Marketing Myths: Let the Marketer Beware
It's amazing how well-intentioned people can be continually influenced by commonly held beliefs that don't hold up to scrutiny. The marketing profession is no exception. In fact, there are so many myths swirling around the business that two of the most respected marketers in the business today wrote an entire book on the subject (Marketing Myths That Are Killing Business by Clancy and Shulman). Beware of marketing myths. Like a vampire in an Ann Rice novel roaming the streets at night, they suck the lifeblood out of any solo entrepreneur's business.
Here are a few you might see from time to time.
Advertising works.
Research shows just the opposite and the odds of it happening are getting worse by the day, not better. The typical return-on-investment (ROI) of advertising is 1-4 percent-a return not much better than parking your money in a bank's certificate of deposit. Meanwhile, ninety-eight percent of all people who watch a television commercial can't remember the main point of the commercial 18 hours after viewing it.
Why is this myth so prevalent? First, we all spend a lot of money on advertising-more than $200 billion last year. Second, advertising is fun, exciting, alluring and creative, and we all want to be associated with such activities. The problem is most advertising often doesn't achieve a specific goal or objective (such as increase "unaided awareness by 12%) and, more importantly, it doesn't increase sales-which is the ultimate purpose of any marketing effort. And before I get massive calls and letters from some truly great advertising people, let me add that it's not generally their fault. It's ours. We fail to give them specific information and instructions. We fail to give them reliable and valid marketing information that can help guide their creative efforts. And, unlike a sales professional we may hire, we often don't demand a direct connection between results and their pay.
Customers will flock to your business if all you do is "build a better mousetrap."
This is a very deceiving myth because there are numerous examples of just the opposite -- of companies that have successfully built great companies by building new and greater products. So why is this a myth? Because, like any myth, it has an element of truth. The larger reality is, though, that just building a better mousetrap doesn't mean you'll have customers. You see this all of the time in the technology industry. A couple of engineers, stuck in some Byzantine organizational hierarchy of a large company, decide to venture out and start their own company because they know how to build something. There are two problems. First, there might not be a market large enough for what they're building. No market-no business. Second, just because they build something better than what's currently available doesn't mean people need or want something better. What they currently have may be just fine, especially if the new product costs more or requires greater involvement.
One-hundred percent customer satisfaction is a practical, profitable objective for any business.
This is another one of those "sneaky" myths. First, it's a myth because it's not unusual for a company to eat at profits in order to achieve that 100 percent level. In fact, studies have shown that customer satisfaction does indeed increase profit, but only up to a point. Second, it's a myth because there are many instances where lower levels of satisfaction are just fine for most situations. For example, am I really going to take out more loans at the bank if they reduce my waiting time at the drive-in window from five minutes to three minutes? Probably not.
There are hundreds of other myths that surround the marketing business. Your best defense against most of them is to don't automatically take them for granted. If some marketer tells you what appears to be a fairly common notion (such as 18-to-49 year old women are the best target market on television") try to find the proof to back up such a claim or use your analytical abilities to try to poke some holes in the assumptions. If after scrutinizing the notion it holds up, then maybe you have a good tool. Otherwise, beware of vampires."
Written By: Gene Pinder