Do not be deceived, there is no choice!

A friend of mine had a very interesting discussion with me recently. Basically, we were talking about why she was not aggressively marketing her company’s services. Typical of many small business owners, she was a little apprehensive about marketing.

Her comments were along the lines of her not having a very outgoing personality, there was not a lot of money to go around for marketing, and such. But the most interesting comment was this: “Maybe I cannot do push marketing, but what kind of pull marketing do you think I should do?”

Let me get this straight - too shy to do push marketing and you want to do pull marketing? Hmmm…. interesting.

I mean, you can get a lot of information on the Internet about what push marketing and pull marketing are. So, this statement took me by surprise. What was it in the definition of pull and push marketing that gives the impression that pull marketing was

• cheaper
• less demanding
• no need to encounter customer

This is so wrong. So, I have some good news and some bad news for all small business owners.

The Bad News is - pull and push marketing are two sides of the same coin
The Good News is - pull and push marketing are two sides of the same coin

What is the essence of marketing anyway? Please, put away your marketing texts and stop waving that MBA at me!

Marketing is basically about letting others know how wonderful your products/services are and to convince them that they should buy it from you.

Now, keeping that in mind, there is no such thing as push and pull marketing. Leave that to the “experts” and those who make their money marketing full time. For the small business manager, you just have to find what works for your particular industry and niche. More importantly, do what works for you.

For example, distributing flyers at the street corner can be considered “pull” marketing as you attempt to get customers into your eatery or hardware store. But it is really not so effective if you were a lawyer or a dentist. Putting up posters advertising your wares might work if you had your own brand, but it is not going to help get customers directly to your store.

Forget about push and pull marketing. Instead, think about “bread and butter” marketing. Every action that you take to attract customers must pay off for itself, at least. Don’t get caught up in jargon and industry fads. Focus instead on what works for you.

Talk to a marketing professional because they will know how to “do it”. But don’t get bamboozled by all the glitz. Use your hard won experience and tell them what you want to achieve and how much money you have to do it. Any good marketer should be able to work within your budget and deliver your results. The great ones will exceed your expectations.

A friend of mine in the tiny, sunny island of Singapore, just told me about a really interesting development that really got the people miffed: “The New Taxi Stand Rule“.

This was really interesting. You see, most of the policy makers, as commonly assumed, are government scholars. The best of the best. The brightest of the bright. So, they are supposed to, short of being able to see tomorrow’s stock index, be able to map out the plans for the future.

Now, the “central business district” is the downtown area that is consists mainly of offices and shopping malls. It is usually the most crowded and traffic is usually congested. This whole “taxi” rule came about because of a desire to improve road safety and to impose a stronger measure of orderliness in an already highly ordered society.

The problem occurs where the rubber meets the road, almost literally. While the measures are good, it created ripples of inconveniences that the law-makers never expected - the disabled, the elderly, and the vagarities of the weather. Having to trudge 50 meters in the rain to get to/from the allowed taxi stand is definitely not an improvement in the eyes of executives and office workers who used to have the convenience of a taxi to the doorstep.

Forcing a wheelchair bound person to use the taxi stand is even more ludicrous. Now, how is all of this relevant in a marketing blog?

Marketing is about communications. But communications is not all there is to marketing. How the example of logical thinking failing in the face of reality can be illustrated by one example that I will give below:

Everyone knows that there is no better way to drive volume and increase take up rate by giving away one free for every two purchased. Right.

Several years ago, a company wanted to launch a new game. The revenue model was for gamers to buy a prepaid card with a special code number on it, then, they get to play for 30 days when they enter this code into the computer. So, marketing said, “Buy 1 and get 1 free”. Simple.

Well, actually, what really happened was, instead of increasing sales and increasing take-up, they have just REDUCED SALES by 50% and lost 80% of the follow up sales. Those familiar with the online games market will understand this. What happened? Unlike other consumer products, online games have a definite, and usually short, life-span. Giving one for one simply made it so that gamers (who always move in groups) simply pooled together and bought half of what they would have purchased originally.

Then, follow up sales suffered because not everyone will continue. So, with a lower initial sales, follow up sales will also be lower. Now, this is again different from those instances where games are played for free and then later have upgrades to a paying model. It is not as simple as it appears at the outset.

All I am saying is, knowing happens at many levels. And sometimes, the heart and soul of a specific market could be very different from the norms of a generic market.

NOTE: As of now, they are reviewing the policies to address some of the concerns raised about the elderly and the disable. The rest of them just have to learn to use an umbrella, I guess.

Once upon a time, in a board room not far away, the Council met.

“You know what we want,” said the Head. “Deliver for us a creative of such excellence, none who view it can resist The Product.”

It was a daunting task. A task that would challenge the mettle of The Best. But it was not impossible. Properly targeted, armed with information, demographics, statistics and other magical tools; knowing the Final Objectives, The Product shall thrive.

“Indeed, we will!” the Leader of The Best proclaimed confidently. “Now tell us more.”

“There is nothing more to tell. You are The Best. You have the Knowing. Speak no more and go Create.” And so speaking, the Head turn and walked from the room.

For one brief horrifying moment, the Leader realised, finally, he has met the Mission Impossible.

When you think about creating a marketing plan, many people feel a huge headache come on. Everyone wants to have the “best” marketing plan.

You will always hear things like:

“We need a creative marketing plan”
“We need a practical marketing plan”
“We need an actionable marketing plan”
“We need an innovative marketing plan”

What exactly is a marketing plan anyway? If you decided to hire 10 sales personnel and go knock on the doors of all your neighbours, is that a good plan? Is that even a marketing plan?

