There’s a great myth that needs bursting. It’s the one that marketers – and the people they market to – are from different tribes.
Let’s face it, everyone is marketing something. And everyone buys. It’s a bit like cyclists and motorists. Or cooks and diners. The roles aren’t mutually exclusive.
So, let’s burst the myth. Marketers are people too. But, unfortunately, sometimes they forget.
In May 2018, there’s a new piece of UK legislation coming into force that has been – like many other UK laws – mandated by the European Union. The UK Data Protection Bill will, once it’s passed, enact the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation. At the heart of the new law is the idea of consent.
Citizens are the new, new thing
So why draw attention to the marketing tribe myth? Well, it’s important to bear in mind that the new legislation only really focuses on citizens. It doesn’t make any distinction between this type of citizen or that. It recognises that people don’t want to be pestered with unwanted communications unless they’ve specifically consented to receive it. It also gives people the right to request information that’s held about them – and for the right to be forgotten.
There’s more to the law than that. But, in a funny way, it asks marketers to think about citizens, not consumers or customers. And marketers, of course, are citizens like everyone else. They would no more like their personal data to be abused or lost than anyone else.
One man’s marketer is another’s customer. All citizens together.
Love: a conference
On January 25th, we’re holding a one-day conference in conjunction with Proctor & Stevenson that will look at the GDPR and express love. Why?
Because we’re citizens too. As citizens that spend quite a bit of time marketing products to other citizens it makes sense that we don’t want to annoy or pester or endanger the rights of our fellow citizens. We also love elegance – the elegance of communicating with people who want to converse.
This is the opportunity that’s presented to us. We’ll have the opportunity to get much better at what we do. And we’ll waste less and be more effective. What’s not to love?
The content
The one-day conference will be held in the wonderful Colston Hall in Bristol and will feature an array of speakers who see the GDPR as an opportunity to do marketing much better. Our compère for the day will be Jeff Peel, Managing Director of Quadriga Consulting. Jeff has been a vocal campaigner for more citizen-focused approaches to marketing. Jeff argues that many brand owners treat their customers more like serfs than fellow citizens. He’ll argue that the emergence of the digitally-savvy citizen requires a complete re-thinking of roles. The concept of ‘tell-sell’ approaches to marketing is rendered completely redundant following the GDPR.
Our love pledge
At Quadriga Consulting, and at Proctors, we focus primarily on business to business marketing. But we accept that the same mantra applies: our customers would prefer gently and appropriately delivered snuggles than hectoring, inappropriate and unsolicited tell-selling.
This has always been our way, but not all brand owners entirely get it. They’ll have to now. The sanctions will be too severe if they don’t.
But in keeping with the new normal we’re partnering with Quadriga Consulting to develop the idea of Informed Consent Marketing. This, we believe, is the most appropriate means of communicating with people in a post-GDPR world.
To an extent, our January conference is a case in point. We’ve no axes to grind. We’re simply trying to get some dialogue going. But the content and issue-rich approach to communications will increasingly define what we’re about. We think that’s good and we hope you agree.
We’ll be rolling out more information about Informed Consent Marketing and what form it might take for your business. We’ll also discuss the concept briefly at the event on January 25.
Why bother?
There’s no moving the goal-posts on this one. The Data Protection Bill is coming. There are implications for marketing and the failure to do things right will be severe. But the opportunities from getting things right will be just dandy. So, there’s a lovely double whammy reason to attend our event. You’ll get up to speed quickly but you’ll have a great big stimulating and love-filled day too.
The details
Awesome speakers, the agenda, venue details, read all about it here.
