Marketing or Manipulation?
Marketing can be a tool or a weapon, depending on who is wielding it.
I have this theory...
It's based on 15 years of practical experience, so maybe that's not called a theory anymore.
Using Marketing as a tool
Years ago I worked for a company that was doing great globally, but not very well locally. I was hired to help with this disconnect. When I came on board, we essentially went on a listening tour, meeting with all of our customers and the people we wanted to work with. We found out that our company just didn't seem to have what they needed.
So we made adjustments. We cleaned up some processes and changed the way we communicated.
And it was a game-changer! When we demonstrated that we were listening to, understanding, and responding to peoples' needs business flooded in! We didn't have to compete on price so much anymore. We could invest more in education and increasing our service quality. All of our marketing was more impactful and we could focus less on new contracts because we had repeat business and add-on sales. Long story short: everything grew and improved. It was the coolest.
We didn't make empty claims to convince people we had what they needed. We listened and studied where we wanted to be so we could become the company that our audience truly needed. I call that using Marketing as a tool.
Using Marketing as a weapon
On the other side of my theory is a company I worked for that needed endless reputation management. (We'll call them Smarty Mart for ease of understanding here.) The Smarty Mart website lauded empathy and listening as key principles but in practice, Smarty Mart would accept payment for contracts then refuse to fulfill them because "customers don't really know what they need". The Smarty Mart executives believed they knew better than the people who hired them and that their customers would be happy with a final product that didn't accomplish their goals because Smarty Mart had decided to change their goals for them. Without discussion or approval.
Obviously all of that mess is bad management, unconscionable behavior, and pretty illegal. But what does it have to do with Marketing as a weapon?
Are you sitting down?
Smarty Mart believed we could just produce enough positive, fun, educational marketing to cover up their abysmal reputation. They thought nothing they did mattered as much as what they said. So my team cranked out materials and posts and proposals at a rapid pace but the people providing the actual services were not following through on the company's promises.
Can you guess what this strategy meant?
The problem with misusing Marketing
1) They never had a returning customer because they did not work for their trust or respect. Which meant that...
2) They were constantly chasing new sales. Which meant that...
3) They had to invest more money in advertising, cold contacting, sales, reputation management and lawyer fees. Also...
4) They had to accept jobs from clients they knew they wouldn't work well with because they were desperate for cash flow. Which started the cycle all over again.
Moral of the story:
Marketing without listening is manipulation. No amount of great marketing can keep a company afloat when they refuse to listen to the people they want to work for. Likewise, not much can keep a company down when they are willing to listen and focus their business on meeting a legitimate need.
Have you found yourself in a business like either of these? Share your marketing stories with me here in the comments or on Instagram! Marketing is such a unique field; I'd love to hear your tales from the trenches.
Marketing for Good,
Martha
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