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Answer Upon - The Ten Commandments of Successful Marketing
In “The Incredible Hulk”, mild-mannered scientist Bruce Banner discovered that when he was exposed to “gamma rays” he was transformed into a massive beast that could ferociously muscle his way to victory in any situation. Other than being disfigured, green, and in nothing but his boxer shorts, the Hulk discovered that a single growth factor could drastically change his ability to handle his problems.Unfortunately, gamma radiation is in short supply at most startups, so entrepreneurs need to find their own “growth factors” to make their businesses huge. The growth factors of your business are the key drivers that, if tweaked properly, can give your company the boost it needs to grow faster and str
5. Thou shalt execute your plan relentlessly —
Plans aren’t made for your bookshelf. After you write them, use them. Refuse to be a lazy marketer. Refer back to your plans from time to time to make sure that you are still on track.
6. Thou shalt not be boring —
the biggest risk is to take no risk at all. Some people consider this to be the greatest commandment of marketing.
7. Thou shalt not be cheap —
While marketing campaigns don’t always have to be expensive, sometimes you have to spend money. There is an old saying that goes like this: If you don’t advertise, nothing happens. I have learned the hard way just how true this is.
8. Thou shalt
For the last 25 years, the metal injection molding industry has grown at a steady rate. In the 70s it was predicted that the MIM process would grow at the rate of 18 to 22% per year. But because of some challenges with the materials, known as feedstocks in the industry, the initial growth was slow. Typically feedstocks were mixed by the individual companies involved in making metal injection molded components. The inconsistency in the mixing of the feed stocks led to part variation that was unacceptable in a wide variety of precision applications.As more and more components were designed using the metal injection molding process, larger manufacturers became interested in developing feed stock
A company can have strong financial managers and accountants, but without customers, for what will they account? Without revenues, what will your IT staff have to maintain? The same questions can be asked of the operations, legal and many executive functions. At the end of the day, a company is successful because it has customers that pay. Without customers, the projections crafted by your CFO and sold by your CEO mean nothing.
Before we launch into the list of marketing commandments, let’s define marketing.
In my view, the easiest way to define marketing is as everything you do to place your product or service in the hands of potential customers. To more easily remember these concepts, marketing is often described as The Four P’s:
• Product (the solution being sold)
• Placement (sales and distribution channels)
• Promotion (finding new prospects and compelling them to become customers)
• Price (pricing and positioning strategy)
In this way, marketing encompasses a number of important activities such as public and community relations, brand management, media planning and advertising, product development and positioning, pricing schemes, sales and distribution strategies and much more. It is important that your company agrees on a definition of marketing. If you don’t, you’ll find that many necessary jobs will go unattended to and many roles unfilled.
Now that we’ve defined marketing, let’s review some guidelines that I believe can help you market your services more successfully:
1. Thou shalt care —
The first rule is to care about meeting people’s needs. People don’t spend money to buy products. People spend money to alleviate a pain or avoid the likelihood of a painful situation. You have to care about that. This is the first and greatest commandment of marketing.
2. Thou shalt have a plan —
Write a marketing plan. Effective marketing campaigns just don’t happen. They are the result of diligent efforts from dedicated marketers.
3. (Unless You are Wal-mart or Dell) Thou shalt not compete on price —
By definition, there can be only one low-cost provider in any market. Therefore, if you can’t be that #1 provider, you are going to have to develop a new niche in which to be #1 and compete on something other than price. If you are the leader and can afford to compete on price, great! If not, play a different game.
4. Thou shalt practice integrated marketing communications —
Advertising is not marketing. Neither are public relations, community relations and direct sales. However, altogether, they each make up a critical part of a comprehensive marketing program. Smart marketers use an integrated approach.
5. Thou shalt execute your plan relentlessly —
Plans aren’t made for your bookshelf. After you write them, use them. Refuse to be a lazy marketer. Refer back to your plans from time to time to make sure that you are still on track.
6. Thou shalt not be boring —
the biggest risk is to take no risk at all. Some people consider this to be the greatest commandment of marketing.
7. Thou shalt not be cheap —
While marketing campaigns don’t always have to be expensive, sometimes you have to spend money. There is an old saying that goes like this: If you don’t advertise, nothing happens. I have learned the hard way just how true this is.
