Business leaders and employees know when their old ways of doing business must change or their business will die; they need to step out of their old ways of marketing and start to act like an agent of change. For 2012, here are my predictions of what will change in the marketing world. You can either choose to adapt, or die.
1. Mobile, Mobile, Mobile
Throughout 2011, you heard me saying "mobile, mobile, mobile". In 2012, I predict the mobile wallet will be the next big thing. With more and more online companies like eBay, Amazon, PayPal, using the mobile device as a platform to make instant online purchases, we're now seeing technology built into smartphones that allows customers to swipe their phones rather than their credit cards at retail outlets. Banks are really taking advantage of this technology and offering their customers a new level of service. This is a space marketers need to not only be aware of, but be involved in.
2. Social - Crowdsourcing vs. Friendsourcing
Crowdsourcing is a cool tool for spot surveys, quick answers, and general engagement, but friendsourcing is about trust: reaching out your most valued advisers -- the people you really know -- and finding out what they think. These people can be your close friends, colleagues, or mentors. However, they can also be your brand ambassadors--the social media friends and followers you've built those relationships of trust with over your social media network.
3. On-Line Qualitative Market Research
2012 will be an exciting year for the research industry. It is clear that the shift to on-line qualitative research has begun and likely to accelerate in the coming year. The need for deeper and richer insights to support making better marketing and business decisions is critical. Companies must be prepared to act fast. This category is rapidly growing and the corporate researchers that make the move will be best positioned to be the winners in this new game. It is a business imperative in my opinion.
Jeffrey Hayzlett is a Bestselling Author, Maverick Marketer and Sometime Cowboy. Purchase his new book, Running the Gauntlet, here.
Pay in cash whenever you can. Barter is even better where that option exists. Other than using the net for gathering info or entertainment (anonymously--there are ways...) you should avoid using it to keep your records, credit info or anything else you'd hate to have stolen.
Move your money, as Arianna suggests, to small local banks and credit unions and break up with your wall street mega bank.
The farther off the grid you can take your life, the less power the 1% have over you. AND you'll find that when you pay cash you tend to buy less and pay a fairer price for it!
Merry 2012.
Invasion invasion invasion: that's the new marketing trend.
One worker families became impossible as bills mounted. Kids were left without parents at home and the disintegration of the family unit began in real earnest. And all we have to show for it is a lot of stuff we don't need, and debt that prevents us from moving forward as a people and a country.
The technology modern popular culture is so enamored with delivers qualitive improvement in abundance while often degrading experience in the qualitative sense. For instance, there is no a cell phone on Earth that doesn't sound vastly inferior to land-line technology from half a century ago. There is no digital book that renders type as sharp as the printed page - not to mention the typesetting of digital books looking 100yrs out of date. This is progress? As a thought experiment try measuring technological change qualitatively (a sensual, emotional, social, intellectual gauge) instead of quantitatively (more, options, options, options, options)
Has technological "progress" made music qualitatively better: No.
Has technological "progress" made journalism qualitatively better: No.
Has technological "progress" made improved the scripts for tv, books or movies: No.
Has technological "progress" made personal letter-writing qualitatively better: No.
Has technological "progress" made air travel qualitatively better: No.
Has technological "progress" made food qualitatively better: No.
Has technological "progress" made politics qualitatively better: God No, it has utterly and completely degraded political discourse.
On and on...
The Year of 2012 is when the world finally gains and understanding of money and moves back to sound money, gold and silver. The inflation tax is outright theft. Central planners are stealing my hard earned money from my bank account with each and every new dollar that is printed.
http://TheSilverJournal.com
Our biggest challenge is to find users who have the intellect to press an "on" button.
At day's end, most business "leaders" I speak with lack any real talent other than kissing bu++ as their core survival skill. Hence today's world, and the need for "yeah, duh.." advice like this.
China on Track to Pass America as #1
http://bud-meyers.blogspot.com/2012/01/china-on-track-to-pass-america-as-1.html
I actually worked for a financial services company where the CEO was so clueless he made the statement that the technology was so good, he could get ultra-VIP treatment at any branch in the world! (While regular customers were stuck with long teller lines and impossibly long waits on hold).
May I suggest that those shareholders in companies like those you single out band together to rid the boards of directors of those members (if not the entire boards) who rubber stamp those actions of the management of the companies not in the interest of the shareholders (one can make a reasonable profit without being a scoundrel) nor in the interest of the general public.
If it be possible, a boycott of goods and services of the most offending companies could be helpful.
In addition, those of us dissatisfied with the actions of various corporations should monitor at least some and do our best to see that the governmental supervising agencies perform in accordance with the laws and not cozy up to those corporations or associations lobbyists. One example of such behavior is that of the FAA (check the remarks of the former IG of that agency).
2. Um, duh. Have you missed all the "share with your friends" buttons this year?
3. Online "qualitative"? Did you mean quantitative?
About what you'd expect from a "Global Business Celebrity" (wtf is that?)
Surely you realize that one of the functions of marketing is to create a perceived need where no genuine one exists.