Marketing is not just a change of underwear
Someone once asked me what I do as “a marketing person” in a bank. Too fatigued at that time to give a lengthy explanation, I simply said, “I take a bunch of old products, repackaged them a bit in terms of visuals and tagline, and make them look new”. The person laughed and acknowledged it’s the same for his “marketing people” as well.
The above is partially true for most product marketing efforts and how it’s often applied across industries basically.
For example, Person A wakes up one day and realises he’s been losing out to the hotter guys in the dating scene. He took one look at his wardrobe and his grimy face in the mirror, and decided to go for a makeover with a visit to the hair salon and hip downtown mall. With his trendy new look, he does attract some girls but then these girls just somehow don’t become lasting relationships, much to his exasperation.
Talking to some of his previous relationships, close friends and family members, he finally has an epiphany. He realises that due to his tendency to blow up at the slightest displeasure and having too big an ego to apologise thereafter, many of his relationships have failed to progress into something more serious. This means that regardless of how well-dressed he looks, as long as he doesn’t make an effort to change for the better, he will still likely to be a single, lonely and forlorn bachelor ten years down the road. He will date, yes but he cannot be in a relationship for long. In this situation, Person A can choose to go either way - 1) ignore the gaps and continue with just a physical makeover for short term gains or 2) to really spend time to overcome the gaps for longer term gains.
The above is a very simple way of demonstrating the difference between two different business scenarios - 1) a business that simply sells products by repackaging and/or redesigning on the surface or by throwing freebies to attract customers only to have them churn after a year or two or 2) a business who actually makes an effort to transform the mechanics and/or features of their product or service offering in order to keep up with changing customer needs/demands in order to build longer lasting relationships with them.
Based on the same example, if the business realises what is the real problem with its products and make an effort to actually improve them to better cater to the needs of the same customer base, they will find it easier to start building relationships with them. To put it blindly, it’s not as simple as just changing your underwear.
This improvement actually moves the business from selling just a product to selling a solution that resolves a problem or need for their customers – ahead or on par with its competitors.
Again, as organisations move towards solution-selling, they also increasingly realise how daunting a move this is and that it goes beyond just making changes to its products but the way it operates too. Story for another post.
That said, this doesn’t dispel the need for marketing and promotions. It simply means that businesses should move first from product to solution-selling before it goes out to buy a whole new wardrobe.
Meanwhile, before organisations make this move, most marketers can only continue to “make a bunch of old products look new”. As a self respecting marketer, we should also seek to influence the business positively to move towards solution selling by making consistent effort to engage them in our planning and vice versa. Marketing doesn’t exist on its own but more as an enabler of the business to be that voice to bring their proposition to life.
About the Author
Mad About Marketing Consulting
Ally for CMOs, Heads of Marketing and C-Suites to work with you and your marketing teams to maximize your marketing potential with strategic transformation for better business and marketing outcomes.
Who rules - Preference or Performance Marketing?
Companies who are still keeping two separate team strategies between performance and preference marketing are setting themselves up for longer term failure
Such companies are failing to connect the dots between full funnel marketing and over simplifying the consumer decision making process and mindset.
This is especially in the digital ad space where borders are blurred or non-existent and privacy settings no longer allow for precision targeting the way we desire.
Preference and performance simply should go hand in hand as end day, we don’t simply blow marketing dollars for the sake of it. What’s awareness to someone is consideration to another and conversion to someone else, depending on the decision making journey your customer sits in relation to the product or service and your company.
This is certainly not that new, when I went through the Google certification course back in 2019 but am still surprised that some are only talking about this in recent years.
What’s more shocking is the way some companies are still insisting on measuring marketing returns on investment by not having attribution beyond vanity impressions, page views and clicks on pretext that it’s just for awareness. On the other end of the spectrum is insisting that if a certain ad doesn’t result in immediate conversion, then it’s a failed campaign on pretext it’s for performance.
Whatever happened to looking at the funnel, who you really are trying to target, where in the decision making funnel they are at, how compelling is whatever you are offering, and ensure you are connecting the dots on your messaging in different formats, in order to determine the right metrics to measure at each touchpoint?
Example – this week, you have an ad talking about how xx product will help solve xx issue that customers face today. A few days later, you have another ad referring to the same product promoted on a site that your target customers frequent. A few days later, you serve up another ad that has a tactical offer with a buy by xx date.
Companies who know who they are targeting and who are responding to their ads versus those who aren’t, will create segmented lists that differentiate the two. They will use one for remarketing with differentiated messaging to help catch their target customers along the funnel with the above messaging and offer so they maximize their media budget. This process should ideally be automated.
Another critical thing to do is to try to get target customers to sign up and start a relationship with you, by giving them reason to of course through insights, tips or deals that matter to them, especially critical with the sunsetting of cookies.
This goes hand in hand with understanding their digital footprint so you have a multi-dimensional view of your target customers as real people with interests, preferences and needs, beyond outdated attributes like age.
All in all, companies need to invest in the full funnel and have different measurements for each stage of the funnel.
About the Author
Mad About Marketing Consulting
Ally for CMOs, Heads of Marketing and C-Suites to work with you and your marketing teams to maximize your marketing potential with strategic transformation for better business and marketing outcomes.