With all the social media marketing, content marketing, inbound marketing, digital marketing, mobile marketing, search engine marketing and the like, I still contend that “good” old-fashioned marketing works and that the buggy whip can still be in vogue with all of the iPhones, Blackberry’s, and droids that are around today.
What I mean is that the technology has rapidly changed, but marketing still remains the same. Marketing is marketing. And “good” marketing is “good” no matter what the new age delivery tool happens to be. Now, more than ever, it is important to understand marketing principles. With so much information being blasted to so many people … by so many people, how do you ensure that your message is heard above the roar of the crowd? You can only do that if you are very lucky, popular, or if you understand good old-fashioned marketing.
Marketing is defined as “a social process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating and exchanging products and value with others” according to Philip Kotler in his book titled Marketing Management: analysis, planning, and control. So, marketing is a process, not a tactic, not a strategy; it’s not new age technology … it’s a social process that has many different techniques, tactics, strategies, and innovative delivery technologies to create that exchange.
But, I find that most people in the marketing role don’t have a clue as to what “real” marketing is all about. They keep trying this and trying that and nothing seems to be working. I’ll give you a real-life example. I recently met with a colleague of mine and he was somewhat troubled as to why his business had slowed down. I could have told him “It’s the economy, stupid.” and been done with it, but that would have been too easy. So, I listened intently to his dilemma. Despite the fact that he had an enormous data base of prospects, had been a guest speaker at numerous conferences, professional society meetings and the like, his phone just wasn’t ringing. Now, this guy is a great marketer. He speaks about it and is considered a guru in many circles. But, he couldn’t figure out what he needed to do about his own company. He was too close to it and couldn’t see the forest for the trees. It was obvious to me, as I listened to his story, that he wasn’t applying the basic principles of marketing that he so grandly spoke about in his presentations.
He had not segmented his data base of prospects into manageable categories, for one thing. Not even by job title, industry, geography, or any other demographic data that he might have had. He also wasn’t following up and communicating with these prospects on a regular basis. Therefore, he wasn’t offering them something of value. He would touch them once when he first met them and then let the prospect die on the vine.
So, despite the fact that he had a large net and was catching a lot of fish, he had a hole in his net. In other words, he wasn’t converting those prospects to sales. He also was spending too much time and money on tactics and prospects that never in the world would have a need for his services. So, he should have thrown those fish back into the sea. For so much effort he was achieving very little success. And this guy is a marketer extraordinaire!
Another point I made to him was that he had pushed his expertise in certain areas and had done such a great job at it that he was known as the (fill in the blank) guru. Unfortunately, that’s not what he wanted to be known for, recognized for, or hired to do. And then he couldn’t figure out why people weren’t calling him for the other marketing services he provides. He had entrenched himself into a niche so deeply that now he couldn’t dig himself out. And, also unfortunately, the niche he had created was not a profitable one. In other words, people didn’t want to pay for that expertise.
So, the moral of the story is … follow some good old-fashioned marketing principles no matter how the technology changes in the future.
