The Genesis Of Marketing

Unfortunately, when it comes to marketing, the action often comes before the thinking. After all, speed is essential; action is king. Be proactive. Beat the competition. A bad campaign is better than no campaign. Meet the deadline. The faster the better.

The gurus of marketing expound on the how's and the what's. Here's how to market in the Yellow Pages. Here's what to do to build your image. Seldom do we hear anyone delve into defining our image-who we really are.

Direct mail specialist Herschell Gordon Lewis talks about staying in character with your image. As he often says, the image of Albert Einstein does not project the slogan, 'Have I got a deal for you!' One of the best examples of uncharacteristic marketing was when the banks used to give away free gadgets for opening an account. To my mind, that created a carnival huckster image that just did not reflect the conservative, stable image a bank strives for. It was like a used car dealer giving away tickets to the opera. Neither image is in character with the business.

Defining your image need not be a dilemma. Merely wave the RED flag: Research, Evaluate, Determine. I've found the RED flag analogy extremely helpful for nearly every business situation. Since I've been known to jump into projects emotionally on occasion, the RED flag, like a red light, slows me down. Sometimes it prevents ill-conceived actions; other times, it helps mitigate the loss and sometimes even turn it around.

Research. Ask each of your employees (and yourself!) to define what they perceive to be the image of your company. Ask them to put their answer in the form of one or two sentences, followed by five or six descriptive words. For instance, an employee of an insurance agency might reply:

Compile all the replies except yours. List all the descriptive words found more than once, ranking them from the most frequently used to the least used. Group the descriptive sentences that seem to be similar, again from the most common to the least.

Now compare that list with yours. If you have better than a 50% match, congratulations! You have the essentials of a defined image. On the other hand, if the comparison shows two different entities, you need to go to work on your corporate persona.

The truly brave of heart can repeat this experiment a second time with their 10 most valued clients. In many cases, their perception of your image will differ from yours. Somewhere within the middle of all this lies your true image, which must be reconciled with your marketing program.

Evaluate. Armed with the data from your survey and your current marketing program, it is time for some serious evaluation.

A mission statement is the perfect starting point. If you have one, how does it relate to the results of your survey? (If you don't have a mission statement, put down the RED flag and develop one before proceeding further.) A mission statement (what your business plans to accomplish) and the definition of your corporate image are not identical, but they must work together.

If your mission statement centers on providing quality service, but your image is high-volume, lowest-cost, the dichotomy needs to be addressed. If your mission is long-term stability, but your marketing emphasis and direction is changing constantly-I think you get the idea. The two must be compatible.

Evaluate each component of your overall marketing in the same way. Don't start with your latest advertising campaign. Save that for last. Begin at the beginning, as if you were a start-up. For example, my company's name, Sound Marketing, was chosen to represent the audio productions used in marketing, training, and education. As a noun, 'Sound' reflected the audio aspect; as an adjective, it means healthy, reliable, and good. Since education and training can be construed as both internal and external marketing, we decided on 'Sound Marketing' to reflect both our image and our mission.

We wanted a logo to reflect our commitment to the corporate structure, but also to express a sense of artistic freedom. To achieve this, we selected an award-winning designer of music albums, rather than a traditional graphic artist, to create our logo. This artist designed an 'S' swash that hinted at perpetual motion and creativity, coupled with conventional block-style print for the word 'marketing', but dropping the crossbar in the letter A. The result: a logo that matches our image. We've made only one change over the years, switching from a bit-too-conservative gray to a more vibrant blue.

From the logo, move on to evaluate your brochures, newsletters, flyers, direct mail pieces, Yellow Page ads, and finally your print and media advertising. At each point, ask if your corporate image fits the image of the piece. You may be surprised at how frequently image diverges from marketing.

Finally, review your operations, from the value-added benefits you supply to clients, to the operator answering the phone, to your sales approach. If your image presents you as a friend to clients, how frequently do you make contact with them? A friend occasionally stops by to visit; do you make 'Howdy' calls?

If your image is to be well-organized and efficient, do your sales personnel have to sit on their briefcases to close them? Do you portray yourself as a caring, service-oriented firm, but have a telephone operator tending toward moody brusqueness? Do you market 'full-service,' but fail to maintain hours convenient for your clients? Do you position your firm as an advisor to business leaders, but fail to belong to the Rotary Club or other organization where such leaders congregate?

Determine. After completing the research and evaluation, it's time to make a determination. Easier said than done! If you are lucky, you may only need to fine-tune either your image or your marketing. More often than not, though, you'll find some gaping differences between the two. So which do you change?

Normally I recommend sticking to your image and changing your marketing. However, there is an exception (as always). Refer back to the survey of your 10 best clients. Does their image of you coincide with your image of you? If it doesn't, you may want to change how you define your image. The old 80/20 rule states that 80 percent of your business comes from 20 percent of your clients, and their image of you is the image with which they choose to do business. In other words, what they perceive to be your image works. And since these are your preferred clients, you may want to adapt your perception to meet theirs.

Once you've locked in on the exact image you want, go down the marketing list to find discrepancies between it and the image. Rate each one on a 1-to-10 basis (1 being the least important, 10 being the most). Starting with the 10s and working down, discuss and decide what changes can be made to bring the marketing in line with the image.

Once you determine what will be done, who is responsible for doing it, and when it will be accomplished, your marketing will effectively represent, polish, and build the image you want to maintain.

All of this is an ongoing process, not a one-time project. Depending on your organization's circumstances, periodically review your marketing against your image. Never go beyond a year without a full review.