I’ve spent years as a marketer, first at Microsoft pushing Xbox, Windows, and Business solutions, then later as an entrepreneur for the products I created. And also as a trainer helping nonprofits and political campaigns learn how to leverage social media more effectively.
Traditional marketing is extractive at its very essence. It’s about trying to manipulate people into wanting something and then convincing them it’s a need. It’s about talking at, rather than being in partnership and service to a community.
But it doesn’t have to be, we can if we choose, redefine the very essence of what the practice of marketing means. An activity that regenerates communities and the planet.
Let’s start by exploring how traditional marketing operates.
There is usually a strict brand guideline that tries to articulate and control every aspect of how a brand is represented in visual and written form. Activities are almost always structured around campaigns that focus on a narrow topic during an artificially created moment in time. Outreach is targeted and broadcast through channels in a one way manner to maximize “impressions”. This activity fills a conversion funnel where people are expected to quickly convert to a desired action or be discarded. Rinse and repeat.
In the mid 2000’s a concept called relationship marketing was introduced that tried to add a bit more to the mix by articulating that there is something more. That building relationships over time with customers was in fact a valuable means to an end. If you focused on activities that built connections between people and a brand they were over the long term more likely to convert.
I believe that regenerative marketing is about letting go. It’s about working through and with an ecosystem. It’s about letting the brand essence evolve and be developed by the community at large.
It requires getting out (virtually is ok) and being a part of the community. Really listening and understanding how to be of service. Co-creating with and supporting the communities ideas, aspirations, and needs.
So what exactly would a regenerative marketing team do?
A large percentage of their time would be spent participating in and helping create welcoming communities where people connect, learn, and coordinate actions. These are most likely digital spaces such as Facebook groups, zooms, discords, slacks, etc. But also includes IRL things like conferences and trade meetings.
They would be crafting and rapidly iterating on libraries of content that the community is free to reuse and build upon for their marketing and communication efforts. Imagery, facts, messaging, news curation, etc.
They would be helping to coordinate and fund the creation and distribution of collective marketing activities. Creating and fostering coalitions of influencers and fans.
They would help steward and manage all the “owned” communication channels such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Substack, YouTube, etc. But they would be working with the organization as a whole to educate and empower everyone to participate and be part of creating welcoming spaces for customers and supporters.
What would the impact be?
If successful these activities create a vibrant community of people and brand leaders that are all working together and their whole essence is more encompassing of the values of the movement they are co-creating.
Every marketing activity by the community would naturally have the core essence in it. Not because it’s mandated but because it shows up as part of the whole.
But more importantly it creates a resilient community that is deeply connected at an essence level. Rather than at a purely bottom line economic level. A community that is becoming more regenerative with every passing day. Opening up new horizons for the community to define and tackle new paradigm shifts as an interconnected living ecosystem.
What do you think….
Is a more regenerative approach to marketing something that can benefit both an organization and the community it is a part of?
Super interesting, Shawn! Really would love to pick your brain about this...