here’s your problem. whoever you are, whatever service or widget you’re selling, you’ve gotta reach your consumer. and 10 years ago “reaching” your consumers meant simply broadcasting advertising at them. but that’s the past. becoming ever more and more officially the past with every word that gets blogged. now “reaching” your consumer means you have to actually get to them, not just at them.

you’ve got to speak their language, approach them on their terms, give them what they want how they want it, and unless you understand why they want it that way you won’t know what it takes to keep them wanting it.

all of marketing, whether it’s an advertisement, a website, or an event, is an interaction between your brand and your consumer. whether you think of your tv ad as an “interaction” doesn’t matter. your consumer does. the challenge now is not whether you’re going to accept the changing nature of marketing or not, the question is how are you going to adapt your messaging to the new consumer demands.

there are a few key element that are good to keep in mind as a kind of compass for navigating the new marketing landscape.

1. experience is everything.
if you can make it interactive, you should. if you can make it even more interactive, you should. and interactive does not just mean on-line. if your marketing plan does not involve strategies for creating meaningful experiences for your consumers, whether virtual or sensory, you’re missing the whole point.

2. relationship is new r.o.i.
promoting cars to savvy 10 year-olds isn’t going to do anything for your quarterly sales report. but check back with scion in six years about what they were thinking when they decided to spend money on an advergame like that anyway.

3. feedback means never having to say, “how do we spin this story?”
encouraging participation goes hand in hand with creating experiences and relationships. when it goes well you get powerful word of mouth and fun user generated content. but sometimes it’s gonna go “wrong” too, and you’re gonna hear about it. that’s part of the deal. if you understand the value of letting your audience feel they are being heard (exhibit a: making news in wired for the merit and audacity of your “wrong” campaign) instead of forcing them to talk about you behind your back, then you should be less worried about what the elevated role of consumer feedback is gonna mean for your future than your media crisis consultant.

4. you can get away with anything except being fake.
you can be ironic, sarcastic, facetious, in fact in many cases your brand identity and/or consumers call for it…but if you’re not authentic we’re gonna feel tricked, and we’re gonna hate you for it. the same reason people don’t want to hang out with “fake” people is why people don’t want to hang out with “fake” brands. so get your identity together, and mean what you say.

5. half of what you’re really selling is identity.
and it’s not your brand’s. it’s your consumers’. you’re not just selling me a pair of shoes, you’re selling what your shoes say to the world about who i am. look at music. whether you like the beatles or the stones, hiphop or indie rock, breakbeats or psytrance isn’t just about the sounds. it’s about the lifestyle choices that those sounds signify about you both as an individual and as a member of a cultural community that listens to that kind of music.

whoever you are, whatever service or widget you’re selling, you’ve gotta keep all of this in mind in order to be able to really reach your consumer, develop a long-term relationship, encourage interaction, be real, and if you’re feeling really stuck use some music–just remember to be sure and make it experiential, not just a jingle.