Marketing in the Round: How to Develop an Integrated Marketing Campaign in the Digital Era

Citation

Hazlett, K. (2013), "Marketing in the Round: How to Develop an Integrated Marketing Campaign in the Digital Era", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 30 No. 5, pp. 462-463. https://doi.org/10.1108/JCM-01-2013-0402

Marketing has become a multi‐layered challenge for today's organizations. Not only do paid (advertising) and earned (public relations) media demand the marketer's attention, but now social media in all its rapidly‐evolving forms is gaining a firm foothold in the marketing mix.

The question for the modern‐day marketer is how to maximize the benefits of both traditional and social media.

Fortunately, marketing and social media gurus Gini Dietrich, founder and CEO of integrated marketing communication firm Arment Dietrich, and marketing strategist/social media consultant Geoff Livingston have co‐authored Marketing in the Round: How to Develop an Integrated Marketing Campaign in the Digital Era, a fascinating read with solid “must‐do” tips for developing and managing a marketing program that takes full advantage of all media as well as organizational resources.

Why is this a timely appearance? Because of the dramatic changes that social media has brought about in the process of connecting with target audiences. “Before the Web, research showed that a person needed to see a message seven times before a purchase decision is made. Today a person needs to see a message upwards of 20 times” (p. 2).

And, why “marketing round”? Meeting the demands of this exponential increase requires that the marketer break out of the old, comfortable “silo” of the traditional corporate structure and think of it as round…“as a wheel instead of a typical hierarchy. Think of marketing as the hub. The spokes are made up of public relations, advertising, Web, email, social media, corporate communication, search engine optimization, search engine marketing, content, and direct mail. They circle simultaneously” (p. 3).

The 12 chapters of Marketing in the Round are divided into three sections easy‐to‐grasp sections. Within each section, the reader is provided tips and techniques for developing and implementing a full‐service, full‐circle marketing program. Section I, “Understand the Marketing Round and Develop Your Strategy,” provides an overview of the “marketing round” concept and discusses strategies for developing your program. Section II, “Four Marketing Round Approaches,” provides tactics and advice for implementation of your marketing round. And the final section, “Measurement, Refinement, and Improvement” addresses just that … the follow‐up that tells you just how well your program has worked.

From the beginning, the authors emphasize the fact that today's marketing is not a one‐size‐fits‐all concept … ” companies make the same mistake over and over. They use the same message across all platforms. Each type of media serves a different purpose; the messages they carry should be completely different” (p. 22).

However, they also point out that many of the “traditional” concepts of effective communication still hold true, in particular that of engaging with and listening to customers and stakeholders. “A courageous and intelligent organization will listen to what is being said, or not said, by its customers. It will be calm in its willingness to hear about its efforts to date, and take the feedback to heart” (p. 50).

Implementing this communication strategy can be accomplished via social media, say Dietrich and Livingston. “Social media … is a powerful tool for relationship building and for interacting directly with stakeholders … direct community interaction through conversation is one of the most powerful attitudes the marketing round can take” (p. 60).

As with any marketing effort, though, the authors caution that the organization must be both genuine and thoughtful in its communication. “Successful marketing capitalizes on your authenticity … It is an expression of your culture, and its strengths and weaknesses … A knee‐jerk reaction to a competitor can compromise that authenticity” (pp. 69‐70).

The “old” rules still apply, though, and direct marketing remains “the most powerful form of marketing because it is the most likely to produce a sale, and it's the most measurable form” (p. 81). What has changed is the means by which the “direct approach” is accomplished… “Pew Internet says 47 percent of Americans received news on their phone in the first quarter of 2011. Almost every major Web brand has optimized its online experience to cater to this increasingly powerful media form” (p. 82).

One key factor that hasn't changed, say the authors, is the concept of relationship development and nurturing. “According to the Edelman Trust Barometer, people trust articles about a company or brand 27 percent more that they trust advertising” (p. 101).

The problem, though, is that “too many companies want to begin using the marketing round without having built [those] relationships or developed a level of trust with their key stakeholders. The job of the marketing round is to create, build, and maintain relationships with human beings, online and off” (p. 108).

This means that a synergy must exist among the various entities that comprise the marketing round. “Customer service, public relations, community managers, and sales must work together so the left and right hands know that the other is doing and provide a unified front to external stakeholders” (p. 113). To put this in a perspective that all can grasp in the digital era, “social media is about conversation, networking, and engagement” (p. 124) … the building blocks of relationship development.

But what do you as a communicator do when you do not have a “fresh” story to tell or a large direct marketing component, or you're not omnipresent within the social media realm? Dietrich and Livingston suggest that, “In such cases, advertising, guerrilla marketing, or press blitzes and events could become primary thrusts for your communication efforts” (p. 134).

The marketing round facilitates development of a unified brand that current and potential customers can relate to and grow comfortable with. “Creating a unified brand isn't easy, especially when you're combining your offline brand with your online brand. But … if the brand isn't presented consistently, in all venues, it's confusing and unsettling” (p. 154).

A constant throughout Marketing in the Round is that of “planning.” An integrated marketing plan that maximizes the capabilities of all the company's resources is not and cannot be a hit‐or‐miss endeavor. Planning and coordination … then execution…“Be sure you have the full picture so that managing your marketing effort becomes a question of execution rather than an internal battle for resources throughout the life of the campaign” (p. 163). And, once you're underway, as the carpenter's axiom goes, “Measure twice; cut once.”

“Gone are the days of media impressions and advertising equivalencies and Nielsen ratings and open rates. Today you should measure what each individual person does when the person interacts with your company, offline and on” (p. 175).

The marketing round is not for the faint of heart. The marketer must be prepared for not just change, but constant change. “Change is your marketing round's constant. Evolution … is inevitable. You have to evaluate and decide how much effort you should dedicate to traditional media, and how much you commit to the new digital and mobile venues” (p. 182).

Marketing in the Round is an eye‐opening introduction to the “new” marketing paradigm. The wise marketing director will take the advice, suggestions, and observations of Gini Dietrich and Geoff Livingston into serious consideration if the marketer hopes to develop and manage a marketing program that will fully optimize the organization's many valuable resources and meet the fluctuating demands of today's market.