• by Bob Liodice , August 3, 2010

The Marketers' Constitution sets forth what the ANA believes are 10 essential "musts" of marketing for the next 100 years. These will help ensure that the industry thrives and continues to contribute to the growth of the nation's businesses -- as well as to the economic and social wellbeing of our society. Read the entire Marketers' Constitution and show your support for its tenets by digitally signing at www.ana.net/constitution.

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The first tenet of ANA's Marketer's Constitution is that "Marketing must become increasingly targeted, focused and personal."

We all know that marketing works best when brands can have direct conversations with people. It works even better when those conversations are with audiences that want to hear specific product and service messaging. The simplicity and elegance of this objective is finally becoming reality.

Despite industry rhetoric, consumers want marketing. There is plenty of empirical evidence that confirms this. However, consumers only want the marketing that meets their specific needs and wants. For too long, marketers had to rely upon "mass marketing" because consumer targeting was not available or sophisticated. However, with advancements brought about by technology, media can now target more efficiently and create "mass marketing on a one-to-one basis."

There are so many terrific examples of how technology is reinforcing this equation and making marketing incredibly effective.:

• Online interest-based advertising via "Amazon-like" technology increases the odds of getting low-cost messages to the computer and mobile screens of highly interested consumers

• Social media place increasing control in the hands of consumers to become brand advocates and loyalists

• Corporate websites invite consumers to browse through what they want after being influenced through more traditional advertising and announcements

• Search advertising is incredibly targeted at securing potential customers (B2B) and consumers (B2C) for products and services that are in demand

• Television is making substantial progress through the innovation brought about by interactive platforms and advances in addressability. This could be the most tantalizing breakthrough that is within our grasp.

For marketers, these developments substantially increase efficiency and productivity, thereby lowering overall costs. The "digitization" of marketing provides a span of opportunities to lower marketing per unit costs -- thereby freeing resources for incremental working media investments (or to be dropped to the bottom line).

While all of this sounds like Nirvana, and is close to it, we must remember that "there is no free lunch." With the excitement that this generates, marketers must shoulder a higher burden of responsibility. Legislators and public policy advocates have taken notice and raised privacy concerns with respect to "behavioral advertising." Additionally, with children's increased exposure to online activities and video-gaming, marketers, agencies and publishers have to navigate this path with caution and care.

Responding to critics, the industry has created a set of self-regulatory principles for the online interest-based advertising space -- and is about to roll out reporting, monitoring and accountability mechanisms. The industry must rally behind these efforts to assure the public and the legislative bodies that we can be responsible in this rapidly moving arena.

Net, the marketing ecosystem is in a far better place because of the impact of rapidly increasing digitization. This surge means that we are moving aggressively toward realizing the first tenet of ANA's Marketers' Constitution.