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Blog posts tagged Marketing strategy
Marketing - more than commonsense?
June 10, 2011
Everyone is talking about integrated marketing. But what does it really mean in the context of your business and the day-to-day 9 to 5 shuffle?
It goes without saying that every part of your business should be connected to marketing in some way, and taking an integrated approach is the back-bone of success. But what does that mean?
If you’re a small business you wear many hats or if you are a larger company you have several departmentalised functions. Let’s start with marketing. Marketing is there to find new customers and ways of providing those customers with the satisfaction and value they derive from your product or service. The role of sales is hopefully made easier by the marketing activities. Operations or your production team are there to deliver what is promised by marketing and do so efficiently and profitably. The finance department has to support marketing and operations in the fulfillment of their accountabilities and maintain the company’s profits.
This is obviously painting a very basic picture but what I’m getting at is that every part of your business touches marketing and if everything is integrated, the power of innovation is in your hands.
Doing new things
Innovation allows us to do new things. The process by which your business does business is a marketing tool in itself. It is the mechanism by which you can find and keep customers. It’s what I would call “differentiation”.
If your business process and every department of your business is really in tune with marketing, you’ll find powerful ways to be innovative. It doesn’t have to be earth shattering; it could be in changing a few words or a small gesture. Every department of your business must always ask, “what is the best way to do this?” and always take the customer’s point of view. Which brings me nicely onto my next point.
Customer is king
Heard that one before haven’t we? What it means for business owners and marketers is that any marketing strategy starts, ends, lives, breaths and dies with your customer. Everything else is a moot point, nothing but the customer and what the customer wants matters. These customers have a sea of expectations, their attitudes, beliefs, opinions and everything else that makes up the subconscious mind is where the buying decision is made. We’re starting to dive into the psychology of sales and that’s not what this is about, let’s talk about marketing again.
There are two pillars to any successful marketing strategy — the demographics and psychographics. So what I’m saying is that if you understand who your customer is, you can determine why they buy.
Taking it seriously
OK, forgive me for being a little over dramatic, Marketing isn’t really as complicated as I’ve described and nor does it need a degree in psychology. The point is that most small and medium-sized businesses regard the function of marketing as mere “common sense”.
What is common sense? All common sense amounts to is your opinion. We see businesses all too often deciding what they want to do without any information and without any interest in what is true. This could be as simple as throwing together a clip art logo and choosing colours because that’s the colour your dog likes, but in reality it will completely and utterly turn off your target customer right away.
These may be strong words but I am trying to prove a point. There is a science to marketing. You need to be interested in it and you need to give it the investment in time and resources that it deserves. There’s a reason that companies like Disney, Fedex and McDonald’s spend what they do to get their brands right and get their marketing message out to their customers.
Small businesses obviously don’t have the money to throw at marketing like these brands do but you can afford to make sure that there isn’t one part of your business within your company that isn’t asking questions around marketing.
And if you are going to do something, isn’t it worth doing it properly? You know what they say — if you invest in peanuts you will get monkeys. Find a credible expert who can quickly show an understanding of your business and your customer to help you market effectively. It’s an investment.
Sian Lenegan is account director at Sixth Story.
What have the criminals ever done for us?
February 24, 2011
How do you market the unmarketable?
Take crime. Ever wondered how important crime is to the economy and your livelihood? How would you market the benefits of crime? Think it can’t be done?
Consider this.
Imagine a world without theft, criminal damage, murder, or student riots. We'd have no need for the courts, police, lawyers, security guards, prisons, prison vans, the probation service, graffiti removers or witness protection. Think of the job losses. The insurance industry would be decimated, we'd have much less use for our hospitals, window and door locks, or car trackers, and you wouldn't want to be in the house alarm or CCTV game would you?
Whole industries like speed cameras and nightclub bouncers would disappear overnight. The knock-on impacts would include major drops in the demand for vehicles, petrol, handcuffs and keys. Less petrol means less tax raised, which might mean even higher VAT. The lack of available bad news would render much of Fleet Street redundant and newspapers would almost certainly go to the wall. No Scotland Yard, no MI5, and no MI6. Not even car clampers or tax inspectors would be needed. No part of society would be left unscathed by the lack of crime.
