The Future of Marketing: Make Things People Want or Make People Want Things?

john v willshire, smithery twitter - @willshIdeja X, Croatia, 2012

hellobokoh hai

my name is john

i can be hard to understand

I can’t speak german

i do run a one-man-studio

it is called smithery

i help businesses solve problems

it’s somethingto do with these things

but it isthan thatmessier

i started

cardsplayingit on blankwriting

ideas you

insidecan step

creation of demand

exploitation of demand

creation of demand

exploitation of demand

not achoice,

a balance

creation of demand

exploitation of demand

yet weseem to do

more of This >>

it made me think of these

easter island - 1722• population of 2000 • 64 square miles• 1,400 miles from the

nearest inhabitable place• 2,000 miles from the

nearest continent

no trees

200 giant statues30ft high80 tons

how?

the original settlers arrived in massive canoes

the island they found was covered in trees

survive thrive

finite resources

3. you can’t survive1. too much

of this...

2. this all disappears...

there are over 700 unfinished statues on easter island

they kept making them right until the trees ran out...

is our predicament really that bad?

finite resources

creation of demand

exploitation of demand

people would

70%of brandsdisappeared

not care if

havas Mediameaningful brand study

we need to

Make

Things

peoplewant

Thingspeoplewant

Make

redressthe balance

four ways tomake things people want

1234

make

The makerused to be themarketer

making is thinking

antonio Stradivari’s workshop created the finest stringed instruments of all time

he left it to his sons, who had worked beside him all their lives.

the workshop closed within twenty years.

“he could not teach either of them how to be a genius.”

Sennett on Stradivari

died withthe maker

The marketing

even the most brilliant minds cannot cheat death

Though they try...

branding was the next best thing

long section on 100 years of

brand evolution[ ]

yet we’re still incredibly focussed on ‘the maker’

“when the founder is still there, people respect the brand in a way that doesn’t happen when the reins have been handed down over and over”

Entrepreneur magazine Apr 12

“when the founder is still there, people respect the brand in a way that doesn’t happen when the reins have been handed down over and over”

Entrepreneur magazine Apr 12

“when the founder is still there, people respect the brand in a way that doesn’t happen when the reins have been handed down over and over”

Entrepreneur magazine Apr 12

And the makers don’t seem too bothered about ‘brand’

“I don't believe in brands.  People buy our product, not our company.  You're only as good as your last product.”

James Dyson

the maker?who replacesyet when they do depart...

Sometimes

weirdthere are

replacements

product designer at hp?

packaging designer atdiet coke?

creative director of polaroid?

creative director of intel?

but usually

safethere are

replacements

accountantsdrift to the top

stephen king, jwt, 1985

”“

ftse 100ceos with

0

0.15

0.3

0.45

0.6

1996 2008 2012

51%36%

24%

source - Robert Half / Hendricks & Struggles

financebackgrounds

Safe pairof hands

Make

Things

peoplewant

Thingspeoplewant

Make

financelike the wrong sort of

marketing

those nice people in

Has MarketingFailed, or was it never really tried?1985 paper by Stephen king, JWT

( you should really read )

four marketingroutes to failure

thrustmarketing1

marketingdepartment2 marketing

mark

etin

g silo

accountant’s3 marketing

january december

payback

formula4 marketing

success = x Yz+

four essentialaspects of

realmarketing

start withthe customer1

workingover time2

using allresources3 CEO

marketing

manufacturing

innovating4

all deeply linked to theproduct

be a real marketer1234

things

what do marketers know about making things...?

you are the ruiners of all

thingsgood

bill hicks on marketers

with this ad, sadden us, you will

there is nothing interesting about our world

let’s borrow someone else’s

you are the ruiners of all

thingsgood

bill hicks on marketers

marketing has driftedtoo far fromproductreality

the atoms of a product, or the seconds spent

with a service

the feelings we get from buying, using or experiencing the thing

the two cannot be separated

pre-industrial industrial network

pre-industrial brands sufferedthe stradivari problem

mass-production branding helped solve that problem

strip out and replicate the

essence of the maker

the art of branding was compression

companies still seek their fortune in the ideas of a long dead mind...

compression don’t work for this world

every time we blink a brand changes

which can be disconcertingif you are used to consistency

“I struggle to identify a consistent set of measures across our digital campaigns”

John WoodsCoke, GB & Ireland

it will get a lot, lot stranger

we will need automation & Robots to understand it all

this will scare and confuse us

The NEw yorker, 1946

“We use the word 'machines' in place of 'software designed by people predicated on a set of cultural assumptions'...”

kim plowright

don’t lose sleep over it...

but don’t pretend it isn’t happening

“Nostalgia isn’t a business Model”

http://memex.naughtons.org/archives/2012/04/05/15944

john naughton

“We are born of complexity, shaped by complexity, and interact with a world that is inexorably growing more complex.”

Bud Caddellgraphic from http://whtebkgrnd.tumblr.com/

don’t fight fragmentation

accelerate it

fragmentation doesn’t destroy brand value

....or lack of it

it demonstrates value

there’s a different way tothink about value...

the labour theory of value

developed by adam smith...

