Marketing Fad

I was up very late about a week ago with the first tooth ache of my life (it is fixed now, thank you for asking) and had a lot of time to watch late night infomercials.  Watching late night infomercials is not one of my hobbies but I quickly found how easy it is to be drawn in by the hyped sales pitches, life-changing promises and limited time offers (you wouldn’t want to miss out on having two of all those things you will never use).

If you haven’t been keeping track, infomercials are dominated by diet programs and exercise equipment.  I have never purchased anything from an infomercial (or perhaps I am an infomercialmaniac and still in the closet) but many people do.

Most often the equipment is opened with excitement, assembled and the proud buyer quickly jumps on their shiny new promise of hope enthusiastic about the inevitable results.  Two weeks later it has found a permanent home in the garage, closet or as promised, tucked easily under the bed.  It stays there until next year’s garage sale where it’s pawned off for pennies on the dollar to make room for the miracle machine that will arrive in just 6 days-how exciting!

Marketing is not a fad.  If you’re treating marketing the way people treat the stuff they buy from infomercials, the only thinning taking place will be your bank account.  You should not agree to pay for a single initiative (coupons books, yellow pages, television, radio, brochures) without knowing ahead of time where it fits into your overall marketing vision, how it compliments an existing strategy and which other initiatives it supports or enhances.

An effective marketing plan cannot include impulse purchases if it’s expected to provide any kind of predictable or favorable return.  Every marketing initiative should be carefully considered based on that vision, strategy and initiatives if it is to produce maximum exposure.  Integrating your efforts and making sure that every message builds brand continuity is one way to get the most out of every marketing dollar.

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I speak to dozens of business leaders each week, specifically small business owners.  I am always amazed how often I hear something like, “I’ve tried several things, they didn’t work so I changed to [something else], that didn’t work, we tried a few other things which costs more than we made too.  Marketing doesn’t work for our business.”

Seriously?  Marketing doesn’t work for your business?  That is just stupid.  Business is marketing.  It is common for people to think they know more about marketing than they really do.  According to the Small Business Administration, lack of marketing skill (or execution) is the second most common reason companies go out of business.  I imagine those including in these statistics thought they had marketing under control. Read the rest of this entry »

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I passed by a Gymnastics Academy today while taking the bus to my office.  The business is located directly north of the interstate and has about 50 feet of windows facing the interstate.  The windows are enormous and the space would be PERFECT for making a positive and profitable impression.

Is there advertising there?  Read the rest of this entry »