Articles
The seven deadly sins of marketing
by John GrahamBad things should not be allowed to happen on Friday, particularly late
Friday afternoon. Yet, they do––and far too often. As you might
guess, it was late on a Friday when the email arrived from a client asking
me to comment on the attachment.
Opening it was a mistake. Some salesperson had spent hours preparing a PowerPoint
presentation for prospects. The format of the presentation was quite good. The
problem was the content. It was all about the company he worked for. He included
everything he could do for his clients. It was also completely off base.
Without even knowing it, he had fallen into the trap of the first of the seven
deadly sins of marketing.
1. Starting at the end instead of the beginning. A sales manager sat
across the conference room table and said to the marketing consultant,
“Our job is to sell something.” Such words may have an appealing
ring and impress the company president, but they are total nonsense.
Starting with trying to make the sale is the wrong place to begin. Writing about
the role of brain mapping in furthering the understanding why we buy, Los
Angeles Times writer Robert Lee Hotz makes this succinct comment: “The
creation of belief is the essence of marketing.”
With belief comes sales. Customer dissatisfaction and lack of loyalty
come from buying without belief.
General Motors continues to decline in market share because buyers believe other
brands are better. Ford came out with the “500” as the Taurus replacement.
Sales didn’t take off and almost instantly changes were being planned for
the vehicle. The same is true for the Buick LeCrosse, the car touted to solve
the company’s “age” problem. What’s the problem? A lack
of belief.
A major food processing company announces that all its cereal products are made
with “whole grain” and even though they cost more, they fly off the
shelves. Why? Because we believe “whole grain”
means healthy.
When there is belief, sales follow.
2. Spending time thinking about what you want. The salesperson
who filled his sales presentation with countless facts fell victim to
the second deadly sin of marketing. While he talked about “building
relationships” with customers, he sent a different message: all
he was interested was getting the order.
If it’s true that 80 percent of sales come from 20 percent of the customers,
it may also be appropriate to spend 80 percent of time letting customers do the
talking, and perhaps more. Marketing is about connecting with customers, getting
inside their heads, not trying to get something into their heads.
Why are most newsletters tossed before they’re read? The answer should
be obvious; yet, more often than not it isn’t. These publications have
little or no reader interest. They’re filled to the brim with
“stuff” about the company, how wonderful it is, what it sells
and how long it has been in business. In effect, most newsletters
ignore the reader.
Drilling down in an effort to understand what the customer wants to accomplish
is the key. It takes time, expertise and effort to get what’s going on
inside the customer’s head. One company expressed pride in being open on
Saturday, when its competitors were closed. Yet, a survey of its customers revealed
that they would prefer having evening hours during the week.
The second deadly sin of marketing is thinking we know what’s good for
the customer.
3. Confusing being busy with purposeful action. The
late Dr. Sumantra Ghoshal, the brilliant management guru, said only 10%
of managers take purposeful action. The rest of the time, they’re
just
“busy.”
Most marketing fails because too many ideas interfere with action. Successful
marketing is thwarted by ideas popping like kernels of corn over the
fire. They fly in every direction and soon burn out––leaving
only an unpleasant smell.
Doing more becomes a substitute for doing well. And simply lengthening the marketing
agenda only guarantees sure-fire failure. When the marketing laundry list
is long, a paralysis of action sets in.
As Dr. Ghoshal suggests, “Purposeful action requires active management
of demands, constraints and choices.” To test this thesis, make a list
of every possible marketing initiative discussed, presented and initiated by
your company over the last year or so. Then make a second list of those initiatives
that were actually accomplished. These will undoubtedly be the ones that had
a history of being successful, met specific objectives, were carefully developed
and methodically implemented. That’s purposeful action and that’s
what counts.
What you may also discover is that even the proven initiatives were derailed
by all those other ideas that took time and effort away from adequate follow
through. Being busy is not doing business.
4. Being seduced by our own objectives. The major threat
to a business is being blinded by its own objectives.
Marketers know the task is far different, and it’s true for firms of all
sizes and in all industries. Wal-Mart, Coca-Cola, JetBlue, H-P printers, Dell
computers, Volvo and Toyota, as well as others, are all good examples. Wal-Mart
has long prided itself on spending as little as possible on marketing. But the
company’s employee problems and good neighbor difficulties have caused
it to invest vast sums in advertising in an effort to better align itself with
consumer values.
