Edison’s Incandescent Secret to Marketing

Sep 13
2009
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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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Written by Rhona in: Guru Wisdom, Marketing, Measurements | Tags: , , , , ,

Return on Marketing

Jul 08
2009
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Marketing measurement now has its own acronym — ROMI, or Return on Marketing Investment. It has hit the big time with its own detailed explanation in Wikipedia.  The key to the Wikipedia definition is the differentiation between short and long-term measurements and this is also what separates the amateurs from the pros.

Short-term ROMI is exactly what you would expect — the ratio of  what  you spent on a single tactic versus the increased revenue.  It’s a bit more complicated, but that’s it in a nutshell.  But, if you’re good at marketing, you likely have a campaign running, not a single tactic, and you’ll need a more sophisticated method for measuring return. That’s what the pros are calling long-term ROMI.

Long-term gets into the issue of branding, brand awareness, and the ultimate marketing mix.  How can you decide if you’re in the pro leagues?  Here’s a simple test: Are you concerned with brand and market share or just chasing more sales?  There’s nothing wrong with more sales.  It’s the reason to be in business after all.  But, if you’re only measuring sales, you’re in the minor leagues. The pros are looking at brand equity and market share in order to build towards the future.

And, of course, even this academic discussion on Return-on-Marketing-Investment pre-dates the effects of social media on the marketing mix.  If you bother to check the Wikipedia bibliography on the term ROMI, you’ll see the most recent reference is from 2006.  It’s safe to say that the use of social media in branding is just beginning to hit its stride. Branding giants — from Kodak to Zappos — have embraced it. These companies don’t take marketing lightly and they wouldn’t be in it just for the fun of it.  There ’s no question that marketing’s future is in today’s social media — at least as one growing leg of the marketing mix stool.

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Written by Rhona in: Measurements, Social Media | Tags: , , ,