Change – what’s it all mean?

Over the last decade marketing has seen some almighty changes.  Product lifecycles have gone from years to months, manufacturing from around the corner to around the globe and distribution – well, that’s a story and a half, it hasn’t just evolved, a new beast has exploded and quickly – the Internet.

I like to call it the “5 P’s and I”!

Our humble master, the consumer, can make purchases and enjoy them within minutes!   We can manufacture in Asia, have a call centre in India, a designer in Europe and market to a global stage.

With the economy in recession, recovery, depression, turning the corner (take your pick) what does it all mean? Looking for the win/wins and being fast and flexible is more critical now than ever.

We need to be more aware and seek a better approach to re shape, embrace and react even before change happens.  Forward thinking’s the key or, you may know it simply as “strategic planning”.

The bitter pill of hindsight raises its ugly head here with poor old Polaroid!  Pioneering the humble plastic pocket camera in the sixties and seventies they designed, manufactured and marketed household pocket cameras and launched into the market with gusto and enthusiasm.

So what happened?

One word “digital”!  Instead of embracing the threat as an opportunity Polaroid minimised its significance.

By the time they acknowledged it, it was too late. Polaroid declared bankruptcy in 2001.