Does new marketing really work in Istanbul, too?

Last week, I was in Istanbul for the launch of The New Rules of Marketing & PR in Turkish. Of the 22 languages the book is being published in, I like the Turkish cover art the best. Thanks to my Turkish publishers MediaCat and to the book designer Kimac Cabuker for great work.

While in Istanbul, I delivered a presentation for 250 executives.

As some of you may know, when I begin a keynote, I always ask a series of questions to gauge the level of Web use compared to how people use mainstream media to research products and services and answer questions.

Many people just don't believe me when I say that people all over the world are using the Web in high numbers to research products and services.

So I pulled out my flip video camera and recorded the Q&A in Istanbul. Since I am recording myself while speaking it is a little jerky. And some audience members are listening to the simultaneous translation in Turkish. But the conclusion is clear.

Over the course of a year in front of more than 20,000 people from dozens of groups all over the world—including such diverse groups as college students, marketing professionals, and executives at Fortune 500 companies—the answers are surprisingly consistent. Between 5 and 20 percent of people answer "yes" to the first three questions, which means the ways that so many companies try to reach people today (direct mail, advertising, mainstream media) are only effective in reaching a small portion of potential customers. However, between 80 and 100 percent raise their hands for the last two questions.

Clearly, providing great stuff on the Web is critical for any business.

Rather than trying to convince buyers to pay attention to your products and services by dreaming up messages and ad campaigns, offering great Web content delivers interested people, from all over the world, right to your company's virtual doorstep.

This is a marketer's dream come true!

Comments

[Kampanye Damai Pemilu Indonesia 2009]

I wish new marketing Will working on Istanbul, Great article.

[Merve Koç]

I wish new marketing works also in other parts of Turkey. But even classical marketing is early for there.

Again great article, great presentation. Thanks :)

[Tsufit]

The Turkish Cover looks awesome. Congrats David!

And thanks for your Guest Post over at www.spotlightblog.com and especially for giving away 3 (English) copies of your new book!

Tsufit
Author, Step Into The Spotlight!

[Joel Heffner]

My own research had this result. I asked my wife when was the last time she looked at the Yellow Pages. Her answer, "Do we still have the Yellow Pages?" And, she doesn't consider herself to be very tech oriented...but she uses Google to find stuff, email to contact vendors, and eBay to buy stuff.

[Peter Job, CEO Intergence Systems]

Dear David,

Your book has been a revelation. We are in the process of revamping our web-site and are trying to use as many of your suggestions as possible. As a result, we have spent many hours creating content along with the redesign. The new site will be live in about 3 weeks so you should be able to track "before and after". It has been quite a scary (and enlightening) experience as the more content we have created, the more we realised how much extra work was required!
I am really looking forward to reading your new book as well.

[Michael Ray Hopkin]

David, this video further validates the power of new marketing regardless of where you are located or where your potential customers live. It's flat-out cool to see the hands go up in Istanbul and to know you would get the same response in most parts of the world.

In my experience, the key to turning this phenomenon into sales for your product/services is -- as you have said many times -- a solid web landing page. When people are looking for something specific, they will usually buy if you give them the right opportunity. -Michael

[Eric Hannon]

The picture of a room full of people with their hands up tells the whole story. Thanks for reinforcing the the power of useful information made public.

[eric brody]

David,

Agree that people don't fawn over our products and services. In fact, it's not really about us at all. It's about how we make people feel and how we enhance people's lives through our brands. And relevant and meaningful content is a requisite to gaining their attention.

Top-down, one-way messaging that tries to capture a customer doesn't cut it anymore. It's all about bottom-up conversation and collaboration with our audiences - who happen to be on one of a few different screens.

[Ufuk Özgül]

David,

I wasn't able to attend your session due to our intense work week however I always like to read your blogs and can say I learned from you a lot. I think we, Turkish people, are much more interested in socializing through networks rather than using it for marketing/business means however people like us try to boost the usage of social media and show the limitless opportunities it can bring to Public Relations.

However some parts are still missing, even though some colleagues try to position themselves as social media experts, I don't feel yet they have the credibility to gain the desired outcome, sometimes I even think that people try to get some advantage of it while not so many people are aware of what social media really is and what it can really achieve.

Don't you think those cursory initiatives may lead to disasters for companies?

By the way I am a junior PR practitioner.