Marketing's 'awareness rut'

Marketing has a problem of perception.

The term is often loosely used to indicate that was is needed in a given situation is 'awareness'.

It is still seen as the 'purveyor of promotion', the act of attracting fresh, new customers through 'creativity' and hype. Spend money, get people in the door.

Marketing is trapped in an 'awareness rut'.

Perhaps more accurately; marketing is trapped in an increasingly-expensive 'awareness rut'. A never-ending customer treadmill that never really allows a brand to build a deeper relationship with customers that really matter.

In an effort to break free of the rut - the industry has transformed itself with a thick layer of new digital solutions.

Marketing spend is now more accountable - analytics goes a long way to calm the nerves of the finance people, but the mindset that is applied to the marketing function still hasn't shifted out of the first silo of the customer journey map.

What's needed is that executives urgently need training in customer-centricity rather than just having a focus on digital transformation to truly solve the perception issue.

Customer-centricity is the new science of marketing.

It's that lab coat that goes perfectly with the multi-coloured Converse takkies that were always a staple in the marketing department.

Not enough is being made of actively developing a customer-centric mindset amongst executives. Perhaps it's because there is a misunderstanding of what the term means? Maybe it's because marketing folk tend to be poor at maths and statistics and fear it? Maybe it's a culture thing?

The 'awareness rut' is real and it's holding the true value of modern marketing back.