"If a man have a strong faith he can indulge in the luxury of skepticism."
I have strong faith in marketing, but I've been doing a lot of soul-searching regarding the value of "little m" marketing (aka marketing tactics) in today's highly fragmented and very skeptical marketplace of products, services, entertainment and ideas. There's certainly no lack of opinion on the subject (expert and otherwise). Today's query on Amazon for "marketing books" returned 199,641 results and Google gave me 1.63 billion hits for the word "marketing." What's a marketer to do?
We all know that the "best" of anything is a highly subjective assessment, right? And that "little m" marketing plays a role in building an expectation and a connection with prospects and customers? Of course it does. So how does one define "little m" marketing value? I know what you're thinking: what's wrong with Return On Investment or Return On Customer? Okay. But that defines value from the organization's perspective. What about our audience's perspective?
Here's the present definition of marketing (from the AMA website):
Marketing is an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating, and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders.
My guess is that most people think of "little m" marketing as the part that simply communicates value. But perhaps "little m" marketing should be strategically designed to create and deliver value as well. Listen, I'm not simply playing with words here. I'm being quite sincere. Perhaps the paradigm shift we've all been waiting for is a new appreciation of "little m" marketing as a tool to create and deliver value to ones audience?
Instead of thinking of "little m" marketing as a means to an end (engaging and persuading - or brainwashing - someone to do something, like visit a website, call a company, purchase an item, etc.), perhaps we should think of it as an end in and of itself? Perhaps we should be asking this question: how can I provide value to my audience through my marketing tactics such that they can engage and persuade themselves?
Is this a radical idea? Not really. But it certainly appears to be. If you studied "little m" marketing execution (like I do), you'd be scratching your head in wonder (like I am):
- Burger King - From USA Today: "Shortly after Burger King's 60-second ad airs before an expected 90 million Super Bowl viewers on Feb. 5, it will go out over one of the newest ad media. Millions of Sprint wireless phone subscribers with video service will have the chance to watch a longer version that includes out-takes and behind-the-scenes footage.
The ad is an over-the-top production in the spirit of MGM's 1930's musicals: 92 'whopperettes' dressed as burgers, flames, pickles, lettuce and tomatoes will sing and dance to new lyrics for the famous 'Have it Your Way' jingle."
Note: Cost? A mere $5 million.
- Courting Alex - On page 3D of yesterday's USA Today, TV reviewer Robert Bianco gave the new show 1 and 1/2 stars (out of four), and wrote: "In sitcom court, dull may be the one unpardonable crime. Awful, at least, has its own, strange, train-wreck appeal. Offensive gets the juices flowing. But dull does nobody any good, and Courting Alex is nothing if not dull."
The following two full pages of the paper were . . . are you ready? . . . a color ad for Courting Alex.
Note: Cost? Slightly more than a quarter of a million bucks.
- General Motors - From AdAge: "General Motors is considering an ad campaign to dispel the widespread notion it might go bankrupt. 'As much as I hate to do this, we're probably going to have to do something proactively on the marketing side just to address that issue,' GM's marketing boss, Mark LaNeve, told The Wall Street Journal. 'How you do that, I don't know. It's a tough thing because you really don't want to go there.'"
Note: Cost (if he goes there)? Astronomical.
I'm not going to attempt to deconstruct those, or any other, marketing tactics. If that's your cup of tea, please go visit my friends at AdPulp.com. They do a much better job than I ever could. But here's what I do humbly suggest. The next time you're even considering spending money on a new marketing tactic (advertisement, direct mail piece, event, viral, etc.), take some time to run it through a quick customer value analysis:
- Does the tactic create value? What type of value? Does it educate our audience about something that they're truly interested in? Does it entertain them? Enhance their sense of self and add meaning to their lives? Give them some social currency? Would a prospect exchange a quarter for it? Would our audience be "wowed" by our creativity? Would they thank us for it?
- Does the tactic communicate value? Does it instill a visceral sense of the value that will be added to their lives by choosing and adopting our product or service? Is the benefit clear, compelling, memorable and believable?
- Does it deliver value? Will our audience be happy that we engaged them when and how we engaged them? Can they participate in our marketing? Will they walk away happy, touched or inspired?
If you can't honestly answer "yes" to all three questions, then go back to the drawing board. Face it. The marketplace bar has been raised to a nose-bleed level. If you hope to clear it, you'd better figure out how to get your entire organization strategically into the jump. Yes . . . that includes you, little m!
