Today I went to The Business Show in London – 350 exhibitors listed, continuous seminars going on in 16 different ‘rooms’ not to mention the workshops, etc. Truly amazing!
I was walking around the exhibition in the short intervals between sessions looking to see if there was any exhibitor that I wanted to go and talk to when it struck me that more than 1/3 of the exhibitors had invested quite a lot in decorations, freebies, staff, brochures and yet going past their stand you had no idea what they did!
They were the best, had been around since 19xx, had offices in x cities but…
It made me think about marketing and how some rules remain the same while others have changed…
The most common definitions refer to marketing as the process of communicating the value of a product or service to prospects and customers for the purpose of selling it to them.
The most basic need, in my opinion, is to create a compelling marketing message that clearly communicates what the company does.
If you go to a trade fair because the competition does, maybe you are doing it for the wrong reasons… you need to know exactly what your own objective is, keep your eyes on the goals and make sure the message conveyed by the design, colors, materials and people support them in a clear and memorable way.
This has not changed.
What changed is that you don’t want to do business with everyone, or just anyone. So it is even more important that your prospects understand how you can help them and why they should do business with you.
Some years ago you created products or services with a broad appeal to a large number of consumers or buyers and tried to reach as large an audience as possible with a message that appealed to most of those potential buyers. Often you created a recognizable brand name that could be extended into additional product categories.
Nowadays consumers and buyers are fragmented into small groups, each with its own characteristics and interests, therefore the message must be highly customized and specific in order to gain their attention.
The message has to be more specific and targeted, you need to create a ‘relationship’ with the customers and let them guide you in the process of adjusting to their current and future needs.
‘The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.” Peter F. Drucker
