We all thought the process was very useful in helping us get a better grip on our brand. We had gotten so focused on servicing our clients and managing our growth, that why were doing this had gotten buried in the day to day.

Community Analytics Research

 

Keeping Your Place In Line - A marketing perspective on designing the business that you want to love.

There is only one really good reason to market your business through good times and bad. Only one. But it's the one that makes all the difference - so you won't lose your place in line. Keeping your place in line positions you to move up and overtake your competition.

All businesses go through marketing life cycle if they want to be successful.

First, a business has to know there is a line. Then, it needs to know where the line starts and how to get in it. Once there, the new effort is about staying there and holding that position. And for those competitive companies wanting to grow, just being in line isn't enough and the goal shifts to moving up, and, perhaps, getting to the head.

Marketing is about this entire process.

But when an organization stops marketing and takes its position for granted, it is the same as getting out of line and having to start over or, if not from ground zero, then certainly from a more disadvantaged position.

Unfortunately, it's a cliché that when times are rough, the first expense to cut is marketing and advertising. This happens time and again, despite the case studies and statistics that strongly demonstrate how companies that maintained their visibility through a downturn gained greater market share when the economy improved. And for a lot less money! Those organizations that silence their marketing voices have to spend more, work harder and play catch up to their more marketing savvy competitors. Often, in spite of their efforts, they never again really catch up to where they were.

Advertisers have a lot to learn. Unfortunately, many organizations learn the wrong lessons. During the 80s, it was fashionable to talk about "product line advertising" as opposed to image/brand advertising. Clients thought it a good idea to apply consumer packaged goods approaches to their businesses and hired MBAs and consumer products managers to direct their strategies. Lectures and seminars were developed that had these marketing gurus telling clients folk how to do it, and the first to be sacrificed was the image (or brand) of a facility. The new hero was the product. Ads had to be measurable. Marketing had to be accountable. The brand stewards were hushed in favor of short term returns.

Abandoning the brand took its toll and turned organizations and their products into commodities.

But commodities don't have bargaining power.

Commodities don't inspire loyalty. People won't pay a premium to purchase. Organizations (and their products) who maintained their belief in the power of "brand" ultimately thrived and out-performed their competitors. For example, Mayo Clinic remains the "poster child" for this concept. The Mayo Clinic "brand" is protected at every turn. They don't market individual programs without relating them under the aegis of Mayo's programs and services.

The safe "default position" to which many advertisers fall prey is to tout features, facilities, and technology. Add to that some testimonials from satisfied clients/customers whose lives have been saved, mixed with smiling family shots of arms draped over loved ones shoulders, or couples walking on the beach holding hands, and you have all the typical clichés of lazy concepting.

Ads that provide a concept that hit a nerve, that engage us on a deeper level of desire, fear, hope and longing are ads we remember. The point of doing the ads at all is to plant in the minds of your target clients the messages about who you are, what you do, and what you can do for them better than what they could get elsewhere.

That is when advertising goes from being an expense to becoming an investment.

Great advertising, effective advertising, is like shoulders from which to drape a garment. It flows. It fits. It makes an impression that lasts long after the person leaves the room.

There are plenty of opinions about what makes for good, if not great, advertising. And the truth rests with some very simple concepts.

• Do you remember the advertiser and the product?
• Do you get what the advertisers key benefit is to you for the product or service?
• Do you understand the products attributes and promises long after the ad has run its course?
• Do you like the ad and look forward to seeing it again?
• Does the ad make you feel inclined to ever use the product?
• Do you come away from the ad with a positive perception about the advertiser?

If you want to hold your place in line and improve your position, create an impact.

Make your advertising memorable. In Hollywood, people often use the expression "I laughed, I cried, it became part of me" to describe how a performance affected them. Advertising, to be effective, must affect people as well. When it doesn't, it's an expensive exercise. When it does, it's the best investment you can make in marketing your business and becoming "brand visible." The better you are perceived, the more choices you have in creating the business you desire, with the customers you choose - on your own terms.

That's why you market, and why being in line matters.