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Foghound's 2006 Marketing Predictions: 10 Trends That Are Heating Up
MARBLEHEAD, Mass. --(Business Wire)-- Dec. 28, 2005 -- Communications strategy firm Foghound today released its first annual "Hound Trends" for marketers, identifying ten marketing trends that are predicted to heat up in 2006:
-- New market concepts vs. new products. Buying music online is a big new market concept, which is why iPod and iMusic are so successful. The Segway scooter, on the other hand, was a big new product idea but not a very big market concept, which is why it has never lived up to the hype. Companies who get innovation will focus more on market concepts--which are difficult for the competition to quickly copy--and less on new products, which can be easily knocked off.
-- Consumer insights vs. market research. Conventional market research is too slow and superficial to keep up with fast-changing market trends and fickle consumers; what was hot six months ago is often in a deep freeze by the time the focus group results are in and the reports distributed. Continually gathering market insights will become more important than conventional qualitative research. In a recent speech at Wharton's Marketing Conference, Hershey CEO Richard Lenny urged companies to rely on insight-driven customer marketing to increase the odds of success.
-- Communities vs. Blogs. Blogs are difficult to keep up with and are still more of a one-way conversation; the blogger talks at the blog readers. As customers yearn for two-way conversations and an easier interface, they'll seek out communities of interest. Also, companies will find that creating communities for their customers is the best way to discover consumer insights - and might even lead to greater loyalty.
-- Point-of-view vs. messages. While messaging helps to set direction and focus on what you want to communicate, these written messages themselves have limited value unless they're translated into engaging point-of-views that are written to be said vs. to be read. Point-of-views gently smack people in the face with ideas, opinions and beliefs, eliciting the customer response, "That's interesting, tell me more." They jump start sales conversations, industry presentations, and media interviews. You'll see point-of-views included as part of the marketing tool kit.
-- Meaning making vs. promoting. Customers are tuning out advertising, promotions and spin. What they want is trusted help in making decisions. Companies that adopt more of a meaning making approach - helping customers make sense of so many competitive choices - will run marketing rings around their competition. Meaning making will become especially hot for companies selling expensive, high consideration purchases.
-- Teach me vs. tell me. Educational psychologists know that the keys to teaching students of any age are 1) make sure it's personally relevant, 2) put it in a larger context, and 3) give it some emotion. And one more: make it involving, a partnership more than a transaction. Teaching vs. telling implies a lasting valuable outcome, not just information. Marketers will increase trust and loyalty by taking a page from the teaching textbook.
-- Salons vs. conferences. People will be more attracted to small scale salon-style events where they can meet with other interesting people in an interesting setting, and enjoy a looser, more "open source" approach to the agenda. Salons provoke thinking; conferences just present information.
-- Podcasts vs. Webinars. Downloads of company speeches and presentations to a PC or iPod, so that users may listen at their convenience, will replace many set time and date Webinars. We're all too busy to rearrange our schedules to the time at which a company wants to host an online meeting. But we will tune in to valuable ideas when it fits into our schedule.
-- Behavioral targeting vs. 18-49. Behavioral targeting rather than demographic or even psychographic segmentation is the difference between being appreciated because you're relevant and being a clueless pest. Done right, behavioral targeting increases both profitability and loyalty. Heck, even the Federal Reserve Bank gets it - a new Fed research center is focused on "behavioral economics" to better understand how people really make their spending and saving decisions (hint: it's rarely rational); insights will feed into the Fed's policy work.
-- Voices of customers vs. voice of the company. "Are you talkin' to me? Marketers have adopted a "Voice of the Customer" attitude but it's often very linear and Six Sigma-formal. Really listening to what customers are saying and how they're saying it will heat up. We're talking about hearing what's on customers' minds, the language they use, what's important beyond how they feel about your product and service.
About Foghound
Foghound, a communications strategy firm, helps marketing and sales organizations create new ways to talk about their products in ways that get people to more quickly buy, believe and change. Find out more about Foghound and partners Lois Kelly and Janet Swaysland at www.foghound.com.
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