Issue No. 470 of Your Weekly Staff Meeting reports that “advertising (as we know it) is dead!” New in February and already a Wall Street Journal bestseller—trust me—Quantum Marketing is a must-read for your marketing team and senior leaders. And this reminder: click here to download free resources from the 20 management buckets (core competencies) and click here for my recent review of Fast Times: How Digital Winners Set Direction, Learn, and Adapt and learn why the founder of Spotify says, “We aim to make mistakes faster than anyone else.”
Quantum Marketing predicts 5G in the Fifth Paradigm will be "the difference between a tricycle and a motorcycle!"
Quantum Marketing: AI Writes My eNews!
Mind-Blowing! I can’t stop talking about Quantum Marketing, the new bestseller from the global Chief Marketing and Communications Officer of Mastercard. Raja Rajamannar warns that “65% of CEOs have some or no confidence in their marketing teams.” But help is here as the author guides us in “Mastering the New Marketing Mindset for Tomorrow's Consumers” (the subtitle).
“The world is changing with such unprecedented speed and disruption that classical marketing theories, strategies, and practices are failing. Quantum Marketing is the new framework for that brave new world of tomorrow. Here, every aspect of classical marketing is challenged and frontline strategies are outlined for marketers to thrive.”
Hype or reality? It’s reality, folks. The author documents three dynamics that have fueled “the crisis of confidence in marketing.”
#1. Huge technology transformation—“tremendous advancement in data analytics, and changes in consumer behavior driven by mobile and social media. Collectively, these have shocked business models and upended traditional strategies.”
#2. Little connection between business outcomes and marketing investments and actions—“their contribution and value became increasingly dubious.”
#3. Marketing execs are stuck in a narrow view of marketing—most are at either ends of a continuum (“obsessed with A-B testing” and those with “no clue about business models, digital technologies, or data analytics”).
While the book is not a puff piece at all for Mastercard, I couldn’t resist doing my own research on how Mastercard’s “quantum” marketing leverages all the senses (see chapter 9). After discussing “How Our Brain Functions” (primal brain and cognitive brain—marketing appeals to just one), the author adds, “Today, marketers need to go way beyond jingles.” He references Mastercard’s case study of its “sonic brand creation.” It will blow your mind! (Must-read: Fast Company’s Feb. 13, 2019 article, “Mastercard Just Launched a Sonic Logo. Here’s What It Sounds Like.” Must-listen: the two-minute “audio press release.”)
For more, check out the short videos on Muse by Clio, “Hear Mastercard's New Brand Melody in Various Apps, Styles and Places.” And did you know that in 2019, Mastercard dropped its name from their logo?
To test the author’s claims, I selected—at random—this 30-second video from Mastercard. Listen for the “sonic logo” and enjoy:
Dance along with this 30-second video, “Tap & Go with Your Mastercard.”
But let me back up now for some context. The author says organizations are unprepared for what’s coming: the Fifth Paradigm. You’ll remember the first four:
• First and Second Paradigms—Product Marketing and Emotional Marketing: print, radio, and TV, commoditization, (and doctors endorsing Lucky Strikes!), attitudinal metrics, celebrity testimonials, etc.
• Third and Fourth Paradigms—Data-Driven Marketing and Digital & Social Marketing: World Wide Web (Aug. 6, 1991), Big Data, mobile, social media, “the segment of one,” Facebook, iPhone (June 29, 2007), “average human attention span is less than eight seconds,” average time on digital devices: six hours/day, “no time for prime time,” and “social media heaven and hell.” And more: the “trust” problem!
What’s coming in the Fifth Paradigm? Fasten your seatbelts! Take my Pop Quiz to see if you’re prepared. Can you define these Fifth Paradigm terms—and does your marketing team understand them?
POP QUIZ! Define the following:
1. The 3 types of AI (Chapter 5—“the ultimate propellant of Quantum Marketing”)
2. Blockchain (Chapter 7: immutable and smart contracts)
3. 5G (“the difference between a tricycle and a motorcycle”)
4. AR and VPS (p. 67)
5. VR trade shows (p. 71)
6. 3-D printing and product prototyping (p. 77)
7. IoT (p. 74)
8. The Hierarchy of Loyalty (see Chapter 10)
9. The 4 Ps
10. The Fourfold Mission of Marketing (p. 27)
11. “Case studies…used in many MBA schools are outdated.” Why? (p. 28)
12. FMCG (p. 30)
13. The 3 buckets of data (p. 35)
14. The Slew of Sensors (p. 37)
15. CCPA (p. 45)
C'mon, man! Do the Pop Quiz. Don't skip it!
