04 Jul How marketers are reaping rewards from LAM
Local Area Marketing Manager was for decades the “Traffic Cop” of marketing careers; you either started there or got sent there because you couldn’t handle proper marketing.
Well, guess what? The language and tenets of local area marketing are remarkably similar to those recently espoused by marketing thought leaders around the world.
How often have we read about and heard the following language?
Tribes
Communities
Localisation
Personalisation
We, the marketing community, have inadvertently re-imagined classic LAM tactics for today’s hyper-connected world;
- Lorna Jane’s ‘Move.Nourish.Believe’ suburban workshops are a modern day Women’s Institute meeting (without the cake)
- Highly localised Commonwealth Bank of Australia digital posters are the new local newspaper ads
- Just like the sausage sizzle, Google’s pop-up connected restaurant brings local communities together around free food
- Sydney shopping centre Chatswood Chase’s beacon-driven customer research is demonstrating they care enough to take an interest in people’s lives, just like the old skool clipboard-armed researchers on the local high street
The principles of LAM are being applied on a grander scale and at much greater speed thanks to the rise of data & technology.
Why are marketers going local?
It is primarily driven by a desire to affect change from the ground up; communities are what makes societies and societies create change.
Bound by common interest or shared location, communities are formed when people develop meaningful relationships with one another. For brands, communities are critical, those that find a way to add value to a community command respect, loyalty and advocacy.
Starbucks pioneered the creation of a ‘third space’ and latterly introduced free wi-fi to attract people to it. This was one of the main manifestations of their purpose: to inspire and nurture the human spirit – one person, one cup and one neighbourhood at a time.
A collection of communities rallied around your brand’s purpose is today’s holy grail of marketing; more powerful than a beautifully-shot brand ad exposed to an unknown audience. By reimagining old LAM principles with the aid of new technologies, marketers can create thriving, passionate communities which together create scale to impact your business.