allaboutadvocacy.com

The future ain’t what it used to be

If this sounds familiar, well, it should. “The future ain’t what it used to be” is one of the all-time great malapropisms of the all-time baseball great Yogi Berra. Marketers should heed these words today, now more than ever, in light of the sustained global recession.

After all, Yogi knew something about challenging times: he not only was a member of 13 World Series championship teams between 1948-1962; he was part of the generation here in the US that grew up in the Great Depression. So today’s recession may just be “deja vu all over again” for this Yankee hall-of-famer. Just keep in mind that he also said things like “you should always go to other people’s funerals, otherwise, they won’t come to yours,” “when you come to a fork in the road, take it,” and “baseball is ninety percent mental; the other half is physical.” OK, Sun Tzu it’s not. But ignore him at your own risk.

Why? Because research continues to suggest the recession is having a deep impact on consumer behavior, creating what look to be long-term changes that affect everything from brand loyalty to the way marketers reach their audiences. This recent report from Initiative (our sister agency), based on a May survey of 3,200 consumers in the U.S., western Europe and China, provides more evidence why.

Of note, the study found a significant drop in trust in established marketing channels and a conversely sharp rise in people’s trust of individuals, including those who comment about brands online. For example, 43 percent reported far greater trust in online consumer content such as blogs, review sites and forums, while 48 percent said they trusted “expert opinion.” They also found that 76 percent of consumers said they trusted the opinions of those closest to them, the word of mouth of family and friends. Like the blog title says: it’s all about advocacy, now more than ever.

I like how Sue Moseley, who lead the study for Initiative, put it: That established brands can no longer rely on being accepted on faith because they’ve been around for a long time. Instead, they need to step up to the times to provide consumers with something authentic, tangible, transparent, real… and the means to evaluate it from independent sources online. The implication: the need for a new marketing model and approach to communications, on that puts igniting advocacy at the heart.

Yes, the future is certainly not what it used to be for marketing anymore. Come to think of it, it isn’t for baseball or music or the media business and I could go on. Maybe it’s just like the wise catcher said: “a nickel ain’t worth a dime anymore.” But being an optimist by nature, I’d like to think this other cautionary Yogism is the one that applies for our field: “if you don’t know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else.” True, so very very true. Thanks, Yogi.

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