The Marketing Plaza

Q: What do marketing people and therapists have in common?

A: They both deal with insecurities.

Q: Is marketing a discipline that belongs in a business school, communications school, or in the school of social sciences?

A: Yes.

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In his book In Search of the Obvious: The Antidote for Today’s Marketing Mess,” marketing guru Jack Trout states the obvious: “…the human mind tends to be insecure when it comes to purchasing things.” The role of marketing, he argues, is simply to make people feel more secure with a purchasing decision.  It’s also the reason, Trout notes, that a leadership is so important and should be utilized whenever possible in a marketing campaign.

In psychology, he states, it’s called the “herd mentality.” The consumer assumes that others know better and are willing to lessen their psychological risk by following others in the marketplace. If a brand is number one, it must be number one for a reason.

Ironically, many company CEOs, CMOs and Communications VPs get humble when they hold a leadership position. From watching too many Greek Tragedies, they fear corporate Hubris and being toppled from the mountaintop should their position be discovered.

Odd, isn’t it?  Marketing is about helping a company be discovered and differentiating itself in the marketplace to make a consumer’s choice fsst, easy and obvious. Nevertheless, Trout has example after example of companies who go quiet when they are, in fact, number one in their profession.

I’m facing a similar challenge with a current client, who is clearly number one in its field.  Others, with a longer history with the account, emphatically state that the client will not admit in public that they are number one in their industry. They will say the are an industry leader, have the largest network, and make many other claims that imply number one, but will not use the term. “We’re number one!”

In the recent movie Whip It, starring Drew Barrymore, the featured roller derby team consistently comes in Number Two.  They even take up the chant, “We’re number two,” after every game. Roller Derby becomes about “attitude” as is “marketing.”  I won’t tell you the end of the movie. It isn’t a formula and may not be what you expect.

Here’s an interesting fact: Roller Derby is one of three major league sports invented in the U.S.  If you count marketing as a major league sport, perhaps it’s one of four.  However, it’s no secret that there are tons of sports analogies used in business. Perhaps it’s time, we stole a few from Roller Derby.  Attitude Matters and it’s not about just going around in circles.  The goal is to come in first.

Here’s a takeaway from yet another sport – horse racing – not invented in the U.S. You can be a leader and not be number one. You can be a leader in a Win, Place or Show position. You can only be number one in the Winner’s Circle.

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Is your company long-term greedy, or short-sighted for sales?
A clue may lie in your  definition of  marketing.

Great marketing, according to best-selling author Joe Vitale, is inspired. Perhaps that’s why most marketing isn’t all that great.  For most companies, marketing tends to be out of desperation rather than inspiration.

It’s part of the problem American businesses face, in general, with short-term versus long-term thinking.  In the short-term, the business needs a sale – badly.  Hence, a CEO calls in a marketing team to help facilitate a sale  NOW!  It’s what causes confusion between marketing and sales promotion. I call it Desperation Marketing.

Better marketing is long-term based — building reputation, relationships and community over time.  Inspired marketing draws people to a product, service or business because they want to be affiliated with what that company has to offer.

I recently met with a business planning professor from a local college to discuss business planning. He used to work for Goldman Sachs on Wall Street. He told the story of one of his mentors — a great Goldman Sachs leader of his time– who decided to retire a few years ago when the company became, in his opinion, too short-sighted. By short- sighted, the retiring executive meant ‘in search of this year’s sales.”  Goldman Sachs had been known, he said, for being “long-term greedy,” a positive attribute that differentiated the company for greatness and fostered  building long-term wealth over short-term gain.

I have no way to test if the story is true, but it rings true because this week Goldman Sachs is all over the news in terms of its outrageous bonuses for 2009. The company claims that its executives deserve the bonuses due to outstanding performances during tough economic times.  Even if  true, it’s  insensitive to the marketplace – defined as the rest of us.  It also positions Goldman Sachs as self-centered and  greedy – short-term greedy.

I’m not here to bash Goldman Sachs.  It’s just a story that was told to me this week. But, I am here to say:

“Think about your marketing and positioning.”

Remind yourself that, unless you’re a venture capitalist or a real estate house flipper, you’re likely in business for the long haul.  Use your marketing dollars and efforts accordingly.

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Starbucks Five Ways of Being are a roadmap for
creating a great brochure in addition to a great coffee experience.

This week on The Blogger’s Bulletin, I wrote a piece on why the Starbucks Five Ways of Being are appropriate advice for bloggers. Here, I’m continuing the analogy with how we can take tips from our local baristas and learn how to improve our brochures and marketing material.  There’s more than coffee that you can take away from a Starbucks encounter.

In The Starbucks Experience (2007), author Joseph Michelli reviews what has made Starbucks not just a new product or service, but part of our current cultural experience. Starbucks has had some trips since then, but likely its strong corporate credos have allowed it to be flexible in better responding to market changes. At Starbucks, they are called the “Five Ways of Being.”

