It is indisputable that communication is one of the most important elements in marketing, because it allows us to share with people everything that is unique about our product and brand, the only way to "enter" their world and home.
Before the age of Internet, communication was one-way - brands informed, shared, displayed their strengths, and that was enough to earn the trust of their potential customers. To be noticed was the most important thing and success was determined by the number of contacts.
Social media have changed the world of marketing. Communication has become mixed. People began to contact other people and brands directly, creating not only contacts but relationships with them. Relationships have become more important than contacts, because they are a prerequisite for the emergence of trust, the ability to be heared and to be interested in what we have to say.
We communicate quickly, easily and without risk. We can buy almost anything without connecting with other people. It is easy to buy a ticket, get a boarding pass, even cross borders through contact with a device, rent a place to sleep, get access and leave it, go home - without having to exchange a glance or a word with even one person (unless they stop us at the security scanner :)
Virtual contacts outweigh real ones and in marketing the formula for success has become "maximum virtual contacts with maximum virtual clients". My professional world has changed dramatically. It seemed to me that the number and speed of contacts, the goal "to be noticed" had replaced the importance and value of the brands and the messages. I thought social media were killing the essence of marketing, and that saddened me.
And then I noticed that as a pendulum, the phenomenon begins to reach the extreme zone and the first signs of discomfort appear - the contacts, which have become so numerous and fast, go beyond our capacity to detect and comprehend them. Contacts no longer lead to connections. In a time of "connected" and "shared" economics, people remain "disconnected" and feel increasingly isolated. Quality links and trust are gaining importance.
In my opinion, it is time to shift the focus from contacts to connections. In marketing, we have always suffered from the fact that there are basic terms for which there are no appropriate words in Bulgarian. That is why I would allow myself to use them in English, with a little help from the dictionary of the Bulgarian Language Institute. I think, the most important thing should not be the Reach of people, but the Relevance of our efforts to get Resonance (response, echo, co-trembling)
If I have to describe the meaning of marketing in one word, for me, it is co-Trembling.