Marketing Traps #85: Shoot From The Hip Marketing

From 99 Marketing Traps and How to Avoid Them: A Survival Guide for Marketing Pros and Those Who Hire Them*

Lazy marketers fall into this trap so easily. They don’t like to waste time planning.

In a marketplace that is almost continuously in flux, what does a marketing plan really mean?

They have a point there. No marketing plan will successfully translate to marketplace success without in-flight adjustments along the way.

But what do you adjust when you don’t have a plan?

How do you measure what works against what doesn’t? Any success you may realize from shoot-from-the-hip marketing is going to come from luck.

How do you duplicate luck? How do you manage it?

If You Know Anyone Who's Caught in this Marketing Trap, Here's How to Help Them Out.

Marketing is about discipline. It’s about doing the right thing at the right time for the right reason … and being justly compensated for it.

Marketing without a definite plan is like making a vacation trip without a destination or itinerary. Wherever you end up will be the right place, but will it be where you really want to be?

*Available now in both e-book and softcover versions.

Marketing Trap #66 - Marketing Without Public Relations

From 99 Marketing Traps and How to Avoid Them: A Survival Guide for Marketing Pros and Those Who Hire Them*

There was a time, not that long ago, when marketing effectiveness was driven primarily by two communications disciplines: advertising and point-of-sale promotion.

The Internet, with its free and unfettered access to information about companies and products, changed all that. It put consumers, not brands, in control of information, in terms of both content and distribution.

That free flow of instant information blunted the impact of traditional advertising, which still has its place in the marketing mix. But good old-fashioned advertising cannot compete in terms of credibility with what consumers have to say about the brands they love or hate.

The best advertising in the world won’t get you to try a restaurant after a good friend has told you that the food or service there is lousy. No coupon can make up for bad word of mouthing.

Advertising alone will not buy credibility and trial the way it used to. If you are marketing a new product or new brand, your chances of succeeding in the launch of that offering are nil unless the thrust of your marketplace communications comes from public relations initiatives.

If You Know Anyone Who's Caught in this Marketing Trap, Here's How to Help Them Out.

Your most extravagant promise of value won’t stand a chance against real news. That’s what both the public and the media want. That means your challenge is to find and leverage the real news in your offering.

If there is no real news, buying advertising exposure won’t make up for the fact that you are offering something that prospects and the media don’t really care about.

If your offering has any real value, then news is there. You just have to dig it out. And then get it to the right media channels.

Sounds like a job for public relations. Embrace it. Use it.

*Available now in both e-book and softcover versions.