Marketing today is much more like sailing than driving. Your boat is the brand. If you point your boat in the right direction, follow the winds/currents and steer, you will get the boat to go where you want it. Marketers should become the wind, but accept that they’re at the mercy of the currents and weather.
The quote actually comes in the context of discussing Jack Trout’s latest spoutings. I used to be a big fan of Trout’s and still think his seminal 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing is a marketing classic.
Sadly, it seems Trout hasn’t been able to keep up with the changes in society and technology and has been wittering on about how marketers should ignore the rise of new marketing tools and movements like blogging, word of mouth marketing and user generated content and simply advertise instead. Sounds like denial to me.
As the recently departed Peter Drucker showed, it’s not necessarily an age thing - Drucker was still highly relevant well into his 90’s. But I think as you get older you may have to work a little harder to keep up. After all, you’re no longer understand what’s happening with your gut, so your brain has to work a bit smarter.
If you can’t or won’t do that, it’s time to shut up and live on past glories. Because if you carry on spouting nonsense, you’ll just tarnish your hard-earned reputation.
So, Mr Trout, try to understand that the wolrd has changed or assume your place as an elder statesman. But don’t try to pretend we’re still living in the 1980’s.
Heh. Russell, if this keeps up, I may have to check my brain. Two posts in a row where I disagree?!? Something must be wrong with me.
Actually, when I read Steve’s original piece, I agreed. Then I read the Trout article, and I actually think Steve does it a great disservice with his summary of it. Trout is NOT trashing word of mouth marketin gat all. In fact, I think Trout gets WOMM more than many others do.
What he’s saying is that, as PR people/marketers you cannot control WOMM. That’s *absolutely true* and it’s something that too many in the industry miss. They’re treating WOMM as if it’s like other areas where they *did* have some control. The point of WOMM is that it isn’t controlled and shouldn’t be spoonfed by marketing people. Trout isn’t saying it’s not there and that it’s not valuable, but that marketing people trying to focus in on it are just as likely to get really badly burned as they are to do something valuable.
The real way to get *legitimate* WOMM is to build great products and make sure people know about them. If you do that, then the good WOMM takes care of itself.
That’s how I read Trout’s piece, and I think he’s being a lot more perceptive than others on the issue.
In response to all the chatter about Jack Trout’s comments on Word-of-mouth marketing, Trout invited a group of “buzz evangelist” to face off with him on his radio program. Steve Rubel and Rick Murray of Edelman, Emanuel Rosen of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association, Seth Godin, Joseph Jaffe and Errol Smith (me….producer of Trout Radio) sat down to deconstruct the buzz around word-of-mouth. I listened to all the arguments before sitting in on the roundtable discussion to end the series and concluded that rumors of Jack’s passing are indeed greatly exaggerated… You can hear the interviews at the roundtable wrap up at:
http://www.jackstreet.com/jackstreet/WJCK-SteveRubelE.cfm
and the entire series at:
http://www.troutandpartners.com/radio/Strategy.asp