Today we have a guest blog from: Elizabeth Andreini
When talking to CEOs I often find that there is confusion
about marketing, which is often not the CEO’s core area of expertise. Sometimes I hear statements that are
misconceptions about marketing, so I thought I would highlight a few, leaving
you something to think about as you plan for the coming year.
Myth #1: We don’t really do marketing.
The follow-up question I ask when I hear this statement is:
“When you say you don’t do marketing, how to you tell prospective customers
about your company?” I may hear the response, “We just focus on building
relationships, we don’t advertise.” What is marketing? According to the Oxford
dictionary: Marketing
is defined as “the action or business of promoting and selling products or
services, including market research and advertising.” And what is promoting? Promoting
is simply publicizing a product to increase public awareness and sales. The
fact that you don’t advertise in magazines, newspapers or online doesn’t mean
that you don’t do marketing. You just don’t advertise. Advertising isn’t marketing;
it is only part of how you can communicate when marketing. Building a relationship with potential customers and communicating with
them to create awareness and preference for your company is another way of
saying that you are indeed marketing.
Myth #2: I know what our customers want.
Really?! Are you exactly the same as your target audience? A
45 year old male product manager planning to expand his product line to include
an offering more targeted to women once explained to me that he knew his sales
would increase because now he was going to offer it in pink…and even purple. I
was so stunned at his assumptions that I was speechless. (Yes, this really
happened!) What CEOs need to keep in mind – and ensure other decision makers
remember is: Your opinion while
interesting, may not be relevant. That sounds harsh, but remember that you
probably aren’t your target audience, may not match the profile, have the same
needs and your level of product or service knowledge is different from your
potential customers. Reach out to
those that are a closer fit to your target audience in the company or
friends/colleagues outside the company to better understand what prospective
customers values and perceptions are. You might be surprised at what you find
out!
Myth #3: I don’t understand this frenzy over social
media; we don’t need to do anything with those sites since that’s not how
customers buy from us (today).
Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Yelp, Pinterest…the list goes on
and on. It seems there is always a frenzied rush to jump on the latest social
media trend – or completely ignore it. Companies can easily devote too much
time and energy to social media because they want to be seen as innovators that
get there first: “We have to get a presence on the new “FaceYouYelpterest” site
before our competitors!” But
companies are more likely to ignore these sites because they don’t think their
customers interact much using social media. Social media is just a vehicle for
communication, and is ONE component in a carefully considered communication
strategy. However what does get overlooked and why this is Myth #3, is that the
changing demographics of your customers may mean that your future
prospective customers will use social media sites to gather product/services
information and learn about businesses, even if your current prospects aren’t.
Older decision makers are being replaced with younger more internet savvy,
smartphone-carrying decision makers. And employee demographics are changing as
well. Participating in social media should be a well-considered strategy that plans not just for today’s customers
but to attract future customers as well as key employees based on changing
demographics.
Here are
some myth busting questions you should be thinking about:
1. How do
prospective customers learn about our company and our products or services? How
does that align with our “marketing” activities? How can we better communicate
to build more awareness?
2. When we
think about our prospective customers, are we assuming we know what they really
want because we know the product and service so well? Are we really the same
demographic or psychographic profile and how can we get broader feedback which
might better inform and improve our perspective?
3. Are our
potential customers looking at and using social media now and which sites are
they looking at for information? Which social media sites might future
employees be using? How might mobile phones be used to accessed information on
our company and its products?
ELIZABETH ANDREINI
As the President of Accelerate Marketing, LLC, Elizabeth Andreini, is the “secret weapon”
CEOs turn to at key growth points when they need to transform marketing and product
management to grow their customer base, increase revenue & scale their business. In
addition to providing experienced executive insight and guidance, Elizabeth often works
as an interim CMO or VP to provide the hands-on leadership needed to rearchitect
marketing and product management and improve execution from the inside.
Elizabeth Andreini, founder & president of Accelerate Marketing, LLC
Accelerate Marketing, LLC
Twitter: @acceler8mkting
A large number of aspiring executives and owners are working
toward their MBA’s. Like most
professional training (doctors, lawyers, etc.), you come out of a program with
technical knowledge and almost no trained skills to practice the professional
training. This is why doctors go through internships and residencies. As a young attorney, I learned a good
deal in my first couple of years of practice, from secretaries who really knew
their stuff (this is the informal legal residency and while most attorneys
don’t talk about it, it is for real). 
