Although I am not a marketing expert, I am lucky to enjoy the daily company of one. One who is looking for a job in this field. Having experience in India, which is a largely conservative market when it comes to Marketing and Advertising, being introduced to Marketing UK-Style has come as quite a shock. I, however am much more at home because what is considered Marketing here, I used to try and sell to small time business owners in India; online presence.
We have looked through hundreds of vacancies, reading job profiles and descriptions and one word particularly shows through; “online”.
Marketing Executives/Managers/Assistants/etc all seem to do just one thing: Online marketing; newsletters, company websites, SEO, PPC/PPV (Pay Per Click/ Pay Per View) advertising. There simply is no mention of anything else; except in the rarest of cases where you may find something about presentations and copywriting for flyers (secondary to the company newsletter of course!)
Marketing in the traditional sense seems to have died. Right now my husband works in a huge company, in Sales. And they seem to put little or no effort at all into Marketing. They simply survive on their brand name and make sure their website/newsletter is up-to-date. This is a luxury and definitely makes you lazy! And it’s not just the big time corporates following this path either! If you spend some time browsing around Forums dedicated to small business owners, all they can think of nowadays is getting their website up and advertising it online, or getting on the first page of Google search results. How crazy is it that people get so caught up in the whole online aspect of things, that more experienced businesspeople have to come up to them and say “you know, you could get flyers printed as well, they can be quite effective, if not more than an online ad campaign!” As if it’s a revolutionary idea!
Sure, globalisation made the world quite a small place. But this total contrast in how we try to advertise ourselves in the Western world and anywhere else is shocking to me. Sure, in India online presence as well as access is much more limited than in the West where people do their shopping online even. So there it becomes difficult to convince a Bricks&Mortar business owner who is not PC literate, to even consider getting the most basic website for his business. But do we tend to forget that perhaps our parents’ or grandparents’ generation might not necessarily know how to switch on a PC either, let alone see an online banner advert for your business?
Do we want to lose the business of people who are suspicious of online ads, simply because there have been reports of online scams? A flyer, brochure or business card, reaching your potential customer may just make your business name stand out a little extra. Or they may give it to someone who needs your products/services.
Or do we want to use online marketing the way it should be used; as a valuable part of your Marketing strategy, which should not be ignored, but also not seen as the only option.