...and later by karl marx

modern economics:

the value of a thing is determined by what one

is willing to give up to obtain the thing

The labour theory of value the value of something is determined by the labour that went into its production

£0.99 £3.33per padper pad

“marketing is world building. With unlimited bandwidth we can now show you the world.”

@TobyBarnes, AKQA

it’s easier to buy this world...

...than this world

What if we stitched smaller ideas together to create a longer idea? What if we stitched smaller ideas together to create a longer idea? What if we stitched smaller ideas together to create a longer idea? What if we stitched smaller ideas together to create a longer idea? What if we stitched smaller ideas together to create a longer idea? Gareth Kay What if we stitched smaller ideas together to create a longer idea? What if we stitched smaller ideas together to create a longer idea? What if we stitched smaller ideas together to create a longer idea? What

world building world borrowing

“The internet is biased towards fact.  People don’t care about your brand mythology, they care about where your product is made and what’s in it.”

douglas rushkoff

Labour theory of brand value:

show the constant additions to the essence and the substance

be a real marketer1234

let the deeds show

people

staring at people is rude

staring down at people is a force of habit...

“We do what we do largely because of our interaction with - and under the influence of - others.

And mostly without realising it.”

Mark Earls, Herd

stop staring at people

start looking between them

differentpeoplewantthingsdifferent

how do you look between people?

anthropologish*

*not hardcore anthropology, before anyone gets angry

four disciplines

archeology

language social

culture

archeologyfuck yeah !

archeologyoh..... that

digging around in thethings folkleave behind

unseen UK, 2006

photos by the people at royal mail

look for the things that show you what people are capable of...

language

google gets it wrong:

Provjerite štoljudi žele

a friend helps it get better?

we want a... strapline three values proposition

we need a... dictionary lexicon phrase book

200milliontweetsper day

it matters what they say about you

not what you say about you

culture

don’t look for things that unite

look for things that divide...

“We seek out these obsessives, maniacs and eccentrics because they can help us get to big, breakthrough ideas”

Brian Miller,Sense Worldwide

social...

...hang on, we know about this one...

facebook offers a partial glance of the intangible half of yoursocialfootprint

galvanism:

when we thought electricity would cure all disease

from “The Craftsman” by Richard sennett

facebook does not offer intimations of the sublime

http://jeffberryman.com/2011/05/19/counting-on-the-sublime/

always look throughtwo lenses

Material& virtual

_____.jpg by Alan Belcher

what’s fascinating is where the two now begin to meet

People like the clothes online, appears on hangers in store

C&A, Brasil

archeology

language social

culture

look between people

be a real marketer1234

let your deeds showlook between people

want

three

peter doyle,Value-Based Marketing

differentwants

incipient wants

things which people want, but have no idea about until they see it.

the things that sell themselves

latent wants

things there are no present solutions for, but are easy for people to describe

existing wants

things we already know we want, for which there are plenty of willing suppliers...

existing wants

...this is where the interesting shit is

let’s think about coffee, for example

“like yacht racing, modern markets are an environment defined solely by the position of the competitors, rather than by any absolute geography”

John Cronk

Coffee was the Vendée globe

you needed a super-yacht to be in the race, never mind score points

The internet is a very lenient race judge

it lets any small boat join in...

i am a bit geeky about coffee...

i can find a great place to buy coffee whenever I’m out and about

I can blend my own coffee to suit my own taste profile.

And name it

I can watch 509 videos about how to use an aeropress

I can read 19,200,000 internet links on coffee farm soil reports*

*i haven’t

i could even start roasting coffee at home

ikawa coffee system

friends, I am a

noviceamongst my

so what’s happening?

Talent hits a target no one else can hit

genius hits a target no one else can see

arthur Schopenhauer

the big boats find it hardto see all the little boats

all of their research tools are geared to look at the direct competitors

marketers copy each other just like everyone else

It should still be possible to do something though...?

is yourbestthisresponse?

barista style....?

barista

freehugs

style is

freehugs

no

marketsharebut we have

?

it never starts with people who want market share...

there are always people who are more geeky about your market than you...

make something they can believe in

you have to want tomake a difference

To Do a common thing

brings successuncommonly well

henry john heinz

is now a lot harder to achieve than it used to beuncommonly well

want to makes things well

want to tell your story

want to create demand

people will only want the things you make as much as you want to make them.

be a real marketer1234

let your deeds showlook between peoplewant to make things

that sounds... hard

where do i start?

think of it this way

you are an operating system

they’re not consumers

they’re users

by David Lee, howstrange.com

they will make great things that you are afraid to make

they will take your things and make other things

but they always have

Jingle Bells, Batman smells,Robin flew away. Kojak lost his lollipopAnd bought a Milky Way

trad. children’s song, 1960’s onwards

open up your operating system

celebrate the passionate outsiders who use your platform

partner with people who are better at running your platform

use your platform to share value

watching yourshitty hologramhas no value

use your platform for good things

listen to the customers who’ve been begging for an open platform

remember which side you are on

fight

users

forthe

we

thank you

john v willshiretwitter - @willshhttp://smithery.co/blogjohn@smithery.co

hvala