The marketing world has experienced unprecedented turmoil over the last five or so years.  Tactics that worked reliably for a generation no longer make the same impact.  Marketers are less and less confident their plans will reliably yield the results they seek.  The Internet is surely changing the rules – but the new ones have yet to be written. 

I suggest the disruption is not about more choices, media fragmentation or declining viewership.  It’s about how the Internet is fundamentally changing how consumers make purchase decisions.  The Internet is turning the marketplace into a true meritocracy.  It works like this:  If you have a better product, people will know.  If you have a bad product, people will know (visit TripAdvisor.com or the new mobile Wine Spectator to see this dynamic in action).

The impact is more profound than simply turning all our computers into giant unabridged copies of Consumer Reports. The behavior of the brand is also important.  If a company treats their customers, employees and community with integrity, people will know and the brand will be rewarded (see American Apparel’s “sweatshop free” factory in L.A.).  If they don’t, people will know and the brand will be punished.


Gasoline on the fire: Ubiquitous internet access and burgeoning social networks are making it easier every day for people to share their points-of-view and passions as they relate to products and brands.  Brands will essentially be naked in the eyes of their customers - changing forever how companies go to market.


The Transparency Principle™ Workshop provides an in-depth illustration and understanding of the theory outlined above.  More importantly, it lays out the tools and process for going to market in a transparent marketing environment.  The following topics are addressed:
•    The new rules of the road for marketers including the four primary components of brand tending in the meritocracy
•    Specifics on how this phenomenon impacts different types of brands in different situations
•    The role of different media and tactics in the new environment
•    The increasing role and value of creativity in the new environment
•    Marketing planning in the new environment

The workshop includes multiple breakout sessions where teams apply Transparency Principle™ theory and tools to real brand situations including their own.