An Open Letter to Business Owners and Decision Makers
Your marketing is your lifeline to your customers and more importantly, your potential customers. It is an integral part of what keeps your business alive. Your products and services are also critical, but if nobody knows about them, they are useless.
If you were relying on someone to keep you alive, would a doctor or specialist that claims to be the “cheapest” be who you would run to? What if your home was in need of major repair? Would a contractor that touted that they used only the cheapest materials be at the top of your list?
What would be your initial perception of these professionals? If there is no benefit for the person or persons involved in a business relationship with you, how do you think this person will approach the relationship with you and the business that you have built? Would you trust that they would take your needs and requirements as seriously as you if they were being paid less than your cable or satellite TV cost you every month to design and produce marketing for the business that you have built and are trying to market properly?
Does the effort that you have put into your company deserve anything less than what you have put into it? At some point, effective design work reaches critical mass. When the descending cost line intersects the quality line, you cannot expect tangible results. You can only expect to have essentially thrown what you did pay for the work out of the window.
“It’s just not in the budget.” Really? It never is. Neither is wasting time, effort, and any amount of money on ineffective marketing and promotional products. When is ‘good enough’ not acceptable anymore? When does spending a little more to get a lot more make good business sense? Hint: It always has.
People get nervous. It’s natural. Uncertain times can trigger knee-jerk reactions that can quickly affect your long-term vision. Many feel as though advertising should be one of the first things to get cut when business slows down. There isn’t much that could be further than the truth. Maintaining visibility in the marketplace is essential, especially when your products are high-involvement decisions, but this is not limited to high-involvement purchases. These buying decisions are a long term process for them. If you are not advertising and making sure that your message is in front of them, even when they are not yet ready to buy, is a critical mistake. Use every component, especially advertising, of the marketing process to build your brand. Media is cheap right now. The web is even cheaper.
By building your brand, we are not talking about getting a logo designed [especially a $20 one!]. There is a common misperception amongst some that this is the extent of the work they need to do to “brand” your business. Not so. Brand building is so much more than that. We are talking long term brand building. The kind of brand building that creates value for your customers and in turn, for you and your business. The kind of brand building that makes economic times like these not quite as daunting as they are for those businesses that thought just having a good product or a snappy logo done by their nephew would make them successful. Those are the businesses that must drop prices, scramble for work, and lay-off employees in slow markets due to a lack of strategic planning and effort. Those business owners and decision makers who thought that marketing wasn’t all that important. Those that don’t understand why business slowed so much and subsequently, they are getting nervous.
While having the right tools to do the job is essential to making things come together, you must make sure that they are the right tools to do the job, and have the ability to make these tools produce the right results. Your marketing is what communicates your products and services. What does this marketing say about you? Is your business cut-rate? Are your products and services bargain-basement? While costs are important, they should not be the only factor in your decision. Just like planning a media buy, the cheapest cost per point is not always the best route. Buying the right points is cheaper and more effective than just blindly buying the cheapest.
Think of the last time that you bought something important. Anything. Did you just grab the cheapest one and go with it, or did you compare the actual product and find that even though the others were a little more in up-front cash outlay it was higher quality and worth it in the long run? Some people have strict brand loyalty to things like chewing gum and toilet paper. Wouldn’t that kind of loyalty for your business be nice? Especially in any economic climate! These products did not use a $30 logo and then stop using marketing to remind people of their products and services. Some might say, “Yeah, but they are big budget corporations!” Yes, they are. But the principle is exactly the same, just on a smaller scale. Just because some actor in Hollywood has spent a $500,000 on his car doesn’t mean that you have to; but you still need transportation!
This is nothing new. We have been through down turns before and have always come back out of them riding on a wave of entrepreneurial courage and leadership that has made us the envy of the rest of the world. Even at our worst, we are still the best.
So the next time that you think of how you want to showcase your business, ask yourself exactly how you want it perceived in the eye of the consumer. Do you want to be seen as a low-cost provider? How long will you be able to maintain the quality of your products and services when positioning yourself this way? Dropping yourself into a low-end market can happen overnight. Re-positioning yourself as a quality provider takes a long time when you have decided that watering down your brand in a stumbling economy is a good idea. Think of how you felt after dealing with the last low-cost provider that you used. Did you walk away wondering when the next time you will get the chance to do business with them again?
Everyone wants GOOD, FAST and CHEAP. The problem is that you can only have two of these at one time. Want it good and fast? It won’t be cheap. Want it fast and cheap? It won’t be good. Good and cheap? Forget fast. This goes for anything.
While cost and budgetary limitations are important and must be considered carefully, the chance of throwing any amount of money at cut-rate marketing is just not worth it. You have started your business with the long-term objectives and plans in mind. Your marketing efforts should not be any different.
Contact us to discuss how continued and focused marketing and advertising, especially now, can lead to long term benefits for your organization.
