We know these aren’t the Oscars, but we’ve always wanted to say that.
We still remember how things were, way back when in 2002, when we came out with our Integrated business model. Few people understood what that meant. We had to constantly explain what the difference was between Exo, an Integrated Marketing firm, and our non-integrated competition (almost every one else). But over the last years things have changed.
So here we are. 2010. And finally the marketing industry is getting the Integrated point. It’s been quite the ride. Thanks for proving us right.
In these social media days we find the Integrated model being referenced as ‘the right way of doing things’ everywhere. And rightfully so. But it took a whole new channel, a whole new way of doing things, for people to realise the value of integrated marketing practices. And that’s a little sad, because the integrated theory was applicable even before the social media marketing phenomenon.
These days, one specialty is not enough to leverage the maximum out of a company’s marketing activities.
- Advertising is good, but without research is just a shot in the dark.
- Press releases are good, but without tapping into web 2.0 practices, practically useless.
- Market research is good, but without analysis and recommendations, well, it’s just fluff.
- Strategy is good, but without action, it’s just pretty words.
- Branding is good, but without social media, it’s just a delusion.
- Communications is good, but without strategic targeting, it’s just noise.
- Social media is good, but without sales, it’s just chatting.
- Lead generation is good, but without a proper CRM and a trained sales force, it’s wasted potential.
All these component alone (and there are many more) are good. They are. However, integrated together, technology, expertise, and implementation, become exponentially more efficient. That’s the difference. That’s our business model.
THE LEFT HAND MUST KNOW WHAT THE RIGHT HAND IS DOING.
Burn those words into your retinas. They will save your business.
Integration is the only way to go. Everything is becoming integrated, not just skills and disciplines. These days, IT solutions, if you can call them that, like hubspot, Marketo, radian 6, etc, are part blog, part analytics, part social network, part CRM, part project manager, and I could go on.
Your phone is part MP3 player, part TV, part radio, part computer, part CRM, part game station, part car door opener, etc. Your refrigerator is part butler, part computer, part on-line store. Your car, your home, your cable company, everything around you is tending towards integration.
So, ask yourself this: If everything is tending towards integration…
- Why am I using an advertising firm to handle my communication needs?
- Why am I using an IT firm to handle my website design?
- Why am I using a survey firm to handle my strategy?
- Why am I using all these different disembodies components, when I could get everything to work seamlessly together using one integrated marketing firm?
And no, that age old adage of ‘jack of all trades, master of none’ does not apply. At Exo, we’re all experts, however, we’re all experts in different fields. Integrating all those fields proficiently together to give our clients complete services that go from strategy to implementation was always a point of pride for us. It’s our strength.
Having some support within the industry is fantastic. Having entities like ClickZ for example, which we’ve respected since our beginnings, support the integrated marketing model is very rewarding for us. We all smiled when we noticed that ClickZ now has in Integrated Marketing section on their website.
In further posts, we’ll discuss other benefits of Integrated Marketing, we’ll delve a little deeper into what it means to work with an integrated marketing firm, and why it’s essential for businesses to do so.
But the main thing to take home from this post is that the world has changed. To paraphrase Don E. Schultz: Modern marketing is built on a marketing theory that is Industrial Age. It focuses primarily on production, distribution (place), pricing, and promotion. The traditional 4P’s of Marketing worked well between 1950 and 1960 when the theory was developed, but today we live in an interactive, globally connected, customer-driven, service economy where time and speed are of the essence. Mass production and mass consumption are turning into mass customization, and marketing practices and theories have to adapt to that change.
In other words, the marketing world isn’t flat anymore.
The Exo Team
