totallyMAd – The Blog

Learning something new from Walter Pike

April 8, 2011 at 8:21 am | Posted in Marketing News | Leave a comment
Tags: organic marketing, Walter Pike

When we were discussing topics for Editorial Desks this week, I decided to take on the topic of ‘organic marketing’, because it meant I would get the opportunity to pick marketing maven and founder of virtual marketing organisation, PIKE, Walter Pike’s brain. In reality, however, I had no idea what organic marketing was – it was simply a term my colleagues, Karen van Zyl and Amy Linnell, had heard at a social media discussion recently hosted by Ogilvy Johannesburg.

Never one to shy away from a challenge, I donned my journalistic hat and set about doing a bit of background research, only to find out that there’s really not that much out there on organic marketing, it’s still a thought process Pike is working through. Thank goodness for Twitter (for putting me in touch with Pike), and for Pike’s willingness to share his thoughts. I can honestly say I have been enlightened and feel a little bit smarter for having spoken to him.

Without going into detail – you can read my article for that – Pike explained that organic marketing boils down to brand stewardship and the loss of control by the brand, something well documented by social media and marketing gurus. It is termed organic marketing because it signifies “the process of thinking about brands and branding like a farmer, not like an industrialist.” As Linnell noted, from her understanding after attending the Ogilvy social media discussion, “Marketing has become this thing that you can plant and it can have a trellis it grows up, but in the end its going to go in its own direction and you can only guide it.

In essence, we are living and marketing in an era of customer control, and Pike discusses that: “In fact, the brand is built not by advertising but by experience, by the experience that you have, and the experience of your friends. In the old world I could influence a handful with my story, now I can instantly tell thousands and my view could be passed on to millions down my social graph. The marketer’s task becomes facilitating this spread, because he can’t control it. What spreads is not the marketer’s message, but instead the consumer’s voice.”

For more information, contact Walter Pike on walter@pike.co.za or follow him on Twitter @walterpike.