Author’s Note: This is the second and concluding installment in our two-part series on doing business in and after the coronavirus pandemic. As L.P. Hartley wrote in his novel, The Go-Between, “The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.” Accordingly, we do things differently here. In this series, we’ll point out some of those things.
When I’m being hired to crack a case, I’m always asked the same question: “What is marketing?” My first response is Louis Armstrong’s response to being asked what jazz is: “If you don’t know, I can’t tell you.” My second response is this: “Common Sense.”
Think about it: If you’re operating in the 21st century, why would you use terminology from a medium — newspapers — popularized in the 17th century? If prospects visit your website to determine as quickly as possible if you have the product or service they’re looking for, why would you put all manner of distracting videos, rotating banners, tickers, and pop-ups in their way? If advertising is dead, who pays for all the TV, print, digital, and billboard ads? Why would you ask people what they want if you don’t intend to give it to them? If neither you nor your family are your biggest customers, why do you treat them like your target audience? And if your brand is your most valuable asset (it is), why wouldn’t you consider its differentiation to be your chief responsibility?
Nothing in the preceding paragraph has anything to do with COVID-19. It has everything to do with effective marketing, with or without a worldwide pandemic.
Have fun with this video. But, please, take its lessons to heart:
If you do, you might not need my services. And your business will thank you for it.
