The Marketing Plaza

Too much of marketing is stereotyped by our used car culture.  We’ve all grown up on  late night cable TV commercials of our local car dealers telling us why they are the most reliable, trustworthy, best resource for our next vehicle. They drag out the kids, grandmothers and cousins to show that they are a family-run business, implying that because they have a family they are the local “good guys.”

Here’s a revelation. Everyone has family. Even the bad guys. Bonnie & Clyde had grandmothers.

Another revelation. Being a family run business doesn’t mean you’re the best. It may only mean you’ve hired your idiot cousin because your mother made you. You may, in fact, not have the best service, just the best employed family.

Last revelation. Sometimes being a family-run business can be a plus, but only if you have a story based on tradition.

If I’m sounding a bit cynical about family businesses, keep in mind I’m a Jersey Girl. We’re the land of  hot cars and bad family aka The Soprano State and Jersey Boys.  Just this week, we had 44 arrests of politicians and rabbi’s in a Dirty Money laundering scandal.  Based on a long, sad political history, we don’t trust easily, and yet we have more Fortune 500 companies near us, receive more ads, and  have more family-owned used car commercials on our cable networks than anyone else!  Where’s the disconnect?

The disconnect is in the marketing.  We’ve lost the ability to discern the real story that needs to be told about why a company is great, what makes it different and why someone would love to do business with it.  Instead, most companies revert to ego-driven platitudes.  That’s the “we give great service” used car part. The owner seeing himself on late night commercials and suddenly feeling like a big shot feels his money was well spent because at least one person, likely his aunt, says she saw him on the TV.  This is not to knock TV ads.  I’ve used them. It is to knock ego-driven marketing be it on the small business used car level, or the corporate level.

In The Batrachian Chronicles, Amod Munga, a blogger and copywriter from S. Africa, talks about dropping the “best in breed” lingo from corporate speak.  He’s right.  It reads like sales copy and, particularly in the U.S., it’s overly prevalent as we, more than others, are completely driven by our car and sales culture — looking for the next great ride or sales at the end of the hour, or the day.

No one likes to be sold. We all like stories.  What’s yours?  Is it in your marketing? If not, your collateral is likely all sales promo material and you need to start thinking about marketing in addition to sales.

Is Marketing for Dummies?  I think not even though there is a book by that name.  Tom  Marin, A Reed Business writer for Converting Magazine, started the conversation and it got me thinking.  Marketing is for smart people who understand the need to reach out to customers, understand the market and provide the right mix of business services to be warrant market attention.

I’m not embarrassed to admit that I love “for Dummies” books and have several in my library including one on marketing. Friends made fun of me when I bought the marketing title some time back, but I purchased it for a few reasons:

1. I wanted to see what the Dummies series felt was required in a basic marketing text. I’m sorry to say that it still talks about the 5Ps of marketing — Product, Price, Place, Promotion and People — even though these are no longer valid and generally muddy the marketing discussion into an academic exercise.  Modern marketing talks more about 3 Ps and 5 C’s (but that’s another post entirely).

2. I believe marketing basics remain the same even though we’re in a new Internet world. The basics?  I have to repeat my sentence above — understand the need to reach out to customers, understand the market and provide the right mix of business services to be warrant market attention.

3. There are more than one Marketing for Dummies books including one on Small Business Marketing. Not surprisingly, it is more practical than the more generic Marketing text.  Chapters are devoted to why marketing and sales are not synonymous and the dollar and staffing differences inherent in small business marketing.

4. No one, particularly field experts, should ever think they “know it all.”  Hopefully, an expert is the first to realize that a field is always changing. There’s always something new to learn. When I bought the Dummies book I wanted to check myself.  Was there something in the book I needed to brush up on?  I’m happy to report that the book was very basic and didn’t really have anything of value in it for me — but if you’re a business person and not a marketing person, I can still recommend it.  It’s a great way to get started, and in marketing — it’s important to get started rather than sit still.

Nevertheless, as a marketing person, there is much to learn from the Dummies books. In a nutshell:

A. Branding. When you see a black and yellow cover you know you’re getting a Dummies book.

B. Branding. When you get  Dummies book you know what to expect — basic information to get you started down a specific task be it knitting, web site development, or even writing a marketing plan.

C. Branding. When you fork over your $25 +/- on the cover price, you know you’ll get help in simple English that won’t talk down to you.  You may need professional help over and above the book, but the book gives you the lingo to start to talk to the pros with confidence. It’s a basic roadmap to get you in gear down your latest road of engagement.

Here’s an idea to consider: What if you constructed your business as a business for Dummies?

• How would you build customer confidence?
• What could you do to make customers feel comfortable working with you when they are still low on the learning curve?

That’s smart marketing!