I thought very hard about this question, and reflected on the last 5-8 years of my academic career. I looked at who has inspired me in exploring knowledge, adoption and use of electronic technologies. The works I’ve read and reviewed range from the work of Charles Darwin on Evolutionary Science, the writings of Plato and Sir Francis Bacon on Form and Knowledge, Marshall McLuhan in his media philosophy of the 1960′s,  to more recent work of Innovation Theory by Everett Rogers and Technology Adoption by Fred Davis.

But if I think back to the early days of my research career, as an Honours research student in the mid 1990′s embarking on research about the impact of technology on Marketing philosophy, it would be the work of Prof. Donna Hoffman that really inspired and changed the way I viewed at not just technology, but also the socio-cultural implications/influences of technological developments.

Prof. Donna Hoffman

In the early stages of the research component of my honours degree at Griffith University Australia, I was given a article to read by my Professor of Internet Marketing, Prof. Ed Forrest. Ed was a visiting Academic in Australia from Florida, and established a programme on our schools graduate programme on Internet Marketing and Internet Marketing Research. A programme that for the mid-1990′s was cutting in edge in the critical discussions we had in the classroom about the role of technology in business and wider society. As a research student on the undergraduate programme, I took part in these discussions of Toffler, Media Determinism and Network Complexity.

However the article from these discussions that has remained integral to both my academic and commerical work since that day was an article published by Prof. Donna Hoffman in the highest ranked marketing journal – Journal of Marketing. It was co-authored with Prof. Thomas Novak and was entitled: Marketing in Hypermedia Computer Mediated Environments (HCME’s): Conceptual Foundations. It was this article that raised the critical enquiry in marketing about technology-mediated communications and for me, the acqusition and creation of knowledge about technology – given their complexity in technical design, and situational context of application and use.

Prof. Donna Hoffman award winning and Internationally recognised research set the tone for marketing enquiry into internet marketing and digital media management and as the founder of eLab, an online laboratory for consumer behavior research and the Co-Director of the Sloan Center for Internet Retailing, her work not only informs academic enquiry through publication in top marketing and management journals, but informs policy for commercialization and use of the Internet.

So my pledge for Ada Lovelace Day, is the work and approach to technology science of Prof. Donna Hoffman.

Twitter: @profhoff
Web: Sloan Centre of Internet Retailing

Smiles

Kelly

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Here is a list of ideas to keep the mystery (or creativity) in Electronic Marketing … or should I say the marketing in electronic marketing.

Marketing, after all is not just a management planning process, but a creative process based on ideas, not just the resources used to manage and implement these ideas.

1. Defy reason – make a decision for your product or brand based entirely on feelings and emotions (not data) …
2. Allow for the unexpected – play with social media such as a blog, FB group page etc for your brand and just see what happens …
3. Invite difference – post messages on twitter, comment on blogs and talk to strangers about your brand (not just folks in your company or contracted to work for you) …
4. Don’t just search – use the ‘I’m Feeling Lucky’ function on Google and think how the site you come across might be connected with your product/brand …
5. Enjoy and celebrate the unsettling feeling of not getting ‘it’ 100% right’ on your website … yes it is ok! Uncertainity, change, failure and imperfection are natural elements in life … just as they are in the use of technology in marketing, be it your website, social media campaign or just use of work email … enjoy the fact you still have 100 emails in your inbox …
6. Walk away from your computer, grab a piece of paper, some coloured pens and draw something … anything … to remind you that marketing is also about creativity …
7. Wonder at old technologies … the printing press, the telephone, the turntable, the cassette tape …
8. Don’t send that email … pick up the phone, walk down the corridor and have a conversation, a coffee or just hi …
9. Spend a day with a child or teenager having fun and ask them to show you how they see electronic technologies through their eyes … it’s not just about data and information, it’s about having fun, being connected …
10. Never forget that electronic marketing is actually about people, not just technologies … with electronic technologies we are observing someone, contacting someone, interacting with someone … so think people first!

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Imagine if we found answers for everything, could explain anything … we should therefore know how to market to you, to everyone? But perhaps more importantly, it is the imagination, the creativity of marketing that we would lose, not just the mystery of our markets!

A sense of mystery is intrinsic to the human condition. In the article, Les Lancaster, a professor in transpersonal psychology from Liverpool John Moores University indicates that ‘it is intrinsic for us to seek answers.

It is our evolutionary heritage, moving us forward by motivating us to find out more and use our imagination’. The author Ken Kesey (One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest!) writes ‘the need for mystery is greater than the need for an answer’.

So perhaps in a time where the focus in marketing is on measurement, proof, evidence, answers, outcomes and the use of electronic resources to assist us in finding the answers, the information for more informed marketing decisions … perhaps we also need to enjoy some of the mystery.

