“All Marketing is Digital Marketing…” God help us.

Good god almighty.  If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard this, well, I wouldn’t exactly be rich, but I’ve sure heard it a lot.  The latest example comes from our friends down under at Co-op Bank.

Now I’ll stop to give them a moment of credit, as I think they were trying to make a point that you shouldn’t keep a digital marketing team separate from your “regular” marketing team.  But still, this “everything is digital” thing needs to stop.  Now.

As the ever loving advertising media has foisted this upon us time and again, it has of course become a common phrase.  “All marketing is now digital marketing”.  What a simple message that has so much resonance in today’s world.  The only problem is, it’s completely BS.

Even though the world presented to you makes it seem like digital mediums are the only thing people interact with anymore, they’re not.

What do you think gets listened to more these days?  Pandora and Spotify or Terrestrial Radio?

If you’re on this blog – then you should know where this is going.  Its Terrestrial Radio, and its not even close.

So with that in mind, using traditional, dinosaur techniques and teachings, we will disprove another common “truism” in today’s marketing landscape.

Lets start by just using the 4Ps and another classic, the Venn Diagram.

Obviously, using a simple construct we can lay waste to this idea in about two seconds.  For those that have studied the practice, the notion of marketing is very wide and inclusive.  When looking at marketing, our pricing and positioning, the product we develop, and where we choose to distribute it are all part of the equation.  And most certainly we would not consider those, “digital”.  While some web owners may argue that their “product” may be digital (real estate sites, other online services) there is a whole host of products that are obviously not “digital”.  Now, it is true, that many of the techniques currently used in promotion are digital, so lets give that one an “orange status” for now.

Now lets look at the reverse.  Is All Digital Marketing, Marketing?

Um…yup, that’s better.  See, somewhere along the line, we, in the marketing field, have allowed the industry to conflate advertising, and marketing.  And thus the only parts we seem to cover and talk about anymore are the media choices we make.  But that is only part of the equation, and one, quite frankly, that may lag behind the importance of the other three “P”s.

So if you hear this quote in the future, maybe you’ll think of this post.  And hopefully, you’ll shake your head, smile at the person who said it, and take the rest of their viewpoints with a healthy dose of skepticism.