Real-time Marketing: the Personification of Business

In 2013 we’ll see more marketers take advantage of the power of real-time communications. What are the advantages of real-time marketing?

I see the main advantage of real-time marketing as the further personification of business. In the past, businesses have relied on traditional marketing avenues to build their brand. Businesses have also successfully put a face and a voice to their brand through the use of brand ambassadors, including Bill Cosby with Jell-O, Michael Jordan with Nike, and William Shatner with Priceline. Some to their own detriment (e.g. Nike with Tiger Woods). Although these techniques have been, and most likely will continue to be, a legitimate way to build a brand and a customer base, it is no longer the only game in town.

No longer do marketing or public relations campaigns have to be a one-way street, a monologue that can only be tracking using the bottom line. Businesses now have a voice, a real voice they can have ultimate control over. No longer must they gamble on a personality or a hard-to-track advertising campaign to build their company. Now a company can have a real voice, one that can speak to the customer, listen, and respond.

This real voice can connect with the customer and relate. It can respond immediately to a customer concern or issue. It can handle crisis communications to right wrongs and create as little impact as possible. And it can become a participant in the overall communications strategy. This voice is the company, and it has the ability to create connections and relationships with target audience members in a way that traditional marketing never could.