8. Thou shalt
1. Always remain positive during the interview even if things aren’t going as well as you’d hoped. In school, did you ever write a test that you were sure you’d failed, only to find out you passed? You never know, you might be doing better in the interview than you think and you don’t want to give up.2. Try to leave the interviewer with at least one thing about you that might be unique from other candidates that would be valuable to the company if they hired you. Once they’ve interviewed several people with similar backgrounds, they will tend to look for reasons to hire one person over the others or they might try to eliminate candidates who don’t meet certain criteria.3.
Before we launch into the list of marketing commandments, let’s define marketing.
In my view, the easiest way to define marketing is as everything you do to place your product or service in the hands of potential customers. To more easily remember these concepts, marketing is often described as The Four P’s:
• Product (the solution being sold)
• Placement (sales and distribution channels)
• Promotion (finding new prospects and compelling them to become customers)
• Price (pricing and positioning strategy)
In this way, marketing encompasses a number of important activities such as public and community relations, brand management, media planning and advertising, product development and positioning, pricing schemes, sales and distribution strategies and much more. It is important that your company agrees on a definition of marketing. If you don’t, you’ll find that many necessary jobs will go unattended to and many roles unfilled.
Now that we’ve defined marketing, let’s review some guidelines that I believe can help you market your services more successfully:
1. Thou shalt care —
The first rule is to care about meeting people’s needs. People don’t spend money to buy products. People spend money to alleviate a pain or avoid the likelihood of a painful situation. You have to care about that. This is the first and greatest commandment of marketing.
2. Thou shalt have a plan —
Write a marketing plan. Effective marketing campaigns just don’t happen. They are the result of diligent efforts from dedicated marketers.
3. (Unless You are Wal-mart or Dell) Thou shalt not compete on price —
By definition, there can be only one low-cost provider in any market. Therefore, if you can’t be that #1 provider, you are going to have to develop a new niche in which to be #1 and compete on something other than price. If you are the leader and can afford to compete on price, great! If not, play a different game.
4. Thou shalt practice integrated marketing communications —
Advertising is not marketing. Neither are public relations, community relations and direct sales. However, altogether, they each make up a critical part of a comprehensive marketing program. Smart marketers use an integrated approach.
5. Thou shalt execute your plan relentlessly —
Plans aren’t made for your bookshelf. After you write them, use them. Refuse to be a lazy marketer. Refer back to your plans from time to time to make sure that you are still on track.
6. Thou shalt not be boring —
the biggest risk is to take no risk at all. Some people consider this to be the greatest commandment of marketing.
7. Thou shalt not be cheap —
While marketing campaigns don’t always have to be expensive, sometimes you have to spend money. There is an old saying that goes like this: If you don’t advertise, nothing happens. I have learned the hard way just how true this is.
8. Thou shalt
Management is needed whenever several people work together in an organized unity, to reach organizational goals. Most companies and other business organizations have profit as their primary objective. If a firm stops having profits, it will be rather complicated to support its functioning on employees’ own initiative.A manger has several functions such as planning, organizing, leading and controlling.Planning refers to choosing a certain mission, determining the course of actions (such as projects, methods of implementation, etc.) to achieve those stated missions. Organizing refers to identifying of sources and activities required and available to a certain organization, and delegating au
Now that we’ve defined marketing, let’s review some guidelines that I believe can help you market your services more successfully:
1. Thou shalt care —
The first rule is to care about meeting people’s needs. People don’t spend money to buy products. People spend money to alleviate a pain or avoid the likelihood of a painful situation. You have to care about that. This is the first and greatest commandment of marketing.
2. Thou shalt have a plan —
Write a marketing plan. Effective marketing campaigns just don’t happen. They are the result of diligent efforts from dedicated marketers.
3. (Unless You are Wal-mart or Dell) Thou shalt not compete on price —
By definition, there can be only one low-cost provider in any market. Therefore, if you can’t be that #1 provider, you are going to have to develop a new niche in which to be #1 and compete on something other than price. If you are the leader and can afford to compete on price, great! If not, play a different game.
4. Thou shalt practice integrated marketing communications —
Advertising is not marketing. Neither are public relations, community relations and direct sales. However, altogether, they each make up a critical part of a comprehensive marketing program. Smart marketers use an integrated approach.
5. Thou shalt execute your plan relentlessly —
Plans aren’t made for your bookshelf. After you write them, use them. Refuse to be a lazy marketer. Refer back to your plans from time to time to make sure that you are still on track.