Tod O’Brien
Director of Creative Services
One Eyed Dog Productions
www.oneeyeddog.com
contact@oneeyeddog.com
If you were relying on someone to keep you alive, would a doctor or specialist that claims to be the “cheapest” be who you would run to? What if your home was in need of major repair? Would a contractor that touted that they used only the cheapest materials be at the top of your list?
What would be your initial perception of these professionals? If there is no benefit for the person or persons involved in a business relationship with you, how do you think this person will approach the relationship with you and the business that you have built? Would you trust that they would take your needs and requirements as seriously as you if they were being paid less than your cable or satellite TV cost you every month to design and produce marketing for the business that you have built and are trying to market properly?
Does the effort that you have put into your company deserve anything less than what you have put into it? At some point, effective design work reaches critical mass. When the descending cost line intersects the quality line, you cannot expect tangible results. You can only expect to have essentially thrown what you did pay for the work out of the window.
“It’s just not in the budget.” Really? It never is. Neither is wasting time, effort, and any amount of money on ineffective marketing and promotional products. When is ‘good enough’ not acceptable anymore? When does spending a little more to get a lot more make good business sense? Hint: It always has.
People get nervous. It’s natural. Uncertain times can trigger knee-jerk reactions that can quickly affect your long-term vision. Many feel as though advertising should be one of the first things to get cut when business slows down. There isn’t much that could be further than the truth. Maintaining visibility in the marketplace is essential, especially when your products are high-involvement decisions, but this is not limited to high-involvement purchases. These buying decisions are a long term process for them. If you are not advertising and making sure that your message is in front of them, even when they are not yet ready to buy, is a critical mistake. Use every component, especially advertising, of the marketing process to build your brand. Media is cheap right now. The web is even cheaper.
By building your brand, we are not talking about getting a logo designed [especially a $20 one!]. There is a common misperception amongst some that this is the extent of the work they need to do to “brand” your business. Not so. Brand building is so much more than that. We are talking long term brand building. The kind of brand building that creates value for your customers and in turn, for you and your business. The kind of brand building that makes economic times like these not quite as daunting as they are for those businesses that thought just having a good product or a snappy logo done by their nephew would make them successful. Those are the businesses that must drop prices, scramble for work, and lay-off employees in slow markets due to a lack of strategic planning and effort. Those business owners and decision makers who thought that marketing wasn’t all that important. Those that don’t understand why business slowed so much and subsequently, they are getting nervous.
While having the right tools to do the job is essential to making things come together, you must make sure that they are the right tools to do the job, and have the ability to make these tools produce the right results. Your marketing is what communicates your products and services. What does this marketing say about you? Is your business cut-rate? Are your products and services bargain-basement? While costs are important, they should not be the only factor in your decision. Just like planning a media buy, the cheapest cost per point is not always the best route. Buying the right points is cheaper and more effective than just blindly buying the cheapest.
Think of the last time that you bought something important. Anything. Did you just grab the cheapest one and go with it, or did you compare the actual product and find that even though the others were a little more in up-front cash outlay it was higher quality and worth it in the long run? Some people have strict brand loyalty to things like chewing gum and toilet paper. Wouldn’t that kind of loyalty for your business be nice? Especially in any economic climate! These products did not use a $30 logo and then stop using marketing to remind people of their products and services. Some might say, “Yeah, but they are big budget corporations!” Yes, they are. But the principle is exactly the same, just on a smaller scale. Just because some actor in Hollywood has spent a $500,000 on his car doesn’t mean that you have to; but you still need transportation!
This is nothing new. We have been through down turns before and have always come back out of them riding on a wave of entrepreneurial courage and leadership that has made us the envy of the rest of the world. Even at our worst, we are still the best.
So the next time that you think of how you want to showcase your business, ask yourself exactly how you want it perceived in the eye of the consumer. Do you want to be seen as a low-cost provider? How long will you be able to maintain the quality of your products and services when positioning yourself this way? Dropping yourself into a low-end market can happen overnight. Re-positioning yourself as a quality provider takes a long time when you have decided that watering down your brand in a stumbling economy is a good idea. Think of how you felt after dealing with the last low-cost provider that you used. Did you walk away wondering when the next time you will get the chance to do business with them again?
Everyone wants GOOD, FAST and CHEAP. The problem is that you can only have two of these at one time. Want it good and fast? It won’t be cheap. Want it fast and cheap? It won’t be good. Good and cheap? Forget fast. This goes for anything.
While cost and budgetary limitations are important and must be considered carefully, the chance of throwing any amount of money at cut-rate marketing is just not worth it. You have started your business with the long-term objectives and plans in mind. Your marketing efforts should not be any different.
Contact us to discuss how continued and focused marketing and advertising, especially now, can lead to long term benefits for your organization.
Tod O’Brien
Director of Creative Services
One Eyed Dog Productions
www.oneeyeddog.com
contact@oneeyeddog.com
posted by One Eyed Dog Productions at 5:36 PM
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