2009 was a trying time for many marketers but with the changing seasons, things are starting to look up. With the year coming to an end, we’re looking toward the new year and have compiled a list of Marketing Trends for 2010.
1. Consumer expectations are growing and they want more value.
Consumers got more for less in 2009 and will continue to expect the same in 2010. Smart marketers will develop approaches and methods to identify and capitalize on unmet expectations.
2. Brand differentiation is brand value.
A brand’s ability to differentiate themselves from generic competitors as the recession recedes will continue to provide value in true ROI terms - sales and profitability.
3. Transparency and authenticity will continue to be critical for brands.
The recession weeded out weak competitors and in 2010 consumers will continue to scrutinize the transparency of companies, the authenticity of brands and their claims.
4. Consumers continue to shape brands online.
Online conversations and communities are alive and growing. Consumer reviews and comments can extend trust /distrust to brands if the communities are authentic. These conversations are happening everyday – with or without the brand’s involvement.
5. Consumer engagement has become table stakes.
For the past few years, companies have been told that best practices included engaging consumers in two-way dialogues. For 2010, consumer engagement has now become table stakes.
6. More companies will join in social media conversations.
Online brand dialogues outside of company controlled outlets will continue to increase. According to a recent study by Deloitte (Tribalization of Business) 94% of businesses will continue or increase their investment in online communities and social media. Look for more companies to use Facebook Connect, become members of LinkedIn and to send tweets on Twitter.
7. Whether or not 2010 is the year of the Mobile, wireless communications are becoming more important.
There were numerous discussions on how 2009 was supposed to be the year of Mobile for commerce and advertising, and then more discussions on whether that came true or not. Regardless, mobile is a channel that should not be ignored by marketers as consumers have already texted in their vote.
8. ROI will remain top of mind.
With signals that the economy has come out of the recession, previously slashed marketing budgets may receive more funding, but not without justification. Executives will keep their eyes on the bottom line and scrutiny will remain on ROI and the tracking and analysis of results.
Overview
Microsoft recently relaunched their search platform under a new banner, Bing. The previous incarnation, Microsoft AdCenter, launched a few years ago and has never really challenged Google’s market share leadership. There are three key hurdles Microsoft faces in trying to gain a stronger foothold in the search market:
1. Microsoft has to compete with the familiarity of Google and overcome the habits people have established with it. With people often being creatures of habit, this isn’t easily accomplished.
2. They need to create a product that not only catches up to, but also surpasses the existing market leader with new bells and whistles that users wouldn’t otherwise have access to.
3. Microsoft’s brand is not as strong as Google’s and Google continues to carefully cultivated evangelism toward their brand.
Today’s Opinion
So far most influencers online are panning Bing, but they know that raising the search bar will only elevate everyone else’s game. Microsoft has positioned Bing as a decision making tool, alluding to the fact that this might be the long awaited foray into Web 3.0, also known as the Semantic Web. However, in its current state, Bing is not a product that is revolutionizing search. Microsoft is employing similar strategies they’ve used in the past to incentivize people to use their search platform, such as Club Bing.
There are still some black box features to Bing, but one known feature is the reverse IP look-up executed during a search query. What that enables Bing to do is identify the person’s geographic location and serve localized content and mix it within the results.
They have layered the interface with some nice roll over previewing functionality, added some dynamic global navigation against the search results and other minor bells and whistles; but again it’s basic functionality and results delivery aren’t yet gigantic leaps forward.
Microsoft is spending a lot of money to promote their newest search solution. The ad campaign looks good, but any buzz to date has been manufactured; so the real questions will be answered once the ad dollars cease beyond the launch phase and we’ll see if they maintain growth or even sustain the market share they acquire during the promotional launch period.
What Bing Means to Marketers
So far, Microsoft’s Bing still lags behind Google and Yahoo in market share. There’s no doubt they will gain more ground, which will likely come from setting Bing as the default page in their next Explorer release and embedding it’s search capabilities into Hotmail and other existing Microsoft platforms. For most marketers major changes to SEO and SEM strategies aren’t recommended at this point as it’s worth waiting for to see what adoption rates will look like.