Trust me! Or, at least, give me a chance.

In my previous post, I tried to figure out marketers and corporations contribution to a better and sustainable world.
And, even if it is not all on marketers and corporations shoulders, indeed we are the people on the frontline.

This morning I found this post contributing to the discussion.
GFK Custom research North America publish this piece of research with interesting results:

1. consciousness about environment and sustainability is spreading across the world
2. it's growing
3. corporations and marketers are expected to play a significant role
4. corporations and marketers have the great opportunity to play a significant role in the process

But some 70% of Americans don’t think business and industry are fulfilling their responsibility to protect the environment. In addition, 69% of Americans think businesses engage in environmentally friendly behavior to promote their image.

People do not trust in corporation effort and this may prove to be an issue in a world more and more conscious about this topic. But still it is a call for a huge effort to do something and to talk about the action taken to regain people confidence.

Slicing a cake

The world is changing fast.
This morning the world woke up with some news, just to mention some:

1. Lehman Brothers is going bankruptcy
2. the North Pole ice is thinner, day after day
3. 53% of the Italian population is not in the condition to shift from one social class to a higher one
4. a deadly virus is threatining the Chilean fish farm

Apparently there is no connection between these issues, but truth is that there are strong links.
The world ecosystem, econony, environment, personal, needs a new deal.

As stated in the new book of Thomas Friedman " Hot, flat and crowded", we need someone to lead the pack out of this situation.
Politicians have to play their role in this game, but marketers and corporations have to play a significant role, too.

Technology, politic and business are totally interactive today and must work in the same direction: a better world with less greediness, more discerning and open minded.

We have one and only one world to live in. No second chance.

What can we do as marketers?
Can we help out clients and our companies to accomplish this task?

The power that technology put in our hands is far more bigger than ever, the vision of the future is far more clear than ever.

1. do not stand for the best short term result but look for the bigger picture
2. a dollar more earned today may cost to everybody a thousand tomorrow
3. reconsider the social cost of any action we take or we suggest to take
4. sell better not sell more
5. built something that last

These are my points.
But I like to have yours, too.

New conversation, new meaning to words

There are words that had changed their meaning as time pass by.
And there are words that are changing it or that are just on their way to do so.

One of this may be awareness.
In marketing and advertising, awareness is the indicator of how known is a brand, a product.
Some equation:

a) The higher the adv. budget, the higher the awareness.
b) The higher the awareness, the easier to sell a good.

The quest for awareness has been the engine of the advertising world in the last, say, 30/40 years, maybe more, and the pillar of the marketing activities.

Today, I would like to suggest a new meaning in marketing for the word awareness.


Awareness as understanding, insight, knowledge.

The new awareness related to the Web 2.0 and social media that companies must develop not through massive adv. investment but through a real comprehension of their inner strenghten and weakness, of the inner nature of their brands and products, and more and more crucial the true perception and sentiment of the common people towards you, your company, your brand.

A time consuming scanning process, someone may say.
A wise investment, I would call it.

This is, to me, the awareness that companies should look for because it’s via this awareness that they can enter in markets more and more fragmented with a discerning approach.

Crap is crap

In this time of neverending exploration of the unlimited frontiers of the web 2.0, we sometimes get lost in thinking that there is a solution for every problem.

So is for our clients.

This new brave world makes marketing dream come true.
I can talk with consumers, show them I much I care, subliminaly introduce my products, turn them to customers. And all of this with less money than the average cost of mass media advertising.

Well, my dear marketers, there is an undeniably truth still around: is your product sucks, it sucks.
No matter how articulate can be your strategy, or the strategy of your agency or consultants, the web will not keep you safe from this reality.

What you can do, now?

Be honest: do not pretend that your product is the best in town
Be transparent: if there is some faults, try to fix them not to hide them under the carpet
Be consistent: choose the resonating strategy and strive for it

Your reputation will be rewarded, then.

Meat exacts a costly toll

This great essay of Mark Bittman put another step in my personal process toward a conscious way of eat.
And put another step, or it should, in the mind of marketers.

"Mr. Rosegrant of the food policy research institute says he foresees “a stronger public relations campaign in the reduction of meat consumption — one like that around cigarettes — emphasizing personal health, compassion for animals, and doing good for the poor and the planet.”

The key fact is that the public relation campaign against cigarette begun when the web was not born yet. It took several years to achieve some results.
But we live in an era of fast change, sometimes faster than we can imagine.


We live in a world with almost 6 bn inhabitants and every single shift in habits may turn to prove incredibly healthy for millions of people.

Therefore, if you work in a food industry, it's time to re think your perspectives. Before it may be too late, all of a sudden.
What about you?

Still able to eat meat?

This video from Repubblica may have nothing to do with marketing, er, wait a minute this could have a lot to do with marketing.
Imagine you are approaching your favourite restaurant or fast food. You already feel the taste of a filet or a double hamburger or whatever is your meat plat du jour.
You sit down, got connected wireless and look at these images.
Two option:

1. your restaurant provide you with a certificate that the meat you eat come from places where animals are treated well and killed softly
2. your restaurant cannot exclude that the meat you are going to eat come from places where cruelty is the routine

In case #2, are you still able to eat that meat?

That's why this has to do with marketing.
Because in a world more and more conscious of the need of a fair treatment of the world, this may become a lethal weapon for your competitors.
To apply ethic principles at every step of the production is a must for all the companies. And it will be vital, at least I hope so, for all the business.

Me? After having seen the video, it's two days that I eat only vegetables.
No, I'm not turning to be vegetarian. But I'm thinking a lot about it because of video like these.