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View Full Version : What place does traditonal marketing have in modern advertising?



Laura Chittenden
01-07-2013, 03:44 PM
As I'm sure you are aware, many have debated the future of traditional marketing, whether or not it is dead. I believe traditional marketing will always have a "place," but I'm wondering just what is that "place"? In your experience (I am talking especially to copywriters):

How have you used traditional marketing for clients?
Do you believe hard sell techniques have their place in certain types of advertising or they all outdated and obnoxious?
Is content writing and the focus on customer relationship marketing the new way to go, or is there a place for traditional advertising methods?
Who (what kind of companies) should use traditional advertising methods?

I know that this is a lot of questions wrapped up into one, but if you have insight into one or more of them, I'd greatly appreciate reading it.

vangogh
01-07-2013, 10:16 PM
I'm not a copywriter, but I hope I can still respond. I agree that traditional marketing isn't going away. What it comes down to is how you reach people. Some traditional places where you would have advertised aren't reaching as many people as they once were, but some still are. Most companies would ideally market both online and offline. For example I spend most of my time online and it's probably the best way to reach me. Yet I still read some magazines in print. I still watch tv and occasionally listen to the radio. I get plenty of marketing messages in the mail and even open a few. The traditional ways to market haven't gone away, though many don't reach the same number of people.

Having said that, I do think you want to start paying more attention to online ways of marketing. Less magazines are being printed and more digital ones being produced. Younger generations watch more video on computers and less tv. Traditional radio stations are being replaced by Rdio, Spotify, and Pandora. Instead of phone books people are reaching for search engines and Yelp. The good news is there's a huge need for copywriters online.

As far as techniques are concerned the basic principles of copywriting apply anywhere. You're still trying to convince people to take some action online and much the same way you'd write copy for a magazine will still work online. There are differences and you'll probably need to tweak things, but the core is still the same. People have always found certain types of advertising obnoxious, yet that same advertising often works. Direct mail now gets sent as email. The local business brochure is now a small website. It isn't exactly the same online and there are more things to know, but the core ideas of what works in copy works online as well as offline. That stuff isn't targeted toward the medium. It's target toward how human beings respond.

Dan Furman
01-07-2013, 11:38 PM
Personally, I don't use a lot of traditional marketing, because mine is a worldwide business, so I look to online advertising more than brochures and business cards (etc).

I don't like hard sell myself, but like VG said, it does work, sometimes (think selling cars or retail businesses. Every time someone brings in "honest, one price selling", they usually fail. We still like loud sales. :) )

I *do* think relationship marketing is going to be bigger - I'm going to tailor some efforts there this year.

Hope that helps.

KristineS
01-08-2013, 01:22 PM
I think the forms of marketing you use depends largely on where your target market is and how they consume marketing messages. I'll give you an example. I work for a company which is actually two companies, a parent company which operates in one industry and a second company started some years later which operates in a somewhat related industry, but only tenuously. The industry where the parent company operates is very slow to adopt new technology. Some of the companies still fax orders, and some are barely computer literate. Our marketing for this company tends to rely on printed pieces because that's what the industry knows and understands and can access. We've tried doing some online stuff and the response has been very minimal. The industry simply doesn't have the tech savvy.

By contrast the subsidiary company doesn't do much that's printed. We use QR codes, social media, online surveys, videos and things like that to communicate with our target market. The customers for this company have computers, iPads, smartphones and are generally quite technologically saavy. They're more likely to access a survey through a QR code than they are to read a printed piece. We do currently have a printed catalog, but I think that will mostly go to a downloadable version soon.

The techniques you use will largely depend on what you know about your market. In some places hard sell works, although I think it's working less and less. I think relationship marketing is becoming more and more popular, but that's a slippery slope as well. Some major brands have found out that it only takes one stupid moment for relationships to be damaged.

Really, I've always found anyway, knowing your market is the key thing. Once you have a handle on your target market you can examine your available marketing options and determine which ones will work best.

Laura Chittenden
01-08-2013, 04:05 PM
Thanks everyone, and keep those answers coming. I learn something as each poster puts a new twist on it.

I think KristineS you spelled out the heart of the matter -- that the channel a business should use is the ones its customers use. VG, you expounded on this too and gave some more details which I find very, very helpful. Dan Furman, I like your points, too, which confirm what I was thinking and were succinct and informative. Since I want to learn more about copywriting, I checked out your website and ended up spending quite some time devouring it. I found it very informative even though it was directed at your clients.

vangogh
01-10-2013, 07:02 PM
Laura I think it really will come down to who you see as potential clients. Some people you'll only be able to reach online and some only offline and most probably a little of both. A business' best bet is to try different things. Experiment with different marketing channels and find some that work for you to generate leads and clients. Then try to do all of them better and try even more marketing channels to grow the business.

By the way are you asking more to learn how you can market your business or is this more thinking about the kinds of service you'll offer and where your clients are more likely to market?

PaperCraftinc
07-18-2013, 03:13 PM
I have found that the use of traditional marketing is still powerful, even though marketing is progessing more and more towards the Internet.

As a professional brander, I have found that companies still value simple branding on paper, which is a form of marketing in it's own.

Marketing pieces, such as business cards, letterhead, envelopes, business labels-- all pieces that represent the company and cause first impressions, are still used today to create an image that sells the company.

Although these things are not what may first come to mind when one thinks about marketing, they are still marketing tools that can not be replaced by electronics.

Thoughts??

patrickprecisione
07-22-2013, 09:30 AM
Traditional marketing still has its place. But you need to make certain adjustments. Hard sell can still work too it just depends on how you do it. The same marketing tactics that worked 100 (or even 25 years) ago may still not work, but that doesn't mean they can't work with some adjustments for modern audiences.

vangogh
07-22-2013, 11:28 PM
I have found that the use of traditional marketing is still powerful, even though marketing is progessing more and more towards the Internet.

As long as people continue to consume traditional media, traditional marketing is going to work. I do think we're going to continue to see less and less people consuming traditional media though. Even things like business cards will be replaced by sending your information from one phone to another. But I don's see traditional media disappearing in the immediate future. We're at a time where both traditional and online marketing make sense as long as you understand the future is heading online.


The same marketing tactics that worked 100 (or even 25 years) ago may still not work, but that doesn't mean they can't work with some adjustments for modern audiences.

I think the same basic concepts still work the same as they always have. They were based more on how human beings respond than the specifics of how the message was delivered. Some of the best marketers online are people who were successful offline. You're right though that things have been adjusted and will continue to be adjusted. It's easier to track success and failure online so for one thing we're learning to drop those things that didn't work in favor of those things that do.