So here are The Nurture Network’s latest marketing buzzwords to watch out for:
Sharkonomics
No, it doesn’t refer to Shark Tank, the US version of Dragons Den but to the book, Sharkonomics: How to Attack the Market Leaders, which talks about how brand leaders are hunted and devoured by competitors wanting to steal market share. The key to Sharkonomics is to learn from others mistakes and start planning long before your competitors strike. But the most profound piece of advice is move or die; businesses that don’t innovate, evolve and remain relevant are overtaken.
Participatory marketing
Customers want to interact with the brands in rewarding and interesting new ways and the most successful marketing campaigns recognise the need to market with people, instead of at them – which defines the overarching principle of participatory marketing. The focus has thus shifted to generating high quality content with a brand personality and story that can be communicated with customers through multiple touch points, so that they want to interact with it.
The F-Factor
Don’t worry, you haven’t missed the launch of another terrible reality TV show, on the contrary, the F-Factor refers to the increasing importance of second-level contacts or so-called friends, fans and followers, which have been powered by the growth of social media. Brands marketing at customers are increasingly interested in not only their initial target customer but also that customer’s circle of influence.
Gamification
Despite the name, gamification doesn’t typically apply to computer games but rather how the competitive element of gaming is being introduced to real life products and processes as a way to encourage engagement. Often Gamification works by making a real world task more engaging by allowing users to collect points or badges to reward completion – just like in a computer game.
SoLoMo
SoLoMo is the fusion of social, local and mobile and represents the growing marketing trend of targeting content or promotions at consumers based on their current location, via their mobile. This type of marketing is designed to be shared by the consumer with their F-Factor networks via social media. The importance for brands is that smartphones and the continuing growth of mobile and 4G means that having a local presence can enable marketers to maximize on location patterns.
Likeconomics
If developing a brand ever feels like taking part in a popularity contest, then Facebook’s ‘Like’ button is partly to blame. Likenomics is a spinoff of attraction marketing, the idea that consumers start to like brands which their peers like. Therefore being ‘liked’ (Facebook) ‘followed’ (twitter), ‘plussed’ (Google+) or ‘pinned’ (Pinterest) on a social media platform impacts the economics of a brand.
Plusification
Plusification originates from the ‘plus’ in the Google+ social network platform, which is a form of Facebook ‘Liking’. However, when integrated with Google’s other platforms such as search engine searches or YouTube views it means that Google can now reshape the content you view based upon what you and your closest contacts have publicly ‘plussed’ – giving it even more reach and potential power, if it takes off.
Tradigital
In some sectors of the industry, digital marketing has developed separately to traditional marketing principles and Tradigital is the realisation that to design and launch successful holistic campaigns you need to be applying the traditional principles of branding and marketing to the digital space in order to maximise your campaign effectiveness.
In-sourcing
In-sourcing is increasingly being used to describe the flexible approach to staffing where a third party outsourcer is brought in to work within a business as one of the team. As businesses seek to remain leaner and more dynamic, many have turned to in-sourcing business solutions – employing individuals, and sometimes whole teams – either for a set term, or part time in an on-demand and flexible way. This is what The Nurture Network model is based on; with most new business not having the resources for full time heavy-weight marketers, you can get one just when you need it.
Big Data
Recent social media IPO’s are testimony to the financial power of the data that online platforms collect about users. Big data has evolved from two parallel but interrelated concepts; namely that companies today store such vast quantities of data that they have had to start innovating about how to collect, store, organize, analyze, share and most importantly, utilize it in such a way as to create a competitive advantage.
Have you heard any undecipherable or entertaining buzz words lately? Add a comment below with any new ones and we’ll shed some light.
Christina Richardson is a business marketing specialist and Founder of The Nurture Network, the on-demand marketing department for ambitious SMEs. With a proven track record in leading high profile marketing campaigns for entrepreneurial brands, The Nurture Network are a partner of GrowthAccelerator, working with business leaders who are passionate about growing their business. GrowthAccelerator matches businesses with experts to define a tailored growth plan to accelerate and realise their growth potential – opening the doors to external funding, new business opportunities and boosting innovation and leadership. Christina’s extensive experience working with entrepreneurs and dynamic businesses mean she is a much in demand thought leader, a business mentor at University College London and regular speaker at industry events including The British Library.
