers, clothing makers, etc, were angered by the prospect of unskilled labors taking away their livelihoods. While this cultural change did change the world for the better, it was ushered in alongside people protesting the building of factories. If our ancestors decided that the use of such technology wasn’t the optimal solution to meet demands of our changing world wasn’t beneficial to society, we wouldn’t be living in the same world we do today. If we continued to depend on traditional means to produce products, we wouldn’t be able to push the limits of what we can create. This example could also be applied to an unsuccessful marketing strategy. If you’re not making the conversions you think you could be – revolutionize you strategy!

My point is – our world is changing. Apart from the current state of the world forcing us to change the way we live, we are constantly trying to optimize our products and habits to fit current trends in our economy, technological state, and ideology. While we could look at these changes as an attack on our culture, most of the time it’s the opposite.

To better illustrate this, we can apply this situation to a marketing strategy for, let’s say, cell phones. When cell phones first appeared, they were quite visible – because they were huge! (see Michael Douglas in Wall Street) Over time, technology was able to increase the power of the modern cell phone while also making it a fraction of the size of the original. Now, if we took a stance that some things in the world should remain as they’ve always been, the cell phone would probably not be as popular today because of its bulk.

Granted, sometimes we take the idea of optimization too far, and this is where I could agree with my colleague’s argument. If your on the ground floor, or close to it, your product may not have the break-out appeal needed to draw in conversions off the bat. In SEO, slow and steady wins the race, and this could be applied to how you should market such products.

I will close this post knowing that I have taught this lesson without the aches and pains I suffered to learn it. I know that my fellow employee is a good guy, just as long as you don’t send links to fuel efficient Bavarian Motor Works Cars or he will get mad. Hopefully I can escape before he reads this.