Knowledge marketing: August 09, 1999 issue of New Thinking

August 09, 1999 New Thinking:
Knowledge marketing

Website content management

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August 09, 1999

Knowledge marketing

By Gerry McGovern

Knowledge Management is a current buzzword today, as people recognize that knowledge is key to success. But the ‘management’ of knowledge is a very administrative way of thinking, as if to be successful in a knowledge-based economy all you have to do is organize your knowledge efficiently.

Knowledge Management comes from the same school of thinking as Information Technology (IT). The IT industry was very often much more focused on the technology than the information. It was driven largely by a process and mechanistic view of things. Information was like a bag of potatoes that had to be stored somewhere with the objective of saving space and making things as tidy as possible.

Worse, when information lost its current value, it was ‘archived’. People who worked in organizations dreaded hearing that their files were archived. Because although the information was saved somewhere in the bowels of the organization it was incredibly difficult to retrieve again.

The system had done its job as far as it was concerned but for the knowledge worker the information might as well have been deleted because the time and effort spent getting it back was enormous and very often frustrating.

As we move forward into the digital age we need to think of knowledge in a much more positive and proactive way. We need to be able to take for granted that knowledge will be managed properly. Our major focus needs to be on what we are going to do the maximize the value of our information on an ongoing basis. We need to start focusing on Knowledge Marketing.

Many organizations still believe in being secretive, in giving away as little information as possible. But in this great network that is the Internet, keeping things secret, even if it is necessary, is an increasingly difficult task. Time and time again I come across cases where confidential information ‘leaked’ into the system.

Today, we should take it as a rule that the competition knows everything there is to know about us. We should see competitive advantage in the momentum our information creates, rather than the information itself. Yesterday, information had to go through a rigorous process before it could be released. Today, information should go through a rigorous process before it is kept confidential.

We need to focus on marketing and disseminating our information. We need to constantly ask the question: Are the people whom we want to receive our information getting it in the most effective manner possible? Information only achieves value when it is informing, only when it creates a positive reaction in its intended audience.

We need our librarians, our archivists, our information specialists more than ever. But they need to become part of a team that has journalists and marketers. Yes, it is our knowledge that helps us make better products, but in the digital age, the product is very often the knowledge. Marketing that knowledge is the new challenge.

Gerry McGovern

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Bob Johnson, American Marketing Association

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The British Association of Communicators in Business

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European Association of Directory Publishers

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In the digital age, the product is very often the knowledge. Marketing that knowledge is the new challenge.