A Marketing
Consultant is a professional who offers businesses OUTSIDE OBJECTIVITY...
EXPERIENCE... TALENT... and INTUITION. Here is what these qualities mean to
you and your business.
The importance of outside Objectivity
An anorexic girl looks in the mirror, sees a fat person and is determined
to loose weight. Her self-view is distorted because she cannot look at herself
objectively. Even though others may reassure her that she is too thin, in
her distorted impression, she thinks she is obese.
No matter how hard we all try we cannot be objective with ourselves. This
is true in every aspect of life including business. Many failed marketing
attempts are the result of lack of objectivity. A marketer will tell me "I
know my market and how to advertise to it." This is only partially true.
While business management has extensive knowledge and experience with their
products and services, they cannot place themselves into the mindset of their
buyers or potential customers. Unfortunately, many marketers do not understand
this. It is not important what you want to say in your ads or,
what I want to promote it's what does the customer want!
The primary source of information that a company receives is directly from
their active customer base. In other words; buyer's talk to the marketer and
the marketer interprets their response. From this subjective interpretation
the marketer draws conclusions on what it takes to sell their market. It is
impossible for a marketer, or their staff to solicit, obtain and compile objective
marketing data, because they are tainted by limits and their own interpretation.
Let me illustrate this with an analogy. Let's say you get a new haircut. You
ask a few friends, "How do you like my new hair style?" Most folks
will be complimentary, because they like you and don't want to hurt your feelings.
Even if the looks bad, you'll get a modest response like, "It's OK."
From these responses you will come to the conclusion that "everybody"
likes your new hairstyle.
Now, let's approach this from an objective standpoint. Let's say I (an independent
third party) confidentially ask a group of people (not your friends), "What
they think of your hairstyle?" I will get completely objective responses
from a cross-section of people, which will be more accurate. This objectivity
may be important to you in making future decisions on how you will wear your
hair in the future.
In business, if you rely only on your customer's response, your conclusion
will be skewed. These are people that like you, and are doing business with
you. How about people who have chosen not to buy from you? How about your
competitor's customers? What about potential customers? In order to reach
an objective conclusion, you must consider, not just the existing market,
but the potential market as well. Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent
on marketing research every year to determine how to market products and services.
All of these studies are conducted by outside services that present their
totally objective findings.
An objectivity killer, and a thorn in the side of any marketing professional,
is the 'know-it-all' at the client level. Some times it's the boss himself,
but often it a self-professed 'expert' that has all the answers. They claim
to know what the customer wants and how to market it. Sometimes they design
their own advertising. One such individual was an engineer named Bill, who
worked for a company that produced Telex/TWX Machines, back in the days before
computers. Bill sat in a marketing meeting and announced. "We don't need
to be so creative. All we should do is list our spec's in the ad!" Bill
assumed, that every potential customer understood spec's and would be motivated
by this technical approach. Bill was not objective!
Another client in the automotive parts business introduced me to Bob, a counter
salesman who, because he talks to customers, knows all there is to know about
selling their products. Bob never had any formal education or work experience
in marketing, but that didn't stop him from suggesting how to do ads. All
Bob's ideas were limited to his personal opinions. Bob was not objective!
One of the biggest mistakes advertisers make is they assume their market knows
more than they do. A good marketing program communicates with the lowest level
of the potential market with out insulting the intelligence of the most sophisticated
buyer.
As a seasoned marketing consultant, I endeavor to develop marketing strategies
and campaign elements based on an outside objective assessment of each clients
factors. I listen to the Bills and Bob's but I also ask question Why someone
would want to buy your product or service? What is the biggest obstacle to
making a sale? What is the most asked question your buyers have? From the
answers, I am able to objectively recommend concepts based on my experience
and creative talent.