 |
| Tina Crouse, Strategist |
Agreed: Not Your Father's Marketing
In a new article by Prof. D. Steven White of the University of Massachusetts, Its-not-your-fathers-marketing- he talks about the huge gap between what is being taught as marketing in the universities and the experience of businesses on the ground. Anyone trying to capture people's attention today knows this gap is wide. Additionally, the young marketers graduating from university are wondering what they paid for because Inbound Marketing is completely absent from the curriculum and yet, that's exactly the way most youth purchase today - through recommendations and referrals and whatever they could find on the web; not what we pushed at them.
As universities claim confusion over how to move forward and what they need to do, young people are abandoning their careers or making it up as they go along. As mentioned before, I am not a believer in 'whatever gets thrown at the wall and sticks' type of business development. Many years dealing with organizations living and breathing their missions and their business has taught me that there isn't a substitute for experience but there is a real need to do things differently when it comes to engaging the public. So who will help whom to market effectively in 2010 and beyond?
The answer, as always, is TOGETHER. Youth can provide the methods and Mentors can provide the knowledge; knowledge based on business cycles, downturns, upswings, latent user needs, customer satisfaction and the 'Close'. You have to know the intermingling of marketing with all the other facets of business to get it right and keep it going. Youth know the word 'Sustainability' and now everyone must apply it to all industries and across all sectors.
While older workers feel obsolete and younger workers feel disillusioned, we can only close this gap with everyone's participation in what they do best. It may be that marketing becomes a 'youth only' activity but to make a business grow and prosper, you're going to need someone who's been around the block. Regardless of whether it was tricycle or electric scooter, I'm a fan of 'everyone in = everyone wins'.
