Mary Schmidt Marketing Troubleshooter

I recently got a link from a blog recommending mine as great for “tiny” companies. While I really appreciate the compliment, it got me to thinking about one of my past “Real-World Marketing” seminars (which I’m relaunching this year)…soooo…

A: Fundamentally, there isn’t any. Regardless of the size of the company, you’ve got to produce (or stock) something, sell it, and keep customers coming back. Success and failure comes down to the people. That goes for the complex “technical sale” as well as the locally-owned cafe.

I’ve worked in and with all sizes and types of companies (and nonprofits). The same type of stupid, brainy, evil, good, fun, boring stuff happens in all of them.

True, in theory, smaller companies can move much more quickly, but they often don’t, due to lack of experience, information, and money.

Sure, big companies (sometimes) (1) have more money for marketing, but they waste it just as foolishly (Logos seen from space) as the struggling Mom and Pop who blows $750 a month on a useless Yellow Pages ad. (M&P Tip: Does your target customer even use the Yellow Pages? If so, when? For what?)

Thus the only significant, consistent differences are:

Employees in the big companies have many more layers of insulation between them and the result of their work (good, bad, and ugly.) This is one reason why former corporate marketing execs often have difficulty in an entrepreneurial role. They just cannot grok that if they don’t produce, the paychecks won’t keep coming…or that the big dogs don’t care about the exec’s big title (Yawn, you’re poobah in a start-up…so, what have you done lately?) and…they also have to do their own sales pitches, typing, and travel arrangements. (The board room? That’s the broom closet in back, bring your own folding chair. The big PR campaign? That’s you, Mr. Exec, talking to the “little people” at the local users conference.)

Big company marketers don’t have to care whether their work is any good…at least until…

Big Companies Die Slower. They take longer, but they do fail. Thousands get laid off on a routine basis, often starting with - um - marketing.

(1) I’ve worked in divisions of gigantic multi-billion dollar companies…and had a shoestring budget. The total dollar amount was millions - but I was supposed to do a whole lot more with it, in a lot more places, for a lot more people. ($450,000 for a nationwide ad campaign is chump change.)

Related Posts:
Let’s Get Small! (Or, Size Does Matter.)
Can you learn to be an entrepreneur?
Business is Hard, Duh!