1:1:1 Marketing

How do we Marketer’s combine the idea of 1:1 Marketing, the big of the late 1990ies with the stronger empowerment and consumer in control trend that has occurred in the last 5 years? I asked myself this question since I am meeting more companies who don’t really know how to deal with the new paradigm of consumer communities and loss of control to the consumer. These marketers have pushed the 1:1 Marketing paradigm over the last 10 years and felt on the cutting edge. Now what?

I believe that it’s not about abandoning one of these two approaches but to figure out of how to combine both approaches to design a better marketing strategy. I think we have three options to combine both approaches in a productive and innovative manner.

• 1:1:1 Marketing: Nowadays it’s not just anymore about telling the most relevant stories to consumers but to enable them in telling the most positive brand story to their friends and networks. Therefore the 1:1 marketing approach ended too early, it needs to include the modern most important brand building element - what kind of stories do consumers tell their friends
• 1:Segment:1 Marketing: It might be less about pushing much further into the tailored 1:1 Communication but to enable segment specific programs. Successfully targeted members of these segments will then tell the most behavioral changing story within their networks
• 1:1:Community: We can turn the 2nd option around and end our marketing step with the community segment. Our job here is to enable the individual to bring the most advocated position to his or her community. Here it’s less about the individual consumer as the end point of our marketing efforts but the community itself.

None of these three options need to be the single solution. Any of these three options can be the right answer depending on the marketing and communication problem one needs to solve.