16. OTM (non-annoying, p. 57)
17. “In the Fifth Paradigm, digital IDs will be the equivalent of holograms.” (p. 85)
18. BE—“the way individuals process, think, feel, and then decide.” Which works best? Two $100 jackets for $150, or the first jacket for $100 and the second for only $50? (p. 89)
19. Neuroscience: “Ninety percent of decision-making takes place in the subconscious.” (p. 91)
20. Merry Go Round (p. 103)
21. QEM: 8 key points (p. 125-126)
22. Chapter 12: “We Are Not Consumers, We Are People”—BAU, CX, UX, “holistic people research,” kids as “R&D managers of the family”
23. Purpose Washing: 2 reasons to pursue purpose
24. Ethics creep
25. Coronacrisis: The Risk Heat Map Template; use humor cautiously in a crisis: “Humor can be mistaken for mockery or tone deafness.” (Chapter 17 is must-read: “Marketing through Crisis”)
For a gut check, read page 38, “A Day in the Data Life.” Early on, the author raises the ethics flag on consumer privacy and a company’s “quasi-unethical or exploitative tendency” when asking you to accept the “reams of terms and conditions.” And this: “Honestly, who thinks that anyone reads them, other than the lawyers and geeks?”
Why does Marriott use “signature scents?” How high did Nike increase sales when they added scents to their stores? (See page 106.) Chapter 9, “All the Senses,” made me wonder if churches and faith-based organizations are delivering adequate sensory experiences? See Psalms 34:8 (MSG), “Open your mouth and taste, open your eyes and see—how good God is. Blessed are you who run to him.”
By the way, Rajamannar notes that Artificial Intelligence (AI) “is also writing articles in very authentic styles of various journalists and writers. It studies the works of an author, and when given a topic, it researches on the internet for relevant content and writes, in a matter of a few seconds, an article that mostly makes sense, in a style that seems authentic.”
I’ve asked Anders (18), my favorite grandson, to harness AI to write future issues of Your Weekly Staff Meeting. I’m expecting a generous use of “Yikes,” plus “Must-read,” plus “Delegate your reading,”—coupled with frequent car chases from the other John Pearson’s bestseller, James Bond: The Authorised Biography.
You’ll remember, of course, the 4 Ps of marketing (price, place, products, and promotion). The author alerts blue chip companies that they are “fragmenting the 4 Ps…and distributing them across multiple areas outside of marketing.” The result: “Currently, marketing is in a crisis.”
Highly readable (as a good marketing book should be!), the author sold me in the preface. By page 100, I had more than 20 critical notes to include in this review. When the book concluded on page 198, I was fired up—and searching LinkedIn for Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) positions!
THE QUANTUM CMO. The 10 pages in chapter 18 are worth gold. Raja Rajamannar warns again: “Marketing is at a point of inflection, and the opportunity ahead is truly once in a lifetime. If embraced, it can take off from here brilliantly. Or it can totally implode. Here is where the Quantum CMO comes in. And here are what characterize Quantum CMOs…” So the author includes 21 short paragraphs of the ideal CMO (really, a narrative position description).
If I were a CEO again, I would turn those pages into a quarterly checklist—and use it to coach and inspire my CMO. What are we doing well? What are we missing? Examples:
#1. “Quantum CMOs are like Leonardo Da Vinci.” They are “both right brained and left brained, creative and analytical.”
#2. “Quantum CMOs are primarily business leaders who understand business.”
#4. “Quantum CMOs understand the basics of human psychology, sociology, and anthropology. They grasp every one of the 4 Ps of marketing.”
#9. “Quantum CMOs are strong, empathetic leaders, because they are literally driving teams through this transformational phase, which is not easy.”
#10. “Quantum CMOs are evangelists for marketing, particularly if they are in companies that are not marketing driven.” And, “they speak the language of the CEOs and the CFOs…”
#11. “Quantum CMOs have tremendous curiosity and agility. Many of us have gone to management schools, many moons ago. Life has changed a lot since then.”
Read the book to leverage all 21 insights—what the CMO in your organization needs to be and to do in this Fifth Paradigm. Don’t forget that agencies “are not our servants, but our equal partners.” And learn why your Quantum CMO must have a good mix of IQ, EQ, CQ, and DQ. (See page 197.)
