This weeks issue of Marketing is, as they proudly announce, their 75th Anniversary Issue.

So I eagerly grabbed it hoping that it was going to reveal not only the past history of Marketing and Advertising in England but, and to me, more importantly, the exciting future that lays ahead.

Was I ever wrong!

There was not one mention of the word “communication”, despite the fact that, in my opinion, successful communication is what marketing is all about.

Rather there was a self-congratulatory note, like the headline to one article “Changing Times, lasting truths.”

Which said, basically, “The advertising industry has changed enormously in 45 years. Or has it?

Then it went on to say “…reading an article on choosing an agency in 1962 appearing in Marketing they found many of its recommendations relevant today”!

Really!

I don’t think so at all, the communications scene has changed so much and advertising agencies are falling by the wayside.

As the Magazine says, consumer tastes, technology and media channels have all changed beyond recognition since the 30s, but the industry’s core principles have remained remarkably constant!

Best summed up by the words “One trick ponies” There was even an article on the success of BT, this little gem “Understanding and spelling out the importance of connections to our consumers has summed up BT’s marketing efforts of the past 25 years, its strong history of popular advertising is testament to this”

Really?

And there’s the rub, throughout this little 75th exercise there was not one mention of accountability

And one would have thought that, more than ever, at a time when the advertising aspect of marketing are under severe questioning as to its effectiveness, that a few, unquestionable research studies proving, once an for all, that advertising works, would be extremely well received!

But then again, and to the best of my knowledge, there is still not one research study that establishes conclusively that advertising sells products!

If you accept my thesis that the key to successful marketing is successful communication followed by successful selling. Then allow me to insert here the correct definition of the word “communication” and I would, at the same time, like to suggest that this should have been included in the 75th Anniversary Issue of Marketing. What is communication? After a little thought, most people come up with a definition that is about transmitting and receiving information. A little more thought might produce the word exchange. This is more satisfactory, but still assumes that communication is about moving something about conveying, or sending, or delivering, some commodity called ‘information’.

In fact, the word has quite a different root meaning. It derives from the Latin communis, meaning ‘common’. Or ‘shared’. It belongs to the family of words that includes communion, communism and community. Until you have shared information with another person, you haven’t communicated it. And until they have understood it, the way you understand it, you haven’t shared it with them.

Communication is the process of creating shared understanding.

Never once did this special edition of Marketing mention the fact that we must change in the way we think about media, there must be a major shift away from thinking about media as ‘channels’ down which we tip messages and information. Only in so far as they serve and help advertisers access and harness the power of the social networks that lie behind them.

Neither did this issue of Marketing once seriously discuss research, especially focus groups, both of which consume vast amounts of marketing monies!

Never once did this issue consider the need for more patience. The more breakthrough, the more the revolutionary and the more innovative an idea is, the longer it will take for people to appreciate it.

Next we feel that they should have pointed out that to day with all the clutter, mistrust etc that exists, people in management need to tolerate uncertainty.

The thing that’s driving all this focus-group and market research data is the desire of people with the management power to make every decision as methodical and thought out and certain as possible.

Severe symptoms of what we call “Top-Down-Management”!

These days and wherever you go, a revolution in media consumption is happening. No one in most traditional media businesses has a clue where it will end up, but the trick for existing brands will be to find ways to retain audiences and advertisers. In a era where people have the tools to rewrite and remix what they do not like, the unawareness of all this shone through the special issue of Marketing!

Certainly the next, and major, development within marketing is the development of interactive communication, again no mention of this most significant of all developments so we think that this little description of interactive communication should have been included somewhere within this issue!

Defining Interactive Marketing.

Interaction can be defined simply as straightforward communication between two parties.

Presently we are in danger of losing the real meaning of interaction, as we tend to focus discussions on the emerging technologies and neglect the communication process itself.

With an understanding of the real meaning of Interactive Communication, existing media can be made interactive, and subsequently far more cost effective.

Paul Ashby pioneered interactive communication to the advertising and marketing communities some twenty-five years ago. The communication issues he addresses have been neglected during the explosive grown of advertising in the 60s, 70s and 80s, these are Cognitive Dissonance, Selective Retention and Selective Exposure.