Is Traditional Marketing Dying?

With interactive/social media gaining in popularity for marketing messages, do you think traditional marketing mediums will ever disappear completely? How do you think this shift in media has affected the way we market our brands? Will traditional marketing ever be at the forefront of marketing again?

We have a Focus Community member that is looking for some help with this – any insight?

Focus Community Manager

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Traditional marketing is not dying, and it never will.  While we have more marketing tools in the toolbox than we ever had before, this doesn’t mean the more traditional tools will become obsolete.  Just like billboard advertising isn’t always the best strategy for the objectives you are trying to achieve or your target audience, social media isn’t always the best strategy for every objective or every target audience.

Also, while it is hard to believe, not everyone has a computer, Internet access or a mobile phone, and not everyone is on Twitter, Facebook or MySpace.

Consider these facts:

• Only 80% of U.S. households have Internet access.

• There are fewer than 10 million U.S. Twitter users (some reports say only 1 million).

• Facebook claims to now have 250 million global members; that’s just 3% of the global population and only a sliver of the United States population.

• Less than 90% of Americans have a mobile phone.

While interactive marketing and social media can be very effective at producing results,  so can many tools in the marketing toolbox.  It is just a matter of employing the best marketing strategies to achieve your objectives in the most cost-effective way.  In other words, it is about choosing the right tool for the job, regardless of whether that tool is your trusty hammer or your new high-tech drill.

Have questions about social media or mass marketing, contact me at jennifer at sweeneypr.com or 910.772.1688.

Jennifer Manocchio

President

After starting her career with Edelman in Chicago, Jennifer joined Sweeney and quickly established herself as an exceptional industry innovator. In 2004, she opened Sweeney’s first full-service office outside of Cleveland and quickly rose through the ranks to become agency president. Jen leads by example and without fear. She has been critical to agency growth throughout the past decade and continues to lead the agency into the future.