Think about it this way and you realise how poor the criminal fraternity is at marketing the benefits their industry offers. There’s no equivalent to the Banking Association’s Angela Knight out there combating the bad press by talking up the wider benefit of crimes. Criminals don’t make the most of the positive promotion they receive on film and television through the endless detective stories from Sherlock to CSI.
So how would you market the positives of crime? How about a ticking clock on the fourth pillar in Trafalgar Square which counts its positive contribution to GDP every second? What about highlighting what would otherwise be truly horrendous crime-free unemployment statistics by sponsoring the sides of police cars? What about sponsoring the news….after all most of it is about crime anyway- “Tonight’s news is brought to you by you al-Qaeda, global sponsors of hospital and construction jobs”
The point here is that every business has a positive impact somewhere for someone, and in truth we are all guilty of assuming customers will realise it without it being made clear to them. So many benefits are hidden from the customer because of lazy marketing. In promoting your message it’s important to dig deep into what’s special about what you do and tell people about it.
This is so much more the case in these austere competitive times, times for which marketing was really made. So, rather than cut spend back to save cash, you should be investing in interesting dialogue with your customers who are, after all, the font of all of your profits. Business only really has two functions, innovation and marketing, the rest is supporting detail.
Alex Pratt OBE is founder of www.seriousreaders.com and author of Austerity Business: 39 Tips for doing More with Less.
What is the best form of marketing?
January 17, 2011
If you’re looking for an easy answer, stop right there because the answer is “it depends.” It depends on your business, product or service, marketplace, positioning, brand awareness, the weather and a few other variables. Sounds a little like Marketing 101 right?
Yes and no. There are so many tools in the marketing mix at your disposal (don’t make me list them all). The real problem is that advertising and marketing have become less effective and your target audience is building up an immunity to it all as they are constantly bombarded.
This is compounded by the increasingly expensive forms of advertising; people becoming more discerning; increasingly competitive markets and let’s not forget the credit crunch!
If any of this strikes a chord, you’re probably losing sleep over what to do next and where to put your limited budget to maximise your Return on Marketing Investment (ROMI).
I don’t have all the answers in this short post. However in the face of this marketing mine field here are some tips to get you well on your way to focusing your marketing effort.
Know your audience
If you know who you are talking to it will be easier to talk to them. Take a blank piece of paper and write a profile of your typical customer. Make up a name, job, kids etc. It can be fun not to mention insightful.
What brand awareness do you have?
This is particularly important as it will help to shape placement when you get down to tactics, where to market and who to market to. For example, outdooradvertising can be fantastic if you already have a great deal of brand awareness! We used to let our fingers do the walking but now this has completely changed with the web and mobile technology. This has opened up a whole new ballpark, seize it and jump in or you’ll be left behind.
The message
The message is as important as the delivery, just make sure it’s painfully simple. Writing that profile we talked about can really help shape the message accurately.
Consistency is king
This cannot be reinforced enough, from your brand to the message to the delivery consistency is key. If it’s not consistent, youcan do untold damage to your credibility.
Know your sales process backwards
Your sales team is a valued tool in that marketing tool box, knowing the process and listening to your customers makes all the difference.
Follow up follow up follow up
Marketing campaigns followed up with a sales effort will give you that ROMI you’re looking for. Simple.
Integrated approach
Ensuring all channels of marketing are pointing in the same direction and not competing with each other with a seamless message will ensure success. It’s mathematics and it’ll multiply exponentially.
Any marketing can be effective if it’s done properly with a splash of creativity and dash of intelligence. Find out what works for you, stop doing the activity that doesn’t work and focus. It might not be rocket science but there is an art to marketing yourself that all starts with the variables and answering one simple question; Why do people buy from you?
Sian Lenegan is account director at AHP Design.
You were the most expensive... but we'll go with you anyway
November 08, 2010
How often do your clients say that to you? In a competitive marketplace, it’s so tempting to feel like you need to compete on price. After all, if you’re the cheapest, clients will flock to you won’t they?