• Be welcoming
• Be genuine
• Be considerate
• Be knowledgeable
• Be involved

It’s a great map for great marketing, particularly a brochure.  Here’s how:

• Welcoming – I recently saw a brochure where the first page was solid type.  It wasn’t a letter or designed as part of the brochure.  It was intimidating to read, heavy on the eyes and not welcoming to the brochure. It made you want to close the piece rather than dig deeper — kind of like a huge Victorian novel with tiny type.  You likely won’t approach it unless it’s assigned reading. Make sure your opening brochure material is just that – open with welcoming content enticing your reader to enter and linger awhile.
• Genuine – Don’t use flamboyant language, make promises you can’t keep, or statements that don’t ring true. Advertising and marketing materials already have a bad rap for puffery.  Not everyone is the best, brightest, cheapest, highest quality.  The trick to real marketing is being real and finding your true unique selling proposition. If you don’t know it, don’t spend money on puff pieces.  The reader can see right through it.
• Considerate – Be conscious of your customers concerns and address those rather than your ego.  No one likes meeting people at parties who just talk about themselves and yet we think marketing is a business resume letting the reader in on all the wonderful things they need to know about us.  It’s not.  Marketing is your introduction. Tell the customer a little about yourself and a lot about themselves.  If they self-identify, they’ll know you’re the right match for them.
• Knowledgeable – Give some information away for free. You’ve already paid to send people the brochure, so give them some value. Read Chris Anderson’s Free, or link to my post about him and think about what you can already provide for free to give prospects a taste of what you have to offer.  Consider Anderson’s Jello example, where free recipes entices people to want to buy Jello as an ingredient.
• Involved – Show how you are up-to-date and involved with your area of expertise.  Is it a passion?  Why would we know?  Bring us into your story and show us how you evolved and are involved.  People like to work with people they feel they want to know.  Get involved with your customers and give them a behind the scenes look into who and what you are.

There they are – the five ways of being and how you can use them in your next brochure. So before you start your next marketing endeavor, slow down, get a cup of coffee and ponder how you want your brochure to come into being.

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Marketing is like a light bulb. Do it right and the world lights up around you.  Customers come clamoring to you because they clearly see you’re the right fit for them.  The media buzzes about you with little effort.  You’ve got what everyone wants.  It’s a true GE moment – “Bringing good things to light.”

But how to you get there?  Take a lesson from the master himself -  Thomas Alva Edison. “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.”

If your marketing is not working, don’t give up the ship. Move on to the next concept.  Therein lies the first problem with most marketing. CEOs abandon ship.  That’s never a good sign.

The concept of repetitive testing for uncovering marketing genius was the topic of a recent breakfast meeting featuring Mike Moran, author of the new book Do it Wrong Quickly. His thesis is simple.  Great marketing is based on analytics which can tell you what’s working and what’s not.  If something isn’t working, stop it, but don’t stop marketing altogether.  Instead, quickly move on to the next concept and the next until you finally stumble upon the light bulb.  Voila! Marketing success.

The public will think you’re a marketing genius just as we all now acknowledge Edison’s genius as an inventor.  But, the truth will be marketing peserverance – you stuck with it and tested and measured and refined, and tested and measured and refined, and tested and measured and refined (you get the idea).

In a nutshell: Marketing is about perseverance. Learn from Edison and keep trying new ideas until you uncover the one that really works and lights up the world.

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In today’s growing social media world, the key is not so much about creating, but maintaining your presence on your social venue of choice.  This past week, I attended a webinar by Nathan Kievman on maximizing LinkedIn profiles. Yes, even something as simple as LinkedIn requires care, attention and constant updating.  In fact, Nathan has written an entire book on it and  recommends tweaking your LinkedIn profile daily.  There’s no such thing today as a simple Rolodex be it online or in a card deck.

Nathan’s advice is well-taken, but before you spend too much time updating LinkedIn daily — consider if you’re first updating your web site or blog on some frequency — preferably daily.  After all, your web site is your company’s face to the world.

A mother’s lesson: Updating a web site daily is akin to a woman putting on her daily makeup. It’s not a luxury. There are few women who will venture out into the world daily without — as my mother’s generation would have put it — “putting their face on.”  It meant putting on at least the minimal amount of makeup on to put your best face, if not foot, forward to the world.  Every day, your web site faces your prospects and customers, and if it never changes, it quickly looks old or dated and won’t do well in today’s customer speed dating scene.

Reality Check: I can’t imagine many business owners or executives who have the time to update a web site or even their LinkedIn profile daily.  However, not having the time and not recognizing the need are two entirely different things.  If your web site is not being updated daily — including checking the customer guest book and responding to it — then you are not configured for success. This is one clue that you need help either in the form of an employee or service.

Takeaway: The first step towards success is recognizing a need or problem and then solving it.  Recognize that a stagnant web site is a stale and old-fashioned web site and is not presenting you or your company as a modern player.

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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!

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There’s always a new type of marketing on the horizon.   Here’s a short list of just some of your choices

Here’s the answer. Don’t get intimidated by the jargon. Most great marketing is based on never- changing fundamentals, not the least of which include amazing creativity, intuition, risk-taking, knowledge of the market, and a clear understanding of what you have to offer and why it’s wanted and needed.

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Marketing has always been about reaching the right people  It the olden days, gosh — what … 12 years ago?–  it was still about mass marketing — reaching the masses.  Then, along came Pepper & Rogers and everything was about 1:1 –get to one person at at time with a personalized message and make them feel special.  Was Rogers related to Mr. Rogers perchance? I think not. That Rogers cared about neighborhoods.

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