Greater Pragmatism in Technology for Marketing Predicted in 2011

A recent blog post at DM News has predicted that marketing will become more measured and cautious over the use of shiny new technologies in marketing campaigns this year.

In the post by Larissa Hayden, she says that:

“As adoption of emerging technology grows, so does the need for broader knowledge of how consumers are interacting with those technologies. In addition to stats on device ownership, marketers need to learn about device behavior and digital desires, and even user experience design…. brands this year will have to consider whether their target market has a smartphone, downloads apps, or even wants to know more about the brand while on the go.”

This raises an interesting point, and one which takes us back to some of the underlying principles of direct marketing. In the rush to adopt these shiny new gizmo’s targeting may have been sacrificed.

Instead of building a campaign around the available technologies, the campaign should be centred on the target market and what communication channels they prefer to use. As Hayden intimates, your target market might not actually be active users of smartphone apps and may in fact respond better to a rather conventional direct mail campaign.

It just show’s that no matter how shiny, clever and whizzy the new technology, there’s still no substitute for putting yourself in the shoes of your target market.