March 17, 2010
The Adrienne Alert: The Issue with Marketing
All around me, people are proving that they haven’t a clue what marketing is. This comes out when they tell me, “I have no money to market.” Actually, they’re talking about advertising. Advertising is a part of marketing, but marketing isn’t just advertising.
It also hits home, when I hear about people in marketing positions being laid off. Unquestionably, marketing can appear ephemeral; and employers don’t know how to measure the results that marketing brings. They don’t even set goals!
A huge issue is the attraction to marketing that is Unknown to Unknown (cold calls, cold mailings, media advertising and a good deal of website activity). People aren’t targeting their marketing efforts. They don’t have Marketing Plans (a client proved this morning he doesn’t even know what a Marketing Plan is). Exacerbating the lack of targeting is the lack of continuity; people shoot themselves in their feet by focusing on one-shots (“Let’s run an ad and see what happens.”).
I learned recently about a couple who wanted to promote their Grand Opening through public relations. When two releases didn’t show results, they stopped the PR. That’s unfortunate, because they quit before the momentum had a chance to kick in.
Marketing needs focus and continuity. Neither has to be expensive. In marketing it’s not what you spend, but how you spend it. Those whose businesses will survive know that you have to keep your name “out there.” And that doesn’t have to be a costly proposition, if you understand how to market effectively.
