I found this chart about New School Marketing compared to Old School Marketing on the Creating Passionate Users weblog. It was a graphic and I converted it to text (with a few edits) so it can be more easily incorporated into other things.

Old School Marketing New School Marketing
marketers/advertisers do it everyone does it
focused on how the company succeeds focused on how the user succeeds
marketers have the power users have the power
advertising evangelizing
tightly-controlled “brand message” brand hijacked* by users
one-way broadcast two-way conversation
company-created content user-created content
he who outspends wins he who outteaches wins
mass markets selective, focused users
one-size-fits-all personalized, custom-tailored
focus groups user feedback & contributions… betas
deception transparency
bullcrap authenticity
development often independent from marketing impossible to separate development and marketing
the story must be compelling but can be fiction (“buy this and people will like you”) the story must be compelling, and must be real** (“buy this and you’ll take better photos”)
30-second spots are king word-of-mouth is king
get the customer to believe in it YOU believe in it

* Alex Wipperfurth, author of Brand Hijack, defines the co-created hijack as, “…the act of inviting subcultures to co-create a brand’s ideology, use, persona, and pave the road for adoption by the mainstream.”
** Real is relative to the desires and perceptions of the user.

3 Responses to “Marketing: Old School vs. New School”

  1. Chopper Says:

    Great! Not sure why you tamed it down though ;-)

  2. Brian Sweeting Says:

    I plan on using this in another setting, where some of the words in the original wouldn’t have been appropriate to use. I think the meaning is still in tact.

  3. Chopper Says:

    You’re right. Cheers, shared it around the office.