Marketing Trap #75: Assuming that Anyone Really Cares About Your Brand

From 99 Marketing Traps and How To Avoid Them*

Somewhere out there is a loyal buyer who loves your brand. There are probably several of them.

But these people are the exceptions to the marketplace.

Most of your buyers are always on the outlook for the best available offer, and right now that just happens to be yours. Some of them could be swayed by a competitor with a better price or some sort of value-added bribe.

Some of them are just in the mood for a change, are just waiting for the right opportunity, and know they can always come back if it doesn’t work out as they expected. (Your brand will forgive them and welcome them back. They know it.)

Think about this: How many of the managers on your executive team would remain company loyal if they were offered twice what they’re making now to join a competitor?

If their brand loyalty could be compromised at the right price, why wouldn’t your buyers be just as sensible?


What to Say to Someone You Know Who May Have Fallen into This Trap:

Buyers are not wedded to your brand. They’re with you as long as they are getting what they want and don’t see a better option. (Fortunately, most of them don’t have time to really investigate all the options out there … unless your brand does something to alienate them into taking the time to make that search.)

It just means you can’t take any of them for granted. You have to continue to expend an effort to keep them that is comparable to the effort you used to win them over in the first place.





* Available in both soft cover version and e-book version (for immediate download).

Marketing Trap # 97: The Mystique Mistake

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

There are brands that have a certain mystique about them … a special value that is recognized even by those who are not buyers now and never will be.

These are the brands everyone has heard of, even if we’re not entirely sure what product or service they stand for. These are the brands that appear in movies and television shows. These are the brands that convey a special pseudo-celebrity anointing on anyone affiliated with them … like a CEO at the country club.

Fame is something desired for every brand, but not at the expense of taking away from what a particular brand is really meant to do: make a deep and wide connection with the values of its best buyers.

Once your brand’s mystique becomes more important than its offering, it becomes easy to promote a brand more for its fame than for what it truly stands for.

It’s easy to lose sight of the product or service that was the reason behind the brand’s existence in the first place. You want your brand to be famous, but not just famous. It has a job to do beyond its own celebrity.

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


Focus on your buyers and their preferences and values. And focus on your offering, and on how well it meets those preferences and values, and how it could do that job better.

Don't settle for fame (or notoriety). Don't settle for less than a true connection ... with money-spending buyers.

Your brand should be your ticket to fortune, not just fame. Don’t settle for a brand that people have heard of and like; that’s the price of entry. Make yours a brand that people actually want to be part of … as buyers.

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

Marketing Trap #56: Measuring ROI for a Moment, Not a Lifetime

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


Precious few companies do any meaningful ROI measurement of their marketing expenditures.

Some don’t know how (though it really isn’t all that difficult). Those companies that think of their marketing costs as a business expense rather than as an investment don’t really think about measuring its return.

Then there are those companies that do calculate ROI on their marketing, but do it on an annual basis. Measuring marketing ROI for the moment is not much better than not doing it at all.

If you are only measuring ROI against new buyer acquisitions, you’re missing an important, profit-boosting insight: that marketing ROI increases dramatically with each repeat purchase.

If you measure ROI only against transactions, your marketing will be under-funded and its effectiveness restricted.

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

Think of the cost of buyer acquisition in terms of lifetime buyer value. What is each buyer worth on an average lifetime basis? That’s what you should be investing against.

The lifetime value of each buyer represents the real potential value of each new buyer you attract. It also gives you a truer picture of the real return available for every marketing dollar you spend. http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

When top management understands marketing from the perspective of that kindhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif of investment and its real long-term return, you’ll find it easier to get more of the budget you really need to make the kind of marketplace impact that can drive up sales.

*Buy it now at Amazon.com for $59.95

*Buy the e-book now (immediate download) for $29.95