by Vickie Zisman, Featured Contributor
[su_dropcap style=”flat”]J[/su_dropcap]UST A SHORT reflection. Was talking to an acquaintance the other day. He’s a partner/biz dev in a new small company and we were discussing my potential professional contribution to their marketing effort. It ended up in my flatly refusing to take the job, because they were offering a pittance of retainer for the work. They really couldn’t understand what was so wrong with the insulting remuneration they offered.
And this brings me to the core problem in marketing here in Israel: the big players don’t really need to make an effort, because dominate the market, with some being plain monopolies. Its just maintaining the facade, the image, for them, after all they are the Masters of the Commercial Universe. Whereas the small companies, especially in a highly competitive environment, should want to stand out, distinguish themselves to get more clients. Those are in the most dire need of marketing, because direct sales are not enough (everybody use the same cliches and there is a vendor loyalty). They don’t understand the value of it and counting pennies, thinking “less is more” – cheap will do the job. And then, you hear the mantra: “we paid this intern and were disappointed- it didn’t work”. Huge wonder indeed.