Tell the World

                                           Get the Message to You’re Customers 

  The wheels of a business are the customers that purchase its products, nothing happens until a sale is made.  The vehicle of your business is the mode of transport you use to get your message out to your potential customer in the global marketplace or your marketing plan for the more conservative type.  The biggest difference between you and your competition could be the number of potential customers you reach with your product message and not the quality of the product you sell.  If you’re not driving your business vehicle through the global marketplace everyday promoting your product to potential customers, your competitors are and their selling to consumers that could be buying from you, if you’re marketing-vehicle had been visible in the global marketplace to potential customers?  In today’s fast paced global economy the most visible product, the one that is seen by the most potential customers, is the one that will potentially sell to the most consumers, especially if were talking about the impulse buyer who is the target customer for many businesses on the global marketplace.

 

  People often ask me how much a small business trying to compete in the global marketplace should spend on the marketing-vehicle to make it effective, yet not to waste resources on over-marketing their product.  This is usually because they don’t understand how marketing works, why we market a product and have always conducted what we will refer to as ‘Shotgun Marketing’ for the purposes of this discussion.  ‘Shotgun Marketing’ is when you only purchase advertising when you are slow or when a media representative walks through the door and has been proven to be ineffective for businesses trying to compete on a global marketplace.

 

  There is no easy answer to the ‘how much’ question, different businesses need to spend varying amounts depending on customers buying habits, on how long they have been conducting business, and the marketing vehicles used by the competition.  The one consistent factor here is that customers buy when they want to, not when you want to sell them something, so it is more a facilitation of a consumers desire to buy when it appears and not because you have a product you want to sell. 

  Occasionally when trying to figure out if you need to spruce up your marketing vehicle, you can see warning signs on the side of the road as you drive along the global highway in search of customers.  If you see any of the four following signs on the road as you drive down the global highway, then you may need to stop by the media-shop to spruce up your vehicle for the coming battle with your competition.

 

1. If you are selling your product or services after you have lowered your price on the marketplace, then you need to find a better vehicle to reach your customers because they are only finding you because of the lower price advertised for your product.  This is certainly a short-term financial gain, but in the long run will erode a businesses ability to compete financially in a profit driven, highly-competitive, global economy.

 

2.       If you have to do sales gimmicks to get people to purchase your product, such as value-added incentives, free draws, or something that has nothing to do with the quality of the product.  Then you need to over-haul you’re marketing-vehicle to make it more visible to the available consumers looking for the product you have to sell, because your marketing plan isn’t reaching enough of the potential customers on the global marketplace looking for your product or service.

 

3.        Have you ever had a customer you dealt with for years say to you, “I didn’t know you sold those?  I didn’t know your company offered that service?  When did you start selling these, I’ve been looking for these for months?”  Or worse, find out a steady customer has been purchasing a product you sell from your competition for many years.  If this has happened to you or someone working in you’re business, then you need to re-evaluate the message you’re marketing vehicle is sending to your potential customers.  The plan your using isn’t reaching the potential customers available on the global marketplace and until you change the looking of the vehicle you use to transmit you’re message to the customer things aren’t going to get any better.

 

4.        Have you ever been to a cocktail party or networking function for your company and met someone who falls into your target audience demographics and hear them say, “I haven’t heard of your company?  This is a sign that you need to give you’re marketing vehicle a brand new paint job to attract the eye of the potential customer when they want to buy.

 

There are some guidelines used by marketing-gurus when they decide how much marketing their particular business or product requires.  For a chart of industry standards of percentage of gross income invested in marketing visit: www.wowcommunications.ca/m_buy.htm.  These are guidelines to give you an idea of what your industry is doing to market their products on the global marketplace.

 

Keep in mind that if you’re a start-up business, you generally don’t have an established reputation, and you will probably have to spend a bit more to get the message out to the world.  If you have been around for awhile it maybe time to create a fresh image for your product and company and to do this you will need to spend more on sprucing up the marketing vehicle you use to reach the potential customers for your product.  You should relate the amount you spend on marketing to how much your completion spends on their marketing vehicle?

 

Questions, questions, questions; in business if you don’t know, don’t guess.  Successful businesses selling in the global marketplace know there is too much riding on selling their product to rely on guesswork.

 

~ by warrenhayashi on October 16, 2007.