The most important medium for marketers is … wait for it …
Twenty years ago the marketing function wasn’t just getting off the ground for credit unions, but also for the financial services industry as a whole. Working for a $1 Billion thrift back then, I was part of a three-person marketing department (two before they created my position). Needless to say, their marketing department was only utilizing a few marketing mediums or channels – newspaper (for deposits) and billboards (for loans). They didn’t even have a website back then, let alone online banking.
During the past 20 years, many (and I mean MANY) new marketing channels have been invented assisting marketers (those who chose to keep up their skills) to target different segments of current and potential customers. But are the “old” channels still relevant today? Are they even close to today’s, new digital marketing methods? It depends…let’s look at a few of them.
Your current state of brand awareness is key to determining your marketing methods. Is your company not yet established in your marketplace? Or, are you smaller than your competition and/or new to the area? If so, you should consider mediums that allow for an immediate, high-impact approach such as TV, billboards and radio (traditional channels). The same could be said for those organizations that are going through a name change / re-branding.
So, does that mean traditional marketing methods shouldn’t be incorporated for well-established brands? Well, do you still see/hear ads on TV/radio for McDonald’s, BestBuy and WalMart? Would they still spend billions each year on traditional advertising if it didn’t work?