Do you practice modern marketing? Do you see marketing as even more important now than in years past? Or, do you see marketing as virtually unchanged over that last 10 years? If you need more sales, is your first thought that we need to make more cold calls or is it to dive into your website analytics to look for answers?
Missing the forest for the trees
It is easy to get caught up in the day to day operations of our businesses and constant demands for profit, that many don’t step back and look at the macro environment. Additionally, many business leaders, despite using technology every day, don’t really understand how that technology works nor how it impacts consumer behaviour.
This post dives into the top 5 U.S. Companies by market cap and how they impact modern marketing.
While listening to the podcast Entrepreneur on Fire, guest, Phil Singleton, shared an example he shares with his clients and I want to share it with you. He tells clients, “Look up the Top 5 U.S. Companies by Market Cap” then asks, “What does that tell you?”.
First off, the Top 5 U.S. companies by market share are:
Note: Depending on the date of analysis, Berkshire Hathaway and Facebook swap back and forth in the fifth position.
To further highlight these tech giants, Statistica reported in November 2017, that Tencent was the newest addition to the global list. They created WeChat, which 2/3 of people in China use and you can even pay street vendors through the app.
Having more than doubled its share price this year, Chinese tech giant Tencent became the first Chinese company to join the ranks of the five most valuable companies in the world when it surpassed Facebook in terms of market capitalization on Tuesday. The company behind the hugely popular mobile app WeChat also beat its rival Alibaba in the race to become the first Chinese company worth more than $500 billion.
You will find more statistics at Statista
What does this tell us?
These companies provide the infrastructure and technology that run the world. As Phil comments, “The market is screaming at us that this is where the action is!” He is right. When you look at this list, it is also clear who isn’t on the list. At least in terms of markeitng, it isn’t newspapers, magazines, billboards, brochures or tradeshows.
How does this impact modern marketing?
If we run a business but don’t appreciate the power of these tech giants and their influence on the digital world, we will soon be on the outside looking in. All of these companies strategize daily about how to get more share of our wallet. While on one hand, we need them market our businesses, but they are also our competition.
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Wait, Google is my competitor?
In case you haven’t seen them as your competition, they are! Google is showing fewer organic results and showing more sponsored content. Google wants you on THEIR pages, not ours. Structured snippets are interesting and are a great example of this point. These snippets offer information so quickly and easily that we often don’t even have to click on the page to find our answer since Google presents the actual answer at the top of the page. There was a day, not too long ago that our goal was to be in the #1 spot on the first page. Structured snippets are actually in spot zero!
Look at this search example below. The first organic listing (not paid) is from CNBC and is way down at the bottom of the page! Why would you ever look that low on the page?
There is a common joke “Where do you hide a dead body?” The answer used to be “On page two of Google!” but if you are in the #2 spot on the homepage you basically don’t even exist anymore. This has major implications for all of us running businesses!
So, how can you implement more modern marketing tactics and also limit the impact of these tech giants that are trying to eat your lunch? Please comment below.