The mindset of how we market today needs to be reframed. Most everything that we've been taught about how to be successful is wasting our time and money. That's because the buying environment has changed inexorably and the traditional sales and marketing models that focus on 'control' of the customer communication are largely ignored. The power has shifted and it's time to adapt. I've been observing so many situations recently where companies and individuals have become so stuck in silly rules and rigid communications policies that they completely miss the mark and cause little black balls to be added next to their name needlessly. Here's three that are top of mind this week:
- I reached out to a senior officer of a relatively obscure entertainment park provider because I learned of a very 'tuned in' program that their executive team had launched and wanted to write a story about it in this blog. The response I got back was that they'd "checked with their PR department and they wanted to review and approve the blog post before it went out and oh by the way, they really weren't sure that they wanted communications about their company in these kinds of forums". Huh? I'm needless to say quite tempted to write a 'tuned out' story on them.
- I placed a web inquiry for a new product that I was interested in buying (actually pretty set on buying) and got no response. So, I placed it again and finally got a call back two days later from one of the company's representatives who spent the next 15 minutes trying to sell me a whole bunch of things I didn't want or need. I bailed on the order completely.
- The political scene has gone viral with news stories and opinion makers popping up in the most unlikely places. A local election here in Arizona was tipped by an angry citizen who used prime real estate to publicize the transgressions of a local officeholder they wanted out. To the surprise of the politician who ignored them, it worked. Nationally we're seeing the same thing. The images of statements made to a small handful of people in a casual setting have become the defining images of the presidential campaign. How much sense does it make to try to control the message and ignore this chatter?
When are we going to learn? Control in today's world of the Internet, Google and social media communications is an illusion. The value is instead in leveraging these mediums to interact with customers and provide a service that makes your company 'easier to business with'. At its core, that means building authentic connections with your buyers ... even the ones who have something bad to say about you. Ignoring them or trying to talk over them to get your point across and sell the message or product that you want to sell might work in a barroom argument but it gets you nowhere in a broader marketplace.
Here's the silly thing. The very thing you try to prevent happens anyway. The perfect image is soiled by sign posts (like the one above for a contractor who performs poorly) that pop up everywhere for others to see. Your brands image and the business associated with it decline faster than they would have otherwise. And while you are tuning out to these communications because you can't control them, the market is eating them up and defining you on their terms.
Forget what you've learned about positioning and message control. One size fits all doesn't work anymore. A more tuned in way to spend your time is to start with that reality of what the market thinks and interact on their terms to build your relationship with them.
