The world of marketing is changing at lightning speed, and some aspects have significantly changed over the years, especially SEO and search over the last 8 months. However, there are some fundamental core aspects of marketing that remain unchanged yet fail to get the attention they warrant amid the AI hype cycle. All too often, brands are getting caught up in the process of marketing as it changes – i.e. automate as much as possible and use AI as much as possible -save costs and do more with less seems to be the mantra of the day. Not to mention the navel gazing of how amazing my product/service is, and getting lost in the latest features and benefits of your product.
In all of this, so many businesses forget about the broader landscape they exist in, forgetting to take note of what is happening around them – i.e. what the competition are doing, defining the market forces that are at play and mapping out where the market is headed. All too often, the core basics such as the target audience, influencers and other stakeholders are simply forgotten.
In the past, textbook marketing focused mainly on the 5Ps of marketing; I personally think the 5Ws of marketing are more relevant in the context of the bigger picture – i.e. Who, What, When, Where and Why. These basic questions expected of any marketing strategy or campaign are still highly important, if not more relevant as a framework to guide your modern marketing in today’s dynamic and fast-changing world.
While we need to keep up with the technology and the impact of disruptive innovation such as GenAI, we can’t lose focus on the human aspect of being in business – who are our customers, the influencers and the key decision makers (sometimes not as obvious as one might think). What are their needs? How do they want to be communicated to and marketed to? Are your automated marketing messaging and processes cutting through or is this turning them away from you? Are you giving customers the right experience? Are you engaging the right people to start with? So many questions for the modern marketer not to lose sight of as they get pulled to focus on the maze of AI and automation.
Defining ecosystem marketing
Enter ecosystem marketing. This is a ‘phase’ that I have coined using it with clients over the last 12-18 months. What I mean when I talk about ecosystem marketing, is defining the broader ecosystem around you and that you exist in – who are the various stakeholders and decision makers and is your marketing catering to them.
If brands are at risk of forgetting about the customer entirely, you can imagine how challenging it will be to then remember about the broader market and ecosystem. However, this is where it can all go wrong – especially in B2B marketing where the sales cycle tends to be longer, more complex and more people are involved in influencing the purchasing decision.
Ask yourself, are you catering for all the different parts of the “ecosystem”? Or do you even know what the broader ecosystem consists of? If not, this presents a huge opportunity for brands, especially for B2B brands, to get ahead of the competition while they are still focused on the AI hype cycle.
Ecosystem marketing in action – delivering business outcomes
To paint a clear picture of what I am talking about, let me provide you a case study of a successful campaign that we executed delivering outstanding results highlighting the commercial outcomes of focusing on ecosystem marketing.
One of our global technology clients needed to understand the sustainability landscape in depth in the Asia Pacific region, particularly Singapore. We were engaged as a long-standing partner to them, to unearth everything about the sustainability landscape in Singapore. We researched and mapped out the ecosystem – who are the active voices, brands, the main players at both a government, business, academia and R&D perspective. What are the latest green initiatives at a government and business level, the opportunities and challenges. We went into great detail so that our client had a very good grasp of the surrounding ‘sustainability’ ecosystem.
With a clear goal to position our client as a player in the space, we devised several strategies for them as part of their overall go to market plan – one initiative stuck and we went ahead to execute on it, delivering resounding success. The initiative was a 12-part thought leadership series called the Sustainability Leaders Series. Our research of understanding who was who in the space served us well, as we were able to carve our 12 different episodes with our media partner engaging various stakeholders of influence to discuss different angels of the sustainability agenda. One of our goals was to secure Singapore’s Minister of Environmental Sustainability, which the thought leadership series served as a credible platform to do.
This whole initiative which focused on not only their customers, but the broader ecosystem, helped them to secure a key commercial deal – a clear ROI of prioritising the ecosystem in strategic marketing combined with a solid thought leadership approach to deliver back to the business. As you can imagine, I am super proud of this campaign, but also the power of ecosystem marketing, thought leadership and strategic marketing when done right. The real silver bullet in today’s world for the modern marketer and for successful brands.
How to embrace the ‘ecosystem’ concept in your marketing:
1. Firstly, take the time to define the ecosystem around you. It could be the ecosystem around your whole business or in a particular area, as per the example above. Think about what is important to your business right now and what your overarching business strategy is. What is the landscape around you, and where are you playing?
2. Think about the ecosystem from a bigger picture perspective. Are there government bodies/authorities that are important in your space, what about universities/academia, VC/private equity. Is there legislation that you need to think about, what are the marketing forces/events impacting your business. Get it all down.
3. Think about the ecosystem from a persona perspective. Beyond the obvious target customer, who influences the buying decision. Let’s say it is the CIO making the decision or recommendation, does it then need to be signed off by the CFO and CEO – or even COO? Who is involved? Who do you need to cater to? What are their pain points/challenges? Are you factoring them into your strategy.
Ecosystem marketing isn’t just a concept, it’s a proven strategy to cut through the noise, influence the right stakeholders, and drive measurable business outcomes. At M&C, we work with brands across Asia Pacific to map, engage and activate their ecosystems for growth. If you’d like to explore how this approach can work for your business, let’s start the conversation.
