Geography as a targeting tool for marketing.

This is the fourth and final episode in my mini-series on the importance of Geography for modern marketers. We’ve explored the reason why Geography is essential and the pitfalls of overlooking where your audience lives. Today, we explore the benefits of geography and how you, as a marketer, have an unprecedented opportunity to connect directly with your audience in the place they are vs. the place you think they reside.

Today’s topic, Geography as a targeting tool, addresses the issue of Geography head-on. As the level of Ad specificity has never been greater, we are eroding the value of understanding our target market. Geography. Where you live, where you work, where you play. Your life is dictated by the space that you inhabit. Yet, with the rise of digital marketing, we often neglect geography as nothing more than a targeting mechanism for ads. That is a false prophet. Geography’s impact is far more significant than the miles we travel daily, and season two of ThoughtUnpacked is a deep dive into why modern marketers should pay attention to the places their audiences reside.

The real estate industry is massive and is enjoying one of the best years ever. Houses selling for way over asking has become the norm, and realtors, they’re cashing in. But what I’ve found interesting throughout this tremendous land grab is that the marketing of homes has diminished if not fully evaporated, which is a problem. Geography. Where you live, where you work, where you play. Your life is dictated by the space that you inhabit. Yet, with the rise of digital marketing, we often neglect geography as nothing more than a targeting mechanism for ads. That is a false prophet. Geography’s impact is far more significant than the miles we travel daily, and season two of ThoughtUnpacked is a deep dive into why modern marketers should pay attention to the places their audiences reside.

Geography. Where you live, where you work, where you play. Your life is dictated by the space that you inhabit. Yet, with the rise of digital marketing, we often neglect geography as nothing more than a targeting mechanism for ads. Marketing, and by extension Advertising, is created in a vacuum. Yes, companies and agencies will bring in focus groups or have a diverse group of individuals weighting in creating the campaign or initiative, but rarely if ever, are people brought in from a large geographical area. They all come from the same city or town that the marketing/advertising is being created. They all share that lens and will have beliefs and assumptions that are reinforced through this regional outlook. This has been a problem for decades, but it has been exacerbated as digital marketing uses geography as a mechanism to help target ads.

The fitness industry is a multi-billion dollar sector. And that's not even counting the entire health spectrum, including things like nutrition or mental health. Physical fitness is massive. But yet for marketers, the playbook was well war. Well, that was until the year 2020.

At the core of marketing is a single concept that E. Jerome McCarthy, a marketing professor at Michigan State University, developed in the 1960s. In short: The Four Ps. The four Ps represent Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. Essentially all activity under the massive umbrella known as marketing fits nicely into one of these four buckets. Over the years, and especially in the early 2000s, people began adding to the four Ps, things like “People” or “Purpose” started to add to the mix. Still, for the vast majority of activity you or I will conduct as a marketer, the four Ps work just fine. While there may be some disagreement, and trust me, I used to think that the four Ps were limited, I now see this model as the most powerful model that we as marketers have, but unfortunately forget. The thoughtunpacked podcast is an exploration into the world of modern marketing. My goal: bring some clarity and context into an industry that impacts our everyday lives.

For me, their rise and fall closely aligns with the early days of my digital marketing career. Young in my career (and age), I consulted with several companies, encouraging them to generate QR codes as a way to extend their printed materials online, as well as look “cool.” They listened, and for a short while, I was right. People would scan their codes, go to a website (the most common use for SMBs back in the day), and the value was instantaneous. The scanner would go, “oh, that is cool,” and the business owner would say, “oh, that was cool,” and everyone would walk home happy. Yes, this was the QR code gold rush, and like many other gold rushes, the appeal didn’t last. Soon, people began to see these codes as just “another gimmick.” People would download an app to read the code to discover that they were going wasn’t good. Poorly designed websites, contact information that was identical to what was on the business card and ads - so many ads.  Yes, as soon as people printed those codes, they became useless. In 2017, Apple did something shocking to the industry. During the release of iOS 11, they announced that the iPhone’s camera app would read QR codes - no extra app required. As the leader in smartphones for innovation (at least in 2017), this choice was confusing - but quick realignment from other major phone makers. Most Android devices doubled down on their ability to read QR codes natively, and suddenly, the antiquated, odd-looking barcode was BACK and in an exciting way. Suddenly everyone had a scanner, even if they didn’t want one. More importantly, with the deeper integration with the primary operating system (i.e. the camera app is NOT a third-party app), QR codes had greater access to the power under the hood of modern-day smartphones.  The thoughtunpacked podcast is an exploration into the world of modern marketing. My goal: bring some clarity and context into an industry that impacts our everyday lives. 

One of the core concepts I teach to students is the idea of ‘always pitching.’ This isn’t in a sleazy way where you are trying to sell an idea or concept that isn’t worth selling but in a realistic - this is the marketing industry’s “product” type of way. Pitching gets a bad rap because we’ve all been hit with bad pitches. Ron Tite uses the phrase Pitch Slap in his book Think - Do - Say, and it is very apropos. People get Pitch Slapped when they receive a pitch they didn’t ask for. They’re Pitch Slapped when the information they are looking for isn’t provided, but somehow - magically, different (more sleazy) information is available. There are dozens of examples, but I hope you get my point. The act of pitching isn’t immoral, but the way people use a pitch can be highly damaging. However, it is critically important as a marketer to become convincingly good at delivering a compelling pitch. In this podcast, I describe my process for getting into a pitch mindset and how I create presentation decks. As you go through this process, I want to stress that you will have a different approach, and your mileage will vary. However, I do hope a few of these points guide you as you create a pitch mindset. The thoughtunpacked podcast is an exploration into the world of modern marketing. My goal: bring some clarity and context into an industry that impacts our everyday lives. 

 Success is neither magical nor mysterious. Success is the natural consequence of consistently applying basic fundamentals. E James Rohn As a non-golfer, I don't appreciate many of the nuances that I'm sure a real golfer would pick up on in an instant. I'm confident I'm missing elements that would likely fly in the face of this entire podcast. But that's the point. I'm not a golfer, and I don't notice these changes. I'm drawn in through the power of consistency. You can draw people in who otherwise shouldn't be drawn in.  In this episode, I shape this entire podcast around the story of my lack of golf knowledge, but how through their consistent approach to essentially everything, I read as much (if not more) about golf than any other sport. I hope if you are a real golfer, you don't find this podcast offensive in any way.  The thoughtunpacked podcast is an exploration into the world of modern marketing. My goal: bring some clarity and context into an industry that impacts our everyday lives.  For future questions you want unpacked, find me on Twitter or Instagram with the handle @thoughtunpacked.

Whoever controls the media controls the mind. Jim Morrison Early in the pandemic, when people were getting over the global shutdown but before the rolling lockdowns that most of us have experienced, news outlets - in particular lifestyle magazines, started to run series on people who had “moved out to find space,” and how extraordinary their new lives were. It seemed like media outlets shared these stories daily. And as these stories began to take hold, the general public noticed these stories helped to be the context and the reference materials for a cultural shift over time. People began believing they needed to get a larger place to discover a better life.  Media plays a significant role in our cultural narrative, and we should be a bit more aware/mindful of this immense power in our lives. And who the media is influencing is much harder to understand fully - but this is its most decisive impact.  The thoughtunpacked podcast is an exploration into the world of modern marketing. My goal: bring some clarity and context into an industry that impacts our everyday lives.