Lets take Wednesday to review. Lately we have covered marketing to men and also controversial marketing. Lets take a trip down memory lane and take a look at an ad, that by today's standards would be both controversial as well as a an ad targeted directly at men. It truly is amazing how far we have come.
This ad would have been pulled so fast Belvedere Vodka's head would spin. It is almost a perfect storm, it has everything - glorifying men, degrading women, tacky neck ties. The days of "Mad Men" marketing seem to have come and gone. As our social standards change so does everything else. Maybe one day people will look back at our advertising and laugh about how ridiculous it is and maybe even how inappropriate. I am less interested in that and more interested to see how marketing is going to be done in the future.
There will always be targeted marketing and lets face facts - our standards may change but marketing will always toe the line of what is appropriate. In my opinion what will change most in marketing in the coming years is the level of localisation and ability to target. I am not saying it will reach out as far as lets say "Minority Report" but with all the analytics that take place today and technology surpassing our wildest dreams I do not think we are too far from a custom message greeting us in a mall. A message letting us know what products (which we have a history of buying) are on sale and what else would interest us. I mean everytime you land on Amazon's home page or Best buys site they immeadiatley let you know what you have been looking at recently. They even let you know what other products might be up your alley. It wont be long until this technology hits retail.
You may be asking - how? How will the retail stores recognize you. Well that answer seems obvious doesn't it? Our cell phones have become the hubs of our lives. Soon we will have our car keys, wallets, health insurance, the whole nine yards all saved in our little virtual servants. Not to much longer after that they will be broadcasting our preferences to the retails stores, sending our spending history and data mining our habits. At that point the retail stores might even know what you want before you do! You may think this is invasive, but I don't. It is beneficial both to the consumer as well as the businesses involved. It gets you the information you need while encouraging sales for the business. It is a win - win, and personally I look forward to it.
It is exciting to speculate about the future, but for now all we can do is sit and wait! See you in the future.
Images from RetroJunk and BizTechEcon
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