Mary Schmidt Marketing Troubleshooter

In past lives, during team-building exercises, I’ve been accused of having “situational ethics” (like that’s a bad thing.) This because I focus on getting things done, and don’t always follow the “process.” (I also have a bratty habit of asking questions about the dead elephant in the middle of the conference room.) Which brings me to situational excellence as it pertains to start-up development and marketing expenditures. I’m working with Bruce Fryer in a way cool start-up so we have a lot of discussion about where it’s best to spend our time, effort, and dollars to get “it” done.

Example: The packaging (box). Who is really going to see it? Unpack it? Do they care if our label is three color or black and white? Sure, they’ll notice if the box looks like junk, but this is a case where “good enough” can really be “good enough.” We don’t need to spend a fortune on pretty labels that only the service technician/installer will see. He/she is more concerned about the quality of the product in the box.

Before you go and spend a gazillion dollars on something slick (commercial, brochure, logo, slogan, artificially induced “viral” marketing) - ask yourself:

2. Do our customers care? (Or, are we blowing dollars on our own ego strokes?)

3. Will they even notice? (A pantone shade never closed a deal.)

4. Can the dollars better be spent on walking the talk, versus coming up with “better” talk? Example: That BoA YouTube singer. A quick snippet from Jonah Bloom, Ad Age:

For those who find themselves tried in the court of internet opinion, it would be more valuable to examine the source of the problem. It’s hard to imagine the board of BofA asking, “Why are they laughing at us?” Classic corporate machismo calls for senior officers to rattle on regardless, paying little heed to the little man. But what if they did, and what if some foolhardy underling gave them a straight answer: “Sirs, we are being mocked because we live in an ivory tower in which we think consumers care about our ‘Higher Standards’ catchline. My guess is they’d probably rather we killed that crap and instead promised to stop charging them $2 to get their own money out of an ATM.”

(BofA charges you for pretty much everything. I’d not be surprised if they soon add a “breathing our air” fee for simply standing near one of their ATMs. And, MBNA has to be one of the most clueless of the Big Clueless Companies.)

The Bottom Line: Be excellent (and spend accordingly) where it counts, for both you and your customers! (Also, don’t be afraid to talk about that dead elephant - it ain’t going away.)

Related Posts:
Stupid Branding Tricks
Do I care who’s talking at me?
Marketing Predators - I’d rather do business with Tony Soprano
Smash and Grab Marketing

Tags: advertising, sales, marketing, marketing troubleshooting, Bank of America, MBNA, branding