6. Thou shalt not be boring —
the biggest risk is to take no risk at all. Some people consider this to be the greatest commandment of marketing.
7. Thou shalt not be cheap —
While marketing campaigns don’t always have to be expensive, sometimes you have to spend money. There is an old saying that goes like this: If you don’t advertise, nothing happens. I have learned the hard way just how true this is.
8. Thou shalt
The other day while at the book store, I came across some accounting software CDs strewn with other CDs and books in garage sale box.How can any self respecting businessman (even a small one at that) pick up a copy of this cheap sale accounting CD from the box for his business to use? He'd think "what type of accounting system is this that would end up in a garage sale?"...and he's not even heard of free software yet! If he did, he'd probably figure "What type of software is this that you can just click and get it for free on the Internet?"In most cases, this thinking "..what type of..?" continues and applies to the person on the other end - the guy promoting it. It goes "what type of pers
Write a marketing plan. Effective marketing campaigns just don’t happen. They are the result of diligent efforts from dedicated marketers.
3. (Unless You are Wal-mart or Dell) Thou shalt not compete on price —
By definition, there can be only one low-cost provider in any market. Therefore, if you can’t be that #1 provider, you are going to have to develop a new niche in which to be #1 and compete on something other than price. If you are the leader and can afford to compete on price, great! If not, play a different game.
4. Thou shalt practice integrated marketing communications —
Advertising is not marketing. Neither are public relations, community relations and direct sales. However, altogether, they each make up a critical part of a comprehensive marketing program. Smart marketers use an integrated approach.
5. Thou shalt execute your plan relentlessly —
Plans aren’t made for your bookshelf. After you write them, use them. Refuse to be a lazy marketer. Refer back to your plans from time to time to make sure that you are still on track.
6. Thou shalt not be boring —
the biggest risk is to take no risk at all. Some people consider this to be the greatest commandment of marketing.
7. Thou shalt not be cheap —
While marketing campaigns don’t always have to be expensive, sometimes you have to spend money. There is an old saying that goes like this: If you don’t advertise, nothing happens. I have learned the hard way just how true this is.
8. Thou shalt
Many of us are familiar with at least the concept of bulletproof and bullet resistant glass, but for most of us these concepts play little role in our day to day lives. Even so, this powerful and potentially life saving technology is important in a number of locations, including some you may not have been aware of. Some of the many uses of bulletproof and bullet resistant glass products include:- The Military – When many people think of bullet proof glass and bullet resistant materials, it is the military that first comes to mind. Few people are more in need of quality bullet resistant materials, from bulletproof glass on vehicles t
5. Thou shalt execute your plan relentlessly —
Plans aren’t made for your bookshelf. After you write them, use them. Refuse to be a lazy marketer. Refer back to your plans from time to time to make sure that you are still on track.
6. Thou shalt not be boring —
the biggest risk is to take no risk at all. Some people consider this to be the greatest commandment of marketing.
7. Thou shalt not be cheap —
While marketing campaigns don’t always have to be expensive, sometimes you have to spend money. There is an old saying that goes like this: If you don’t advertise, nothing happens. I have learned the hard way just how true this is.
8. Thou shalt measure your efforts —
John Wanamaker said: “I know half of my advertising is wasted, I just don’t know which half.” A century later Al Ries said: “If half of John Wanamaker’s budget was wasted at the turn of the century, then three-fourths of the typical advertising budget is wasted today.” Invest time in figuring out how well your money performs when used in various ways.
9. Thou shalt know your customer —
You never know your customers as well as you think you do. You have to know who is buying your service. This might be a very different person from whom you are targeting. Your past experiences, while valuable, do not tell you everything that you need to know and are no substitute for thorough market research.
10. Thou shalt always interact with real customers —
How many marketing plans are devised in conference rooms by people who haven’t seen nor spoken to a “real” customer in years, if ever? Too many! Successful marketing is magical. Compelling people to part with their most precious resources (their time and their money) and give them to you is hard work. The successful marketer doesn’t get nearly enough respect, in my opinion, for accurately identifying a market need, developing a solution to fill it and effectively communicating the solution. I have not known a good marketing professional who didn’t spend time in the field with customers at least some of the time.
These are my commandments. I find that things work better when I make sure that my teams obey them. When we don’t, I am convinced that we pay a great price, even when we don’t realize it. What are your commandments for successful marketing? Write me; let me know, and I’ll share feedback from our readers in the future!
By Mark Anthony McCray, MBA
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