There’s so much more, but I gotta navigate a way out of this review! Finally, while I’m not a marketing genius, I’ve considered myself to be above average—fairly savvy in the Customer Bucket. Yikes. I’ve been depending on old school paradigms—helpful, yet way behind the curve. Examples:
I’ve often quoted Ogilvyisms from The King of Madison Avenue: David Ogilvy and the Making of Modern Advertising, such as my favorite: “You can’t save souls in an empty church.” (Read my 2009 review.) But now, after reading Quantum Marketing—it’s time to move on to post-graduate level marketing.
Ditto the book I co-authored 30 years ago (Yikes!) with Bob Hisrich, a true marketing/entrepreneurial genius, Marketing Your Ministry: Ten Critical Principles. While many of these “Hisrichian Principles” are still valid (even if the examples are pre-Internet!), it’s time to go deeper. However, the 10 axioms are still fresh, including:
• “Don’t be the 8th lemonade stand in a row of 9.”
• “If you have $10,000 to spend, invest $5,000 in researching and understanding your market.”
You get the picture (and the sound): Quantum Marketing is a must-read. Who on your team should read this first?
To order this book from Amazon, click on the title for Quantum Marketing: Mastering the New Marketing Mindset for Tomorrow's Consumers, by Raja Rajamannar. Are you a listener? Listen to the book on Libro.fm (6 hours, 12 minutes). And thanks to Fortier PR for sending a review copy.
YOUR WEEKLY STAFF MEETING QUESTIONS
1) In the “Loyalty Transformed” chapter, Rajamannar writes, “Give me affinity. Give me chemistry. Give me context. Give me relevance. Give me experience.” He says those things can “move a brand in the right direction in the quantum future.” On a scale of 1 to 5 (5 is high), rank those five factors in your organization’s top loyalty program. What needs fixing?
2) Quantum Marketing reports: “Today, it is estimated that the average human’s attention span is slightly less than that of a goldfish, at under eight seconds!” Is your organization’s marketing ready for the Fifth Paradigm—or are you still back in the First Paradigm? How do you cut through the noise and the clutter?
______________________________________________________
Year 2040 Pop Quiz!
Insights from Mastering the Management Buckets Workbook
POP QUIZ SPOILER ALERT! Listed above: the 2035 population
projections for the five largest cities in Latin America.
Yikes! Need another mind-blowing resource? Download the FREE report, GLOBAL TRENDS 2040: A More Contested World, a publication of the National Intelligence Council (here in the U.S.). Click here to download the 156-page PDF or click here to visit the online report.
And thanks to trends spotter and consultant David Schmidt at Wise Planning for alerting us to this gem—a full week before it was covered by The Wall Street Journal. Schmidt suggests, “at 156 pages, it’s best to brew a full pot of coffee if you plan to read it cover to cover.” Implications for your organization? Contact David Schmidt via his website.
POP QUIZ! In 2040, according to Global Trends 2040, will the percentage of Christians be UP or DOWN from 2020 in each of these nine regions?
• Latin America and Caribbean
• Europe
• Russia and Eurasia
• Middle East and North Africa
• Sub-Saharan Africa
• South Asia
• Northeast Asia
• Southeast Asia
• Oceania
EXTRA CREDIT: List the five largest cities, by population in 2035, in each region. (Answers: pages 120 to 140)
According to the website, this is the “7th edition of the National Intelligence Council’s Global Trends report. Published every four years since 1997, Global Trends assesses the key trends and uncertainties that will shape the strategic environment for the United States during the next two decades.”
For more resources in the Strategy Bucket, click here.
___________________________________________________________
JASON PEARSON: UNEXPECTED CREATIVE. Pearpod helped the Roe v. Wade movie team create fundraising opportunities for organizations and churches. If you need creative add-ons to your projects—to build loyalty—check in with Jason Pearson at Pearpod Media (branding, digital, print, and video).
___________________________________________________________________________________
Your Weekly Staff Meeting is emailed free one to three times a month to subscribers, the frequency of which is based on an algorithm of book length, nap duration, and client deadlines. We do not accept any form of compensation from authors or publishers for book reviews. As an Amazon Associate, we earn Amazon gift cards from qualifying purchases. PRIVACY POLICY: Typepad, Inc. hosts John Pearson's Buckets Blog. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform for Your Weekly Staff Meeting eNews. By clicking (above) to subscribe, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing. Learn more about Mailchimp's privacy policy here.