Posted by Ajay Kelkar on Sat, Aug 01, 2009
Participatory
marketing-fascinating idea! It does sound completely new for “growth markets”
such as Asia where the marketing focus is still predominately on acquisition and
“push based marketing”. When you are getting hounded by spam mails,sms &
getting called by pesky telemarketers at odd times, it does seem like a breath
of fresh air to seek participation from the consumer! I could choose to not get
hounded by any of the push marketing stuff!
I first read about this on Ron Shevlin’s blog:
http://marketingroi.wordpress.com/2008/12/08/join-the-participatory-marketing-network/
“A new marketing organization has been formed that you should take a
look at it. It’s called the Participatory Marketing Network. The
Participatory Marketing Network (PMN), an organization that helps marketers
transition from push and permission marketing to participatory marketing. The
PMN is the brainchild of Michael Della Penna, who was a pioneer in the email
marketing field as one of the co-founders of Bigfoot Interactive, and more
recently, was Chief Marketing Officer at database marketing firm Epsilon.
According to its web site:
Over the last 50 years, we have seen marketing evolve from “Push
Marketing” to the “Permission Marketing” concepts popularized by Seth Godin.
More recently, industry experts have proclaimed the coming of a new marketing
model “Participatory Marketing,” and while their definitions may differ
slightly, their concepts are united in their recognition that:
1. We are in the midst
of another paradigm shift that calls for new solutions that recognize and
embrace consumer control and empowerment.
2. The Internet and
technology have fundamentally changed consumer and brand interactions forever.
3. To succeed and
build trust today, marketers must advocate for consumers and make them an
active and willing participant in the promotional conversation.”
Our take at Cequity:
- In India, we
still see that regulatory efforts like “Do not call” registries are not succeeding.
You cannot push regulation and expect it to get “responsible marketing”.
Marketers just find loopholes.
- This kind of
marketing will work when marketers see how it can give them ROI. There is
no other way!