Mary Schmidt Marketing Troubleshooter

Pepperidge Farm makes literally tons of Milanos every day, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day.

Thanks to assembly line automation – all the cookies look exactly the same, right down to that little dollop thingie on top.

Then they go into a package, all of which are marked and sealed in the exact same manner…

and then on out the door to be sold in the exact same manner as all the other cookies.

Which is all well and good if I like Milano cookies. I know I’m getting the same cookie, in the same way with the same taste every time I buy it. However, what if I don’t like Milanos? Well, then I don’t buy ‘em. (Since I can bake, I’m sorta a cookie snob anyway.)

And, so we come to the good news/bad news of all the “marketing in a box” cookie cutter stuff that’s out there.

1. Uniformity = Lost In The Crowd. Sure, having a step-by-step kit that includes pre-formatted “proven” stale marketing pieces – right down to the headlines – makes your life easier. It may not be perfect, but, you’re doing something to reach out to your customers. And, yes – something is always better than nothing. Even if it is “marketing 101″ you’ve got to start somewhere.

The bad news is your competitors may well have bought the same cookie mix – so you look alike, sound alike, sell alike. For example, I visited the web sites of one cookie cutter consultant’s clients…sorry fellas, but it was really obvious you’d all bought the same stuff and chosen the same templates – right down to the content of the free guide being used to generate leads. (Tip: This offering something for “free” in return for contact info for sales calls is rapidly going the way of the Do-Do bird. Cold calling is just that – cold. The Web should be about building warm contacts with people who come looking for you. I seldom give my real contact info on the forms anyway – if I’m interested after I review the free material, I’ll make the call, thank you.)

2. Mass Appeal = Mass Mediocrity. My apologies to any Milano addicts out there – but the cookie is designed to appeal to the greatest number of people, which means it’s – well – sorta average. Sure, there are several different P-F cookies as well as Milano variations, but if one of them doesn’t sell – it’s yanked (or goes into very limited distribution.) Too bad if you were one of 5000 people that loved it. (I LOVED P-F’s Cappuccino cookies. Factory produced or not, I could – and did – eat a whole bag at one sitting. You guessed it – the cookie was discontinued.)

The bad news – with cookie cutter marketing, you’ve got appeal (at least in theory) for a large number of people. But, the more you shoot for “average” in your product and service – the less you’ll stand out.

It’s impossible to build a loyal customer base around “We look and sound like all the other guys.”

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Tags: marketing, marketing troubleshooting, small business marketing