Why I love the evolution of marketing

When I graduated with a Communication Studies major from UCLA, people either went into film (it was LA, after all) or into advertising. I wasn’t into film, yet I found myself extremely resistant to advertising. At the time, the advertising industry was focused on selling and the communication was one-to-many and one-way. It just didn’t feel right, so I pursued another path. When I look back on my decision, I realize now why advertising wasn’t a good fit for me. I was a marketer whose time had not yet come. I was a marketer fascinated by the individual, by how people communicated one-on-one, by how they made connections. Marketing at the time was not about the individual customer. It was about the masses. People, not as individuals in all their glory, but as an amorphous mass defined by demographics (males, ages 25-40, annual income $50+K, etc.). I wanted more. Fast forward to today. Marketing has evolved to one-to-one conversations, personal and relevant to the customer, with the objective of building long-term connections. My time as a marketer has arrived! Of course, marketing will keep evolving, although I truly hope the focus on the individual customer relationship does not. As Robert Rose says in his post Is Content A Sustainable Competitve Advantage?, the how and where of marketing will continue to be fluid, but it is our ability to create valuable stories for our customers that needs to remain constant. How do you feel about this time of personalized, relationship-building marketing? Picture by Matthew Weibe

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