In the same way, perhaps it would benefit H-P to spin off its highly successful
printer division to protect being perceived as the brand of choice and to avoid
contamination from problematic corporate issues. Meanwhile, anything that might
damage Volvo’s safety or JetBlue’s low-cost image could spell trouble.
While there are exceptions, of course, large companies seem to understand the
importance of shaping and preserving the way they are perceived. Others seem
to view perception far less seriously, seemingly taking the position that it
isn’t important. It’s the perception that the strong drive out the
weak that allows consumers to embrace a Bank of America, an iPod, or a Cingular,
for example.
5. Focusing on the short-term. “Our problem is that we need sales
now.” Marketers constantly hear this refrain. Unfortunately, most fail
to confront wrong-headed thinking head-on. It’s easy to shout about needing
more sales. It sounds so gutsy, macho and tough. Actually, it’s none of
these.
A lack of sales is never the problem, ever! While this may seem
somewhat harsh, it’s absolutely true. The “what we need is
sales” mantra is raising the red flag that there is a serious problem
to be sure––but the problem is not a lack of sales.
There’s a fundamental issue lurking beneath the sales complaint
and it’s this: the company lacks marketing. The business is
either failing to market or doing a poor job of it. It may also be acting
in self-serving ways such as talking about it’s superior “customer
commitment,” but failing to recognize it isn’t delivering
on its promises. And quite possibly, it may not be meeting customer expectations.
In a word, the business has its eye only on the immediate issues and lacks what
it needs to solve the sales problem––a consistent, long-term marketing
strategy, one that is constantly identifying and cultivating prospects and fostering
customer loyalty.
The “we need sales now” strategy inevitably is dependent upon gimmicks,
extra commissions and higher discounts. And what is worse, it feeds on itself
by producing a constant need for more sales.
6. Sending the wrong message. PowerPoint-bashing is
popular today and it’s an easy target. We find ourselves forced
to sit through dull and boring programs brought to us by painfully inept
speakers. Since the common denominator is almost always a PowerPoint
presentation, it’s easy to conclude that the problem is PowerPoint.
It isn’t. Why would anyone believe PowerPoint can transform a poor speaker
into a brilliant presenter or a dull presentation into one that captivates the
audience? The PowerPoint critics have fallen into the trap of blaming the messenger
for sending the wrong message.
It’s the same with companies. Without exception companies develop a picture
or view of themselves that becomes their “message.”
Polaroid went out of business carrying the banner of instant photography,
while Kodak dodged the same bullet by proclaiming itself “the imaging
company.”
Figuring out the right message is the marketing mission. Without it, there’s
trouble ahead.
7. Being seduced by the new. The new and different is
always appealing in business. Salespeople pant and plead for new products.
They complain they can’t make sales without them, thereby revealing
they are more dependent on having something new to sell than they are
on selling expertise.
Marketers can fall into this same “latest and greatest” trap. Racing
through the orchard picking off the ripe fruit is the common sales strategy.
It’s much easier than taking time and effort to uncover new applications
and markets for existing products.
Companies without a strong marketing component are addicted to always having
what’s new. While those with marketing support focus on ways to more fully
penetrate markets and find new applications for their products.
Cutting-edge thinking is more valuable than having a cutting-edge product. Becoming
dependent on a company’s ingenuity, knowledge and expertise may be more
beneficial in creating a sales culture over the longer term than chasing the
latest widget. And that’s what marketing brings to the table.
A good example is Oreck, the vacuum company. It’s the same vacuum and the
same message, year after year, only the add-on items change. That’s marketing.
The seven sins of marketing are indeed deadly. They drain the strength out of
good companies and send them down a destructive path. And those who lead the
way are the ones who feel they are the exception to the rule.
John R. Graham is president of Graham Communications, a marketing services and sales consulting firm. He is the author of The New Magnet Marketing and Break the Rules Selling, writes for a variety of business publications, and speaks on business, marketing and sales issues. Contact him at 40 Oval Road, Quincy, MA 02170; 617-328-0069; jgraham@grahamcomm.com.