How ChatGPT and Co. are changing marketing – for the better

Old marketing strategies can now be replaced without additional GPT – this is changing the marketing landscape. For the better, Anders Indset believed.

I remember the visit of two advertising rock stars to the Harald Schmidt show in 2002: Holger Jung and Jean-Remy von Matt, now a friend of mine, had already advertised for Sixt, portrayed the Pope as a responsible drinker and launched the bear brand. Branding had arrived in Germany, and “being stingy was cool.” Are we going back there now?

Years of click marketing followed – for example search engines: While Yahoo! was still designed to keep visitors on the site for as long as possible, Google followed with a radically simple KPI: the faster the visitor leaves the platform (because he has found his goal), the better, the more likely he is to come back.

Back then, everything revolved around links. The battle for positioning and optimization in the paid and unpaid SEO/SEM area became a new science. I was obsessed with SEO and SEM, I wanted to understand everything. After my first degree in marketing and branding, I focused on Google's success model. I returned to technology because there was so much to learn.

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The founders of the SEO platforms became the new popes. It was all about clicks, CpC, algorithms and search engine optimization. 'Attribution' became everything. Measurability, customer journey and analysis – everything became digital. A new wave of optimization conquered the market.

The brand took a back seat; it was all about the customer journey and attribution. Everything revolved around catching customers through retargeting and evaluating purchasing and user behavior. So the voices became louder: “Marketing is dead, it's about algorithms and optimization.”

The world of platforms and click optimization has reached its logical end point: when everyone is on stage, no one is watching anymore.

Today, we no longer chase clicks. If we are curious, we google or, more recently, research in LLMs. What used to be called “This might interest you” on YouTube & Co. is now just called “Next video”. In the platform economy, we have learned to stay on the platform. Native content is rewarded, and any external linking is penalized.

Since the rise of GPT and other LLMs, with stricter data protection guidelines and cookie and privacy policies, we are living in a new era. User behavior has changed. We no longer click; we scroll, look and research. Today we spend our time in shielded productivity tools. The “click” and “attribution” model reached its peak and with the arrival of GPT and its colleagues, everyone can optimize. And nun?

Guess who's back: Marketing is becoming important again

I had my first heroes before Holger Jung and Jean-Remy von Matt. The “inventor” of classic marketing and branding. David A. Aaker and Philip Kotler laid the foundation for marketing values, the 4Ps and branding in the 1960s and 1970s. Three years later, their works still form the foundation of every marketing degree. In addition to Jung von Matt, the Americans in particular knew how to build brands. In the early 2000s, personalities such as the CEO of the advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi, Kevin Roberts, and his concept of 'Lovemarks' were the inspirational source of entrepreneurship.

If you start a company today, external perception is of fundamental importance. What does your name stand for? When it comes to investments, I pay particular attention to the people behind a company – but of course little works without the basic principles of entrepreneurship. This is where the brand is gaining in importance again. There are enormous opportunities for German companies in marketing and branding today. Catching up with technology is of the utmost importance, but investments in the brand promise an immediate effect.

Ideas are everywhere today – thanks to ChatGPT

We live in a time where radical ideas are crucial, but ideas are everywhere these days – even from GPT and Co. It's about timing ('Nothing is stronger than an idea whose time has come') and, above all, about communication and implementation: the right product at the right price, at the right time, in the right place.

In the age of AI, we are now returning to the cornerstones of many large US brands. What Jung von Matt once established in an exemplary manner in Germany as an industrial location, what Kevin Roberts presented with Lovemarks, and what Kotler and Aaker postulated over 50 years ago is back. And in the new technological era, with infinite, free access to knowledge, it is more important than ever.

So I had to smile when the Aldi Süd kebab truck recently appeared on Linkedin. “Kebab for everyone” – for a good cause. The Bielefeld agency Trailblazers, headed by the full-blooded entrepreneur Jannis Johannmeier, had many winners here. A problem was addressed that hit the nerve of the times: the rising price of kebabs. 2,400 kebabs were sold directly at the source, namely to the target group – with a special offer for two euros. The costs were manageable, the impact great. Using goods from the company's own range, the kebab campaign symbolized: We are price-controlled, we are relevant and we have “your” products under control.

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The timing, the message, the locations – that brings us back to the old wisdom of the 1960s, the 4Ps of marketing: product, price, place and promotion. The right message, in the right place, at the right time, and the right target group.

Today, brands are once again interacting directly and personally with customers. Creativity, experiences and long-term brand loyalty are returning as distinguishing features in the digital jungle. Who would have thought: Marketing is back!

Norwegian-born Anders Indset is a founder, investor, author and sometimes rock star. As a former professional handball player and former “hard-core capitalist”, the economic philosopher relies on positive progress and a performance culture rooted in values. He has written several bestsellers in this context. Indset combines social and ecological considerations with market economy and capitalism and has made a significant contribution to the conception of the “quantum economy”: an economic model that was taken up by the World Economic Forum in Davos.