By this I mean some of the mysteries of new technologies, of market trends, of unexplainable phenomena, these might remind us to enjoy the ‘process’ of what we do in marketing more and focus on the outcomes less.

Perhaps we should just play with marketing, be creative … play with social media and see what happens? I know I can hear your thoughts from here … ‘that costs money’!!!

Let’s look at this another way. In the article the author provided a list of 12 things to help maintain the mystery in one’s life … so with a little creative thought, I edited this list of items to help keep the mystery (and creativity) of marketing alive in a time of rising electronic resources … so we don’t become too explainable!

A manifesto for Mystery in Electronic Marketing!

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Today while sitting in the sun reading the June edition of Psychologies Magazine I read an article titled ‘Why Mystery matters?’. It provides an interesting insight into Tanis Taylor view of the effect of constantly trying to control, survey, monitor, examine, plan and audit every minute, every moment and every action in our daily lives … what happens … we lose the mystery!

We can explain everything … or at least we try to!

One thing the growth of electronic technologies have most certainly done is developed a world where we try to explain everything … we live in an information age where we can access information at the click of a button if we can’t answer the ‘why’ question to our son or daughter, we Google it! If we feel out of date we subscribe! If we want to know what you are doing we follow you!

What of the Mystery in Marketing?

This is also true in marketing. Like what is happening in our everyday lives, in marketing we are also constantly focused on explaining everything, developing plans and strategies to remove uncertainty and control the impact and outcome of our marketing activities.

Why not just come up with a list of ideas and see what happens? Can you imagine that? Creative – Yes! Full of mystery – Yes! Would we be permitted to do this – NO!

This mindset of explaining and planning everything is further heightened by the impact electronic resources have and are having on marketing. We have at our finger tips a plethora of electronic resources that help us to collect data on those we regard as our markets – our customers, buyers, consumers – and with data comes a need to explore and profile that data.

Look at the Tesco Clubcard Scheme and the strategic analytical programme put in place by Dunnhumby, the people behind the scheme. They can identify from this data the type of household I live in, the type of lifestyle I lead and provide some explanation of my future purchase behaviour based on what I have purchased in the past!

Armed with this they already know what type of coupon or incentive to send me to intise me back into my local Tesco Extra. Great – marketing is becoming more accountable, measurable and …. my life more explainable!

But what of the mystery of people … marketing afterall has people at it’s centre .. the people who work in marketing and the people and communities to whom we market (or have a dialogue).

If we can measure and observe everything about people, than will this not result in us knowing everything about them?

In addition to the Tesco Clubcard Scheme, Tesco can also monitor your web behaviour what pages on their site you visit, what files your download, what purchases you make online. They can then merge this web usage data with your purchase data from their stores already they are starting to build a pretty good picture of who you are and how to reach you.

Oh and don’t forget your purchase fuel from their service stations, have your car insurance with them and have a Tesco-linked credit card! Are we getting the picture?

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So as new and differing resources are developed, they can be included. Therefore it’s underlying content coevolves with the changing landscape of marketing and technology.

The paper in which EMAM was first published, outlines five core marketing activities for which we use electronic resources in order to achieve our marketing objectives. These activities include, but may not be limited to:

• data & information acquisition and management
• information provision (1-to-many) and management
• communication (1-to-1 and many-to-many) and relationship management
• transaction conduct and management
• distribution and logistics management

EMAM: Page-Thomas (2005) Marketing Review,

Basically, electronic resources are having a profound impact on the environmental situation and community context within which we choose to compete.

However, for marketing management and planning, the implication lies not only in how our market responds to changing technological conditions, but also in how we as marketers respond.

The implications of electronic resources for marketing management are therefore not just in their existence or development, or even the presence of new ‘never been seen before’ features, but in how they are used to effectively and efficiently improve the management and implementation of marketing activities.

EMAM provides a framework upon which to further evolve how we view the managment and implementation of our electronic marketing activities.

Article Insights

• It shouldn’t be the technology that drives electronic marketing activities, but the business returns (marketing effectiveness and efficiency) from using electronic resources in marketing activities.
• Not all interactive marketing is electronic and not all electronic marketing is interactive.
• It is not sustainable to define marketing by the technologies, tools and channels we use to achieve marketing objectives (e.g., Internet Marketing, Social Media Marketing), as these can be both quickly outdated in relevance and application. Is a very narrow, technological-specific view of electronic marketing.
• The marketing implication of electronic technology lies in how they are used to improve the effectiveness and/or efficiency of the management and the conduct of marketing activities. Electronic resources are helping marketers to more effectively and efficiently manage and conduct five core marketing activities (see above).

Sources

• Page-Thomas, K. L. (2005). Electronic Marketing: The Bigger Picture. Marketing Review, 5(3 (Autumn)), 243-262.
• Page (2009) Article insights: Electronic Marketing: The Bigger Picture, from CASE Insights (Published on: Issuu.com)

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