Playing by the rules and the pike syndrome

A guest blog post from the freelancer!

Well, they’re keeping me busy here, working on, among other things, forthcoming Open Days, UCMK and PG Life, our monthly newsletter for those interested in postgrad education.
I’ve even recorded and edited (with a lot of help from Lauren!) my first YouTube video – an interview about our PG tourism courses.
As someone with a background in B2B marketing and sales it’s great to be talking to a different public in the form of potential, current and former University of Bedfordshire students. Whilst the audience is different the principles of communicating useful information to make informed purchase decisions are the same. 
Or so I thought … until… the traditional view of Marketing was called into question in a very entertaining way at a Knowledge Network event that Sarah, Rehanna and I went to at Putteridge Bury.

Business guru Grant Leboff, of Sticky Marketing fame, started off telling us about the ‘pike syndrome’ (go on - look it up on YouTube!) and used this analogy to educate us in the 3 (new) rules of marketing in the wake of the communications revolution and how we are all hyperconnected these days. (Except those of us who don’t have a smartphone yet but apparently I’m in a very small minority!!)
In a nutshell (because he talked for well over an hour, punctuated with examples ranging from the ‘Share a Coke’ campaign to Tesco weekly money-off vouchers and how Ford gave away Fiesta cars to prominent social media barons):

Rule 1. Marketing is no longer a means to an end-it’s an end in itself-no-one has a USP any more so Marketing must give value to the customer

Rule 2.  Marketing is no longer about products and services but about people, with information disseminated through virtual conversations ie  ‘online word of mouth’ such as Likes on Facebook or recommendations on shopping sites like Amazon

Rule 3. Marketing is no longer about getting customers (at least not directly) but about building communities and engaging with your public at different levels.

Perhaps I’ve added a bit of value with this blog post-especially to any marketers out there- by spreading the word about this ‘Marketing revolution’.

What do you think about how we communicate with you –can we give you ‘added value’?

In fact, is anyone out there reading this?!!

Actually that makes me reflect on that old philosophical chestnut –if a tree falls in a forest but nobody hears it did it actually make a sound? If I write something online, but no-one reads it, did it exist or has it disappeared in the ether?

Whoa!!... this is getting way too serious-I should be blogging about the latest piece of vintage jewellery I bought off eBay to add to my stunning collection-or whether to up the weights I’ll press in the gym tonight.  Or whether my beloved St Helens will get through to the Super League Grand Final…now, in view of this season’s poor form (they're playing like that pike), that would take some new rules!