Sunday, September 18, 2011

Will The Internet Kill Mass Media Marketing?



The communication market is changing fast due to the rise of Internet usage, and more especially the spike of social media usage. For over 30 years, marketing and communication have been strong tools for companies like Mc Donald’s, Coca Cola, or other global companies to gain market shares and become tycoons. The boom of TV and radio equipment allowed those companies to reach a large number of customers nationwide, and to impact sales in a great way (even though it is difficult to measure accurately the link between a TV campaign and sales, every one agrees that TV campaigns have a great impact on sales growth).

But nowadays the communication landscape has evolved, due to the multiplication of communication tools, but also with the rise of Internet. Internet is by definition the opposite of a mass media, which pushes the content to the audience, whereas the audience decide which website they want to visit.

This change is happening right now. We can clearly see that TV audiences are decreasing while Internet usage is booming. Nevertheless, television advertising remains a must for most of those companies, especially when they are leaders or strong challengers of a market.

For decades, some communication gurus have ruled the world of communication, letting us known what to consume, but the new tools they will have to use for the next decade (Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, blogs…) are not set up to become “mass media” tools. The whole idea is actually to segment the audience, in order to suit better their needs and points of interest.

Some brands have already experienced great successes by using social media for campaigns, but I believe that we are not done yet. And I believe that this decrease of power of mass media will not only change the way commercials will be designed, but also it will change the way companies will think their products, by focusing more on customization, and adaptation to customers’ needs.

What do you think about it?