Many people confuse the 4P’s of marketing with the marketing plan. Product, Price, Place, Promotions are essential considerations, but they are by no means the marketing plan. Most of us has learned what a marketing plan is in school and so, I will not insult all the readers by even attempting to define it. I just want to say that many people simply regurgitate the “4Ps”, add a SWOT analysis, talk a little about the competitors, put it into a nice format, and submit it as a marketing plan. Not in the real world, my friend.

I would like to venture that for the small business, an academic marketing plan is really totally unnecessary. The small business owners and managers need to understand this clearly. You do not need an elaborate, sophisticated “marketing plan’”. However, you do need one. A business without a marketing plan is simply a mom and pop shop disguised as a business. Heck, some of the more successful mom and pops do have a marketing plan - and you wonder why?

A good marketing plan for small businesses should be fun, exciting and most importantly, easily actioned upon. It is pointless to have a beautiful 99-page marketing plan that you are never going to use. Here are some simple pointers towards creating a really effective plan for your small business:

1. Figure out what you want to achieve.

This is commonly known as your objectives, or vision. It could be as simple as I would like to add one new, major customer this year that does $X of business with me. Or it could be a grand plan that says you want to have a chain of stores that circle the globe. But the most common time horizon a small business should look at is one year. Two feet on the ground, eyes lifted to the horizon.

2. Figure out who your real competitors are.

Just because you run a small eatery, McDonald’s might not necessarily be your competitor. If you are not even able to honestly appreciate who you are playing with and against, well, it’s easy to “win” when you are the only one playing.

3. Figure out why your customers like you.

If you are running a small business, you have customers. Why? They could easily have gone to the other guy. Understanding what value your customers see in you, will help you understand how to meet their needs better. It also tells you who you should target - people with similar tastes, needs, values… It is pointless to create an academic SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity, Threat) analysis at this early stage. Get the basics right.

4. Find a good agency to work with.

A mistake many small business owners make is to assume that marketing or advertising agencies do not want their business, or that they cannot afford one. Depending on your budget, there is always an agency willing to work with you and for you. I need to clarify one thing here - a freelance designer is NOT the same as a small agency. What you need is marketing and advertising expertise, not pretty pictures. Some designers do have the experience, skill and knowledge to meet your marketing needs. All I am saying is that you need to be clear about the difference between a great designer and a great marketer. Talk to them (agency/desginer/freelancer) and evaluate their track record. Then pick the one you like most. Go with your gut after all the evaluations are done.

5. Stick with it.

Stay with your plan. Give it a chance to succeed. Just because the first flyer distribution flopped does not mean your PLAN flopped. It is just one element of execution. Test. Experiment. Measure results. Adapt. But stick with your “vision”.

Above is just my view. I would welcome comments, questions and maybe, if you want to contribute, write me and I will gladly have your article posted up here.

Some resources:

Great marketing articles - http://www.versacreations.net
Good copywriters - http://www.writingthoughts.com; http://essentialkeystrokes.com/
Good designers - http://randaclay.com; http://davidairey.com

If you are any kind of writer at all, you must have dreamed this dream. At some point in your life, you must surely have wanted to write your own novel.

Frankly, I have never met any one who loves writing but never dreamed of writing fiction. It is a rare breed that is so focused on writing press releases, great headlines and killer ad copy that they do not even think about penning a story or two. If I had a dollar for every story that I started but never finished, I could afford that Wii.

So, head on over to Men with Pens - they are going to do a series on how you can write better fiction. I’ll be there.

I learned that there are some *ist words that are quite controversial. Sexist, elitist, masochist, dentist… well, you get the idea. But the thing is, in marketing, controversy sells. Which is probably one of the reasons sex sells.

This then leads us into another controversy, your conscience. Are you my conscience?

When is it ethical to use sex to sell? Is it ever?

There was a study that was discussed in about Sex In Advertising (link has a few naughty images) that seems to imply that using sex in ads might not be as effective as is commonly believed.

So, if using sex might actually back-fire against your campaign, is it worth the risk then to take this route? There must be better ways to create impact and stir interest. Must we really resort to the lowest tier in Maslow’s little pyramid?

Tell me what you think!

Here’s wishing all our Chinese Readers a very happy and prosperous Chinese Lunar New Year!

May the Year of the Rat bring prosperity, wealth and health.

OK, this is a shameless plug for all of you to go take a look at my friend’s new web site. I encouraged him to try for a niche, and of course, he picked a really strange one…

Anyway, enough about me. Go take a look at HerpesLiving.com

It would be an education for me reading that site since I am not too familiar with that topic.

I just saw this book selling contest that I thought was very interesting.

As marketers, one of the things we look out for is an opportunity to address the market. Now, with the stock market in its current volatile state, guess what is selling well?

Well, genius, books about stock markets.

So, see if you can win the contest. Let us know.

I am sure by now, all of you would have had the joy of discovering the power of YouTube videos in promoting your product, services or brand.

It is particularly powerful when it comes to delivering socially conscious corporate messages, don’t you think?

But what if you do not have the video talents? Surely you do not want your products or brand image to be tarnished by an amateurish video effort? Well, I just found a new best friend - the corporate film-maker. Imagine that you have the resources and experience of a producer that has worked with big names and big brands. Then imagine that you can discuss your needs with him/them. Isn’t that better than begging those young ‘uns in your department to cook up a YouTube video that you might not even dare show your mother?

Chuckle if you will, but don’t joke with your corporate image. I was puzzling through this question - how can I participate in the YouTube phenomena if I can’t make a decent film. Well, I was wondering until Director Tom visited my site and I saw his link on the MyBlogLog widget.

Problem solved.

This might be silly, but this video really strikes a chord…

Sorry, but I really love this!