The Marketing Plaza

Business and marketing always love acronyms. It’s the reason we have 3Ms, IBMs as brand names not to mention ROIs and KPIs in strategy discussions.*  Sometimes the names are used to mask an original identity, allowing a brand to move into a new era with a new persona. Other times acronyms are used as field jargon to make the presenter appear brilliant and in-the-know.  Other times, and less surreptitiously, the acronyms are just a quick shorthand for fast communications particularly in an increasing digital world limited by character counts. OMG, LOL!

Another use of acronyms is to help people remember things, particularly students studying for tests.  For middle schoolers trying to name the Great Lakes for a social studies test, the acronym HOMES helps them recall Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior. Not all acronyms work for everyone, but one acronym does suffice for all marketing endeavors.  It takes you back to basics on the ABCs of Marketing – for Always Be Communicating.

There are great debates in the marketing world about what media to use when, and the value return of a broadcast spot on The Daily Show versus a Tweet on Twitter. With aplogies to Marshall McLuhan, the ABCs of marketing remind us that the medium is not the message. The message is the message  and whatever medium allows you to communicate consistently to the right audience is the right medium for you.

If the cost-effectiveness of a blog allows you to communicate more than a broadcast commercial, then a blog is your better bet.  In contrast, if you don’t have the wherewithal to blog and do have the funds to produce a broadcast spot and air it consistently, then the spot hits the spot for your needs.

Marketing plans by definition admit that there is no one solution for everyone, which is why plans need to be carefully crafted based on time, budget, resources, needs, mission and skill sets. But any plan that doesn’t account for the ABCs and gives you great one-time hits, is not a marketing plan at all.  If you are not communicating, you are not marketing.  It’s as basic as it gets; as basic as the ABCs.

*For those who don’t remember or are intimidated by jargon:
3M originally stood for Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company
IBM was International Business Machines
ROI is Return on Investment
KPI is Key Performance Indicator

A common tab on a web site is “contact us,” but is it really an invitation to contact?  More times than not, the button is used to collect information about you and doesn’t help you, as the consumer, one iota in contacting the company or service. It’s a perfect example of how most companies still hide before an Internet shield and are not personal, or consumer friendly. Instead, their thinly masked veils of friendliness smack of their real intention of building a e-mail database.

If I am frustrated enough to hit the “constact us” button, the truth is I want to contact you, not be contacted by you.  I want to know when I can call to reach a real person and get a real answer.

Recently, I was on the Continental Airlines web site.  Their contact us service is truly frustrating.  During recent snow storms, their listed phone numbers didn’t work. Their comic book customer service person just kept giving me the same wrong answer to my typed question, no matter how many times I changed how I phrased my query.

But, Continental should not be singled out.  Almost every company on the web has poor contact us protocol, making it hard for the customer to do just that – contact them.  Here’s a tip:  Don’t label the web site tab “contact us” if you aren’t posting the information about how to contact you.  Just giving me a form to give you info about me is not helpful.  I don’t want to give you info about me.  I need your phone number, hours of operation and customer service e-mail.  It’s that simple.