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Avoiding the Marketing Blues
By David
Even though I run a complicated business that marries a brick-and-mortar eco-friendly home furnishing showroom with its Internet counterpart and a full-service natural café, I’d say what occupies most of my attention is marketing.
In a way, this is a good thing, as it forces me to put myself in the place of the consumer and look at my offerings in that light; in a way, it’s annoying because it seems like the more resources you devote to marketing, the more it requires. You can always do something a little “better” if you just put in a little more money, time, or attention. One of my great lessons has been that putting that money, time, and attention into the customer experience may pay off better than marketing in the end, but “word of mouth” as a way of generating business is the aspect over which you have the least control. It’s less nerve-wracking to know that 2,300,000 people will see your Internet ad and to base your projections on that.
The other big thing I’ve had to learn about marketing is when something is an emergency and when it isn’t. I get calls and emails every day about this-and-that “great opportunity!” for ad placement, most of which I let go by without suffering any ill effects. An ad rep’s emergency is not my emergency . . . unless I’ve already paid for space and have forgotten to send in the art, which happens all the time.
At this point, I have to confess I’m a little lost as to the best marketing strategy for bluehouse. We spent most of our budget in the first year drumming up local business, but now I have to use the same budget to continue to build and maintain local interest and introduce the bluehouse Internet store to the world. This is the quandary that attracts so much of my attention.
Adding to my dilemma is that I don’t want to be just another company shouting and jostling for attention. I guess no business owner wants to be “just another company,” but as a marketer, I must say that I often don’t approve of marketing. I don’t like the ever-encroaching sprawl of advertising into both public and private space. I don’t like that most of what’s being pushed upon a jaded public is trying to manufacture demand for useless nonsense. My entire mission in starting bluehouse was to get people to stop and think about what they were doing, about what sorts of things they were bringing into their lives.
I have always thought that the best marketing was simple and educational, and that’s the standard I’d like to maintain. I just hope that the world is still set up in a way where that sort of message can get through.
Comments (1)March 20, 2007 5:20 PM
Comments (1)
First, congratulations on a great business concept and beautiful merchandise! I'm a fan of eco and born/raised in Baltimore, so well done for boosting those two institutions. I'm very familiar with your marketing challenge, particularly the conundrum where every dollar spent on (traditional) marketing is a dollar that could've been spent on the customer experience. Before any answers though, there are a bunch of basic questions to ask:
Are you ready to invest in marketing vs. customer experience? You might not be if:
*Your customer satisfaction rating is below 90%
*Your Web site isn't easy to browse/use (get an independent opinion on this); you are getting repeat visitors but they aren't buying.
*You aren't getting the referrals you expected.
*You are looking for marketing/promotion to solve what is really a distribution/product challenge.
How well have you defined your target audience--geographically, demographically & psychographically--and who are they? Where do they eat, sleep, shop, get their information, etc.?
Who has bought from you so far and what do you know about them? What do your best (most loyal, highest $ per purchase) customers have in common?
Historical traffic and sales by channel (walk-in, Web, referrals, etc.)
What business are you emulating, if any, and what can you copy from their success and learn from their failures?
Many more questions but these are a good start!
Good luck!
Posted by Bob London | March 26, 2007 3:24 PM
Posted on March 26, 2007 15:24