“A critical principle of ecology is that of competitive exclusion: no two species can occupy the same niche in the same environment for a long time.Consequently, natural selection will tend to force species to adapt to different ecological niches. This may mean that, for example, two species of cichlid fish adapt to live in different habitats, which will minimise the competition between them for food.”
“Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.“
- From Wikipedia
Let us begin with basis for predictions in the post’s hypothesis:
- AdWords is a form of marketing
- One of the major selling points of AdWords is that a near perfect Return-On-Investment is attained.
- Many AdWords search agencies will sell their services to a client, and not reccomend other forms of marketing.
- If people do not know your business exists, the chance of searching for you as a service provider is minimal.
My prediction.
“AdWords and online specific marketing agencies will soon cease to be. Traditional media agencies will either merge, or compete with the online-specific agencies until
online-specific agencies lose.
The only other option is Google creating an infrastructure that allows online-specific agencies to perform traditional media marketing services as well as the exitsting traditional media-specific agencies”
My reasoning.
Firstly, if you think this prediction has no merit. Please stop reading – You are clearly a retarded sheeple. There is nothing for you here.
Once upon a time - before smartphones, mp3 sales were skyrocketing. One could jog and listen to their favourite music.
Once upon a time - before smartphones, cellular phone’s were hot. Imagine! talking to people with no line attached!.
Then the smartphone arrived.
Sales of mp3 players decreased substantially.
If you are like me, and hate having to click links and read the content because it means navigating off the core article, here is a snippet of the article linked to above.
“The study uses the example of the portable MP3 player’s already slowing sales as an example. It says, ” … the once-ultrahot MP3 player market has commenced an irreversible decline, not because consumers are no longer interested in music, but because other systems, primarily smartphones like the iPhone, also include audio functionality as part of a much broader suite of features.”
It adds, “In many cases, users can replace a slew of dedicated systems with just one multipurpose device, gaining functionality and portability while simultaneously saving money.”
Why do I use this to justify my prediction?
Clearly, consumers prefer centralization of functionality, based on the previous section.
Therefore, a marketing Agency capable of providing traditional marketing services on par with those used by Nando’s, and providing online services on par with those used by Hippo Insurance, will be more sought after than the niche agencies.
Let us look at Hippo Insurance, one of the most successful AdWords Accounts in the most competitive arena – Insurance.
- Everyone remembers the fat dancing hippo
- The fat dancing hippo was able to give the consumer the ability to view and compare insurance quotes online – easily!
- He was happy whilst doing so.
- One did not have to compare quotes laboriously, calling different brokers for quotes.
Why do I remember that? Why does it stick in my head? Why do I so strongly relate with their AdWords search adverts?
Ask yourself that question..
Just as the age of the mp3 player was in decline due to the smartphone. The age of insurance companies retaining customers due to brand strength was coming to an end.
Why pay more, if a less expensive and equally satisfactory service can be rendered by another provider?
The market became more transparent. Competition became fierce.
–
“A critical principle of ecology is that of competitive exclusion: no two species can occupy the same niche in the same environment for a long time.Consequently, natural selection will tend to force species to adapt to different ecological niches. This may mean that, for example, two species of cichlid fish adapt to live in different habitats, which will minimise the competition between them for food.”
Tradional media agencies sell traditional marketing services.
Online media agencies sell online marketing services.
Taking the above quote into mind, and applying it to the two differing agency comparing them to organisms;
- All specific marketing agencies are different species.
- The ecological niches they have adapted to are their service offerings.
- In doing so, competition for food is minimised.
However, the food upon which these agencies feed, are suppliers of gooods and services.
Thus, both consume the same food.
The adaptation becomes meaningless, as each species will attempt to convince the “food” that their service offering is more effective than the others.
It could be argued that this is not true.
For example, why do we not buy our jeans at Pick ‘n Pay.
This is because Pick ‘n Pay does not offer jeans of the same quality as retailers such as Guess.
Pick ‘n Pay sells consumables that are cost effective. They do not compete with Guess as their “food” is on a different LSM level.
This is not the case with advertising services.
True, a mechanic may only be able to afford a radio ad on Heart, however, as mentioned before, if Google creates an infrastructure for online agencies to create radio ads at the same price and quality as a traditional marketing agencies, the online agency then broadens its service offerings, and methamorphasises into something completely new.
Also, traditional media has always been extremely helpful in the success of online marketing projects. The two are symbiotic.
Many argue that online marketing is better, for a variety of reasons.
For example: “You can track your return-on-investment more accurately due to tracking – Therefore marketing expense can be turned into capital investment”
This hypothesis is flawed, for a number of reasons:
- Consumers are not solely influenced by online marketing. There may be traditional media in place that allows the spend expense to become an investment.
- There is still strong debate as to wether tracking is accurate with regards to specifics. For example, does a generic create the brand awareness that gives the brand keywords more traffic?
People watch TV.
People listen to the radio.
People read magazines.
People surf the net.
All of these are platforms that can be used for marketing.
As a supplier of goods or services, would you prefer having to interface multiple agencies to reach these marketing platforms?
Or would you prefer a single marketing agency that is excellent in all of these fields?
Simply put. do you want an iPad and a Sattelite phone, or do you prefer an iPhone?
