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.