will network analysts replace media buyers?

I had the pleasure of meeting a very interesting, very understated expert marketer today.

Not only is he a gem of a person, he made some suggestions that may prove quite fruitful for me in future.

It came about all because I was interviewing someone on the nature, role and quality of qualitative research. The conversation digressed and expanded...and voila, I was having coffee with Mr McPherson. And for the second time in two days, I was advised that I should speak with the same person I had never met!

It made me wonder - beyond the somewhat passe notion of 'networking' that conjures images of predatory sales people, what is the theory behind networks?

A quick glimpse on Wikipedia reveals that network theory explains elements of both the internet and particle physics. Grossly simplified, it is the study of nodes and the simple or complex ties between them. The most relevant study for marketers is the area of social network theory.

Fascinating, and I realised this is an area of increasing relevance for marketers as the emphasis shifts to an acknowledgement and the increased enabling of the power of social networks in influencing purchase decisions.

I ask myself the question - should we move away from, or at least weight our emphasis in research away from a focus on media, existing channels and demographics to a study of social networks? Is this a truer indication of a person and their likely behaviours than the traditional demographic indicators? Is this the next step beyond psychographic profiling?

Is this the next divide to be crossed by researchers and customer-centric organisations?

Flickr credit: martin.canchola