Pretty Vacant
by Andrew Shedden
Consider the wildest punk rock band you could envision screaming obscenity-laced lyrics at deafening volume while lewdly leering at the groupies in the front row and spitting on the audience.
Now picture the audience hurling abuse at the band, throwing beer bottles on the stage, and ripping chairs from their moorings. Sounds like you typical punk rock concert, right?
Now picture the same punk rock band putting on exactly the same type of show and (mis) behaving in an identical fashion, but this time they are performing to a group of nuns.
Kind of takes on a whole new meaning, don’t it?
For most readers this is a seriously maladjusted picture and such a concert would be viewed as an entirely aberrant occurrence.
What kind of nuns would be at a punk rock concert?
Why is our intrepid punk rock band playing to nuns?
What does this have to do with business anyway?
I knew you were wondering.
They are trying to communicate the wrong message
To succeed in eliciting sympathy from the nuns in question our punk rock band should calmly and rationally formulate their view of the world. They need to package their message in a way that would be palatable to the nuns. This, of course, would mean they weren’t a punk rock band. As a businessperson the question you need to ask yourself is how effective is your message?
What are you saying?
The single biggest marketing problem I encounter with my clients is their inability to properly define, differentiate, and communicate their individual core marketing messages. In virtually every case I see the following pattern.
Minimal effort is put into creating, refining, and articulating their core marketing message.
Tremendous amounts of staff time, resources, and money are invested in media.
Poor response rates are received from all of their printed and web-based communications materials.
These businesspeople are seemingly unaware that their message is the main obstacle to their success. Before you even think of shouting out your message you need to give it proper care and consideration.
If you really want to find out how to effectively penetrate and dominate a marketplace to need to be different. One of the most effective ways to be different is by asking your market participants to tell you what they want. The fact that you even bother to ask will quickly differentiate you from the majority of your competition. Survey your target market and find out what’s really bothering them. Crafting the right message for any target market is a relatively simple exercise once you know what’s truly important.
Their message is being directed to the wrong audience
If you are in a punk rock band and you’re performing to nuns you probably need to find a new booking agent. I mean, I know some pretty cool nuns but as yet haven’t