Take a look at your marketing literature: your website, your latest leaflets or flyers. What’s the main message? I met with a prospective client recently and the message that was coming across loud and clear was “we’re cheap”. This lady runs a successful business, her team work hard and they’re making a profit. But I can’t help thinking that they could be making an easier profit, attracting easier clients and making a larger profit if they just thought about repositioning themselves.
Most businesses have a Unique Selling Point (USP) that extends beyond how much they charge. The trouble is, they rarely communicate that USP effectively. The downside to this? You’ll end up attracting customers who only want to work with you because you’re cheap. They won’t value what you do, they probably won’t want to spend what you want to charge, and they’ll just recommend more people like them. It’s a vicious circle.
Moving your marketing away from being “the cheapest” takes a bit of bravery. Putting your prices up takes even more courage. But trust me, if you can do it effectively you’ll start attracting the sort of clients who really value what you do, and they are the people who will be with you for the long term.
If you run a service-based business you’ll also buy yourself enough time to do the quality of work you really want to be doing. And if you can communicate the benefits of the value you’re offering effectively, you’ll finally hear those magic words: “you were the most expensive, but we want to work with you anyway.”
Fiona Humberstone is an expert contributor to Marketing Donut and managing director of Flourish.
Marketing spending reviews - the pressures and possibilities
October 18, 2010
With the Conservative Party conference over, thoughts turn to the government spending review and how it will affect business and the economy. Whatever the outcome in the long term, in the short term there is little doubt that businesses will continue to approach both expenditure and debt with caution. So what is the likely impact on marketing?
Casualties
The first casualty is likely to be external expenditure. Marketing consultancies will find it hard to win business, and increasing pressure will fall on in-house staff as they are expected to make up the difference. Knowledge of new technologies will be at a premium as more companies look to develop and maintain expertise internally. Only last month, the BBC revealed how in-house SEO had helped it to slash its marketing budget. Marketing staff of small companies will be expected to be jacks of all trades, to reduce reliance on expensive external resource.
Expect large, costly projects such as re-branding to be postponed. There will be an emphasis on cutting out unnecessary expenditure. Companies will recycle existing advertising campaigns rather than splash out on new ones. It will never have been more important to know which half of your advertising budget is wasted! Spend will continue moving towards online advertising, simply because results can be tracked accurately and unnecessary costs eliminated.
A word of warning, though. Companies that cut back too far on marketing will lose out long-term, yielding ground to more ambitious competitors who continue to invest and seize the opportunity to gain market share. It was ever thus. Marketing theorists cite the example of Cadbury’s, who continued advertising throughout World War II – even when they didn’t actually have any chocolate to sell – and gained dramatically as a result.
Opportunities
Marketers must accept that it’s a season to cut out the dead wood, and probably some green shoots that haven’t yet been fruitful. But it’s also a season of opportunity. Where one company cuts back, there is the chance for another to step in. In advertising it will be a buyer’s market, with bargains available to the shrewd negotiator. Technologies like social media and mobile are still developing rapidly, with whole new territories opening up for businesses willing to invest early.
Pressures there might be, but possibilities there certainly are too, for companies willing to take the risk and step forward into the breach.
Bruce Townsend is an expert contributor to Marketing Donut and online marketing specialist at Actinic.
Be disruptive
October 15, 2010
Being disruptive pays. Following the pack does not. At least not for most people.
Starbucks was a disruptor as it changed the habits of a generation (as did FaceBook, Google and so on). But what is new today becomes old tomorrow. Today’s revolutionaries are tomorrow’s Old Guard.
A great disruptor doesn’t just do more than interrupt; it can change the face of the landscape. This is particular true of the customer experience.
Starbucks changed how and where we socialise, Amazon changed how we shopped…. So while we can quote the big disruptors I think that we can all disrupt, if only on a smaller stage.
You can zig when they zag. Go against the traffic. Challenge the notion of “that’s how we do it around here”.
Depending on your marketplace, think what would happen if you:
- Charged by “results only”
- Let customers decide what to pay
- Only work online or by phone
- Charged per five minute slots…
I am sure you get where I am coming from.
Robert Craven is the author of business best-sellers Kick-Start Your Business and Bright Marketing. He runs The Directors' Centre and is described by the Financial Times as "the entrepreneurship guru". Read more here.
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