When a marketing tactic doesn’t work, you might think that proves it is ill-suited for the industry or audience – but might the problem lie in its implementation? Many companies make errors as a result of gaps in their understanding of how marketing really works.
Writing for Bloomberg Businessweek, Steve McKee reviews some of the common mistakes in marketing and offers advice on how they can be avoided. According to McKee, the ten biggest errors are as follows:
1) Aiming at everyone. You might worry that you could be missing out on customers by targeting one group, but experienced marketers know that you can increase the intensity of the brand’s appeal by narrowing the target audience. It’s better to be the first choice of 10% of the population than to be one of ten options for everyone.
2) Betting on rationality. McKee insists that consumers “don’t make decisions where logic and argument reside”. Emotion influences the majority of purchase decisions, “trumping reason along the way”. Therefore, you should try to connect with your audience rather than convince them.
3) Letting market research trump everything. McKee says market research can be “flat-out misleading”, explaining: “Consumers don’t always realise how they feel, what they think, or why they do what they do, and even when they’re well aware they won’t always tell you the truth.”
4) Getting seduced by the new. Fresh marketing and media options are presenting themselves all the time but you shouldn’t be distracted from what’s working. You don’t have to race to be first – let others test the water.
5) Advertising your aspirations. People will highlight your failures if you don’t live up to your claims. If you’re aiming to be No. 1 and to offer unparalleled service, try to live by those aspirations but don’t announce them.
6) Following the leader. McKee says: “It’s tempting to try and one-up the other guys, especially if they’re the market leader. Do so, however, and you may reinforce their strengths and derail your differentiation. Don’t try to be better. Just be different.”
7) Seeking approval by committee. If you make compromises to please everyone, you run the risk of diluting the message. Try to minimise the creative approval chain.
8) Starving the budget. “If you don’t have a line item on your profit and loss statement with a reasonable percentage allocated to marketing, you’re not a real business,” says McKee.
9) Anticipating customers will act very quickly. Consumers rarely respond immediately. Don’t write off your efforts too quickly. Plan your campaign thoroughly and stick with it.
10) Chickening out. McKee observes: “It’s easy to come up with reasons not to do something, surrendering to fear of the unknown. Not everything you do will work, but with each mistake you’ll be learning and growing.”
Source
Ten Common Marketing Mistakes
Steve McKee
Bloomberg Businessweek
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