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I’ve recently spoken at Trends Event in Brussels. Here’s the gist of what I spoke about.

The title of my contribution was ‘The Conversation Starts From Within’, which refers to an evolution within marketing from message-centric (trying to flog average products & services through flashy and entertaining messages) to product-centric (trying to actually improve products & services, and make them more remarkable, interesting, beautiful or valuable). In other words, an evolution from creating ‘talk value’ despite the average nature of products & services, towards creating ‘talk value’ that is embedded in the products & services.

In a nutshell, I think there are 6 domains which are increasingly crucial in creating remarkable products & services.

The one thing all of these domains have in common, is that they float in between product development and marketing. They are as much about improving the products as promoting them. And as such, they are eroding the importance of traditional advertising. They are blurring the traditional lines between R&D and marketing.

1. (Game-changing) innovation
Ever since the 50ies, companies have been increasing their spend on R&D. Chairmans of P&G and Unilever realise more than ever that breakthrough product innovation is where the key challenge lies. Innovative or remarkable products from recent years (Mini Cooper, Innocent Drinks, iPhone, iPod, Nintendo Wii, Senseo, etc) have been able to break through mostly because of their game-changing nature. The respective advertising campaigns might have given each of those products a good push (Senseo and Nintendo Wii have each picked up an EFFIE Award), the real conversation started from within the products.

2. Digital technology
Digital has changed how brands are created and promoted. We have grown familiar with a whole generation of online brands that have grown without any traditional, pushy advertising. They simply offered us useful & free services. And their best communication and promotion is the constant improvement of their core offering. From Amazon’s recommendation model to Google’s many new products.

Digital technology is not about online banners. It’s not about making traditional advertising clickable. Instead, digital technology is changing how we access and use products & services. Digital technology changes the interfaces between products and their users, from ordering a pizza to reading a newspaper, from checking your bank account to enjoying in-flight entertainment.

3. Eco
The thing with the green revolution is that it’s essentially about products & services: how they get made, how they get sourced, what goes inside them, where they are produced, and how they are distributed. It is not and should not be about messaging or flashy advertising. Which is why ‘eco marketing’ is as much about product innovation or product development, as it is about marketing.

4. Design
In many categories, it has become increasingly difficult to differentiate between products & services through functional claims or benefits. Quite often, design is the most direct and easy way to truly stand out. Products which excel in design have an inherent ‘talk value’. They spread by themselves because of their sheer beauty or user-friendliness. In advertising, planners and creatives tend to make a distinction between a functional promise (sitting on product level) and an emotional promise (mainly created through advertising). Design has the ability to inject emotion back into the product itself.

5. Co-creation
If you allow end-users or outsiders to get involved in the product development process, that becomes a part of the marketing approach. The crowdsourcing model (with Threadless as the most widespread and successful example) is both a new business model and a new marketing model. The many people who co-create products are equally the most ardent advocates for the company and its products. Which explains why Threadless has grown without the help of any traditional advertising, but mainly through converting their co-creators into brand ambassadors.

6. Useful marketing
Useful marketing (aka brand utility) creates useful experiences or services around a core offering. It refers to marketing that is useful in its own right rather than pushy, intrusive or useless. Useful marketing adds value to the core offering, while promoting it and reaching out to people. By creating useful assets that can differentiate a product or service, “useful marketing” is as much about product development as about marketing.