The ‘Mad Men’ Era of Mass Marketing Strategy is No Longer ‘The Real Thing’

Author: Mike Connolly

Yes, the AMC show, Mad Men is quite the rage today. There seems to be incessant chatter revolving around how advertising (and marketing) done in those days (as depicted in the show) have no place in this digitally fanatical age. While this may be partially true, we all can learn a thing or two from the show and its characters of Don Draper and Peggy Olsen.

Connect, Converse and Convert Business Customers

While marketing strategies in the B2B and B2C spaces differ, there is an ongoing transformation. As people have become customers, in the B2C side, businesses have become brands, in the B2B side. Marketing to businesses is just like advertising to consumers…
You need to connect with them,
You need to understand what they want,
You need to offer them a product or service that is over and above their expectations and demands.
Like a Heinz executive tried explaining to Peggy, “Stop writing down what I ask for and try to figure out what I want.”

Business customers like consumers, want to be able to interact through multiple channels on various devices and platforms, at all times. Connect with businesses through multiple touch-points, create a device agnostic environment, and keep an open line of communication and interaction.

Mass Marketing is No Longer ‘The Real Thing’

Marketing in the era of ‘Mad Men’ was about advertising one-to-many. This kind of mass marketing strategy has evolved. As Suketu Gandhi, a principal at Deloitte Consulting LLP  said, it is the ‘era of influence marketing or network marketing’. Marketing has evolved into a many-to-many approach, where campaigns need to built to engage an audience in way that urges them to influence other people in their network.
You need to adopt new ways of marketing, like Peggy Olsen did with her “Family Supper at Burger Chef” pitch. Marketing tools nowadays today allows you to experiment, take risks and embrace new approaches. To be cutting edge and relevant is a lot easier than it was earlier, there is no justification for stalling.

Settle for Nothing Less Than the 100%

If one of your marketing campaigns is not doing well, change it and launch another one.
If your social media campaigns are not convincing enough to urge interaction, turn up the volume.
If you think reaching out to only a percentage of your audience is good enough, think again.

In season five, when Don Draper and Roger Sterling were pitching to Dow Chemical, the executives at Dow told them they were happy with the 50 percent market share they had. Don then quoted, “I won’t settle for 50 percent of anything. I want 100 percent.”

In marketing terms, it is not only about trying to connect with 100 percent of your audience, it is also about being relevant and current. With rising attention deficiency, stale marketing messages have no place in the attention of your customer. Consistent connection across various channels, devices and platforms need to be established. With digital channels being extremely flexible today, testing has become easier and a less expensive affair. There is always scope for experimentation and improvement. There is no excuse…

Change the Conversation to Change the Perception

In season six, the builders of Madison Square Garden were facing the flak for proposing to build the stadium by demolishing Penn Station. Don Draper, exuberantly suggested “If you don’t like what they’re saying, change the conversation.” He said, instead of focusing on how New York’s history will be tarnished, they should be talking about how the stadium by Madison Square Garden will be the future of NYC landscape and culture.

While interaction and engagement is necessary,
While listening and understanding is required,
Conversations with customers and prospects do not necessarily move in a direction you may intend.
At such times, don’t forget the basics of marketing. When push come to shove, you need to change the conversation, to change their perception…usually in your favor.

Social media has become a major platform for businesses, as a way to network, to interact, to review and to exchange notes. You need to be present in such channels to hear what your customers want, listen in on their conversations and voice out your spiel to be heard. A step further, is to use new predictive tools, that map customer preferences and behavior. Use this data repository in developing strategies to identify the right channel to reach the right professional with targeted campaigns.

The Bottom Line is Ultimately the “Bottom Line”

A marketing strategy for businesses and brands is not that different from marketing to individual customers. You need to connect with them, engage them and find a pulse that will resonate the best..to all parties involved. It is not only about obtaining a database and blasting campaigns, it is about 360 degree profiling, multichannel marketing, following best practices such as data management, appending, hard bounce management and list segmentation.
It is not only about data
It is not only about marketing
It is about achieving the bottom line with relevancy through ‘Data, Research and Innovation‘

To sign off with words of wisdom from Dan Draper, “People tell you who they are, but we ignore it – because we want them to be who we want them to be.”