The latest buzzword is “MarTech” – or Marketing Technology. It is what many companies today want to sell to you by way of computer software or services. They want you to believe in magic. It is what marketing people throughout the world of commerce believe is the future of everything. But – is it really?
The first thing necessary is to realize that there are two different groups when it comes to technology. There are enthusiasts and there is everybody else! This article is for everybody else. For enthusiasts, the technology in and of itself is enough to get them giddy. Everyone else wants to know: What’s in it for me? Millions strapped a fitness watch to their wrist anticipating that technology would slim them down, increase muscle mass and improve their vitality. But all it did was give them information that they needed to take action on. Without the dedication and hard work of the wearer, the watch really had no value.
Marketing technology is not much different.
What is martech? A simple definition is efforts and tools that harness technology to achieve marketing objectives. The real answer is real time information gathering. But a problem exists in that technology is needed to access martech. For the mining of marketing information, the information must exist in a digital form somewhere. Websites visited must have been recorded, page views counted, online purchases tracked, internet searches examined and even email analyzed. Essentially an organized and near total invasion of privacy so a marketer can have greater luck selling you something.
The most valuable aspects of martech are the speed of developing the information and the ability to develop in depth profiles when all the data is analyzed together. But you already know that this perfect marketing world enthusiasts dream about is just that – a dream. Have you ever seen a news story about, let’s say a new cancer drug, and then did an internet search to satisfy your curiosity about something said? That likely resulted in ads for cancer centers, amazing cures and other offers that assume you or someone you take care of is sick. Lots of data but certainly not on target.
Martech is certainly being driven by the technology sector in an effort to automate the entire selling process. This has some merit in consumer goods and the development of brand loyalty, but quickly falls apart when personality, beliefs, desires, religion, politics and virtually every other human emotion, trait or trigger is involved. Martech ignores the fundamental truth that people do business with people they want to do business with.
It also ignores that, in general people do not want to be “sold.” They may, however, want to buy and that is where you come in! Helping a buyer buy is far different from selling. All the data collection in the world can’t discover what a client wants to accomplish. How they think they might accomplish their objective might be suggested by the data, but what if they were thinking in a totally wrong direction? The electronic footprints they left behind for martech to follow are traveling in the wrong direction.
A few minutes of direct communication, however, can discover more and with more accuracy what your client wants to accomplish. The human element, the interaction of one person with another can’t be substituted by technology. No online survey will give the information that a conversation will. While it is unrealistic for a conversation to happen between every beer drinker and the beverage company, it is absolutely possible for everyone active in the promotional marketing/specialty advertising industry to do just that. Ask your clients what they are thinking about and what they would like to see in the near future. Find out the specific outcome they are willing to invest in.
Human interaction is the enemy of technology enthusiasts. For them everything is about efficiency and therefore technology is the future of everything. I won’t argue that technology is the ultimate driver of efficiency, but to quote Peter Drucker as I did nearly a year ago in this column, “Efficiency is doing things right; effectiveness is doing the right things.”
As the quote by Albert Einstein at the beginning of this article points out, only human interaction will build real knowledge – and eventually wisdom.
Gregg Emmer is chief marketing officer and vice president at Kaeser & Blair, Inc. He has more than 40 years experience in marketing and the promotional specialty advertising industry. His outside consultancy provides marketing, public relations and business planning consulting to a wide range of other businesses and has been a useful knowledge base for K&B Dealers. Contact Gregg at gemmer@kaeser-blair.com.