It’s Time For Retro Marketing

Every company needs to be a media company, markets are conversations, It’s about telling stories, if you are not marketing on social media you do not exist, etc, etc…

If I grabbed 10 books off of my shelf I could find researched theses on each of the concepts listed above and many more.

As we begin a new year, I find myself wondering if the “new era” of marketing is quickly becoming the cluttered noise that it hopes to rise above. The latest “Fad” based on a few case studies where a different approach proved successful based on the unique circumstances of that business or industry. One thing is for sure, fads fade.

It reminds me of similar cycles in food and fashion:

Carbs are good, carbs are bad, protein only, protein only is bad.
Ties are wide, ties are narrow, no ties, ties are back.

Is marketing evolving or is it merely moving in a fad cycle in the same way diets and fashions move in and out of style?

Fad Marketing = Fad Diets = Fashion Trends

Rather than trying to figure out the next trend, consider looking backwards.

For all the new ideas being presented in order to find the front edge of the envelope, it is worth noting that the timeless wisdom of the likes of Peter Drucker, Napoleon Hill and Nelson Rockefeller remain highly effective. Follow the teachings of any of these thinkers today and you will still find success.

As companies accelerate to embrace all these “New Marketing” ideas, the classics become more surprising, more novel and more effective.

A phone call, jumping on a plane to meet in person and a thoughtful handwritten note in the mail remains more powerful to me than 1,000 Facebook ads, Instagram posts that fail to connect and blog posts that nobody reads (Yes, I see the irony in writing that in a blog post).

At some point, everything old is new again. Simple beats complicated. Comfort beats confusion.

“Retro Marketing” is just around the corner.