If you’ve felt overwhelmed by the jungle of new social platforms, new e-Commerce tools, and new mobile devices, you aren’t alone. Technology is evolving at breakneck speeds, and it can easily spook us into jumping blindly into areas we don’t need to be, or else waiting in hiding until we know what works. We either run madly into the jungle or we nervously look in from the outside.
The truth is that neither answer is very helpful because they’re based on an incorrect understanding of the jungle. It’s not just technology in there. It’s everything — tech, sure, but also our consumers. And our brands should be in there, too — not battling against technology, but learning how to live in harmony with it and with consumers.
We waste a lot of time and energy trying to use every technology, or even just understanding them all. And it may sound too good to be true, but using technology best actually requires us to focus on it less. Instead, we need to focus on the reason we go into the jungle — to create meaningful experiences for people.
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Becoming Aware Of Our Ecosystems
Ah, the fundamentals of marketing. Doesn’t it feel good to put the focus back on people? Of course, we’re dealing with people whose lives are now integrated with technology, so a few things have changed. But not to worry, because our starting point is the same as ever — with understanding our ecosystems.
An ecosystem is a community of living things that interact with each other and their environment according to a specific set of rules. The jungle mentioned earlier is an ecosystem — tech, people, and brands engaging with each other and the world.
Every one of our marketing efforts also enters into an ecosystem. Facebook and Pinterest are ecosystems. So are iPhones and iPads. Stores are ecosystems, as are the cars used to get there.
There are many different ecosystems in which you might decide to market to people, each with its own set of rules about how interaction should take place. And here’s the kicker: if you ignore the rules, people have just as much power to ignore you as you have to say something.
For example, if you want to create a mobile promotion, you might factor in the truth that people generally aren’t drawn to standalone branded apps that add little value to their lives. You might then find a way to develop your promotion using an existing app that people have already integrated into their lives.
See? You’ve now used an understanding of the mobile ecosystem to create meaningful interaction in a way people naturally desire.
Using Technology As A Means, Not An End
The scientific method begins with exploration. Scientists observe a given ecosystem and describe what they’re finding before they become immersed in testing their hypothesis. So, why do so many marketers act like they have to know everything about a given technology before they’ve even explored it?
In order to understand the social media ecosystem, we first need to listen and observe our customers. It’s naive to fool ourselves into thinking we’re using new technology tools by simply displaying a “Find us on Foursquare” sticker or posting to Facebook every day. It’s all too easy for us to rely on “logic” and convince ourselves that experimenting isn’t necessary.
But we need to study a given ecosystem and test new tools (aka technologies) to build a better and more meaningful experience for customers. Technology is simply a set of tools to help us create a more interesting, value-filled world. At least when those tools are used correctly.
Considering how people live and how tools can be used to make their lives easier leads us to a deeper understanding and guides an aspirational marketing strategy. To be clear, “Use Instagram” is not an aspirational strategy. It’s like saying “buy a billboard.” It’s what you put on that billboard and how it connects people with your brand that really counts. An aspirational strategy is more like “provide fashion and style inspiration to our fans in a place they love to be.”
See the difference? The first just adds to the noise. The second creates value for fans by putting technology to work for you.
And here’s the magic moment when you start to feel the chains of technology fall away. Notice that the second example doesn’t actually demand Instagram. After studying the ecosystem of, say, your fans’ tablet-viewing lives, you might find they prefer Pinterest, Polyvore, Facebook, or any number of other tools.
That’s because “provide fashion and style inspiration” is people-based and therefore a strategy that can guide you for years, no matter where technology takes us. Strong strategy gets better with age.
Becoming Wild Like Technology
If you can begin to implement these perspectives in your daily job, you’ll notice yourself feeling strong in the face of technology. That’s great, but there’s still further you can go. You can actually become just as surprising, exciting, and constantly fresh to people as technology is.
Here’s how: imagine an amazing consumer experience you would like to have, but haven’t yet. Maybe it’s even something that seems impossible.
Like this: “What if I could walk into my favorite store and before I got to the first aisle, my phone would vibrate and offer me a 50% discount for an item on my Wish List?”’
First of all, it’s aligned with the store ecosystem and focused on the consumer — there’s no effort required by the shopper except for browsing like usual. Second, notice that it naturally brings into focus all the challenges involved in creating this meaningful experience.
There are the tech questions: Should we use geo-location or facial recognition technology? Are those technologies powerful and accurate enough? And then your user-experience questions: Would I use a custom, downloadable app or could this integrate with an app I already use? And maybe even legal questions: Will people see this as a convenience or an invasion of privacy? Will it get us sued or thrown in jail? (This is when you know your idea could be really big!)
It’s big thinking, but it’s also the easiest way to stay focused on what’s important and to become more powerful than your technology. Partly that’s because it’s the same way those who make technology think. And partly it’s because as humans, we simply find it easier to organize ourselves around an exciting, concrete vision.
Creating The Future By Focusing On The Timeless
The takeaway in all this is that a solid understanding of your customer’s ecosystem and a strong strategy come first: no specific technologies were celebrated, no laundry list of must-dos were assigned. Just timeless marketing truths, contextualized for the ecosystem in which we’re all living.
And with any luck, you’ve found it to be useful in the same way you’ll soon be finding technology — not as your answer, but as a tool. Your answer will be a strategy formed when your creativity focuses on creating a meaningful experience for people inside a given ecosystem.
The jungle may be a wild place, but it doesn’t have to be a scary one. And once we really find our legs and begin to run, we’ll soon be able to look left and realize we’re keeping pace with our technological co-inhabitants. And amidst your stride, you might even notice you’re encouraging technology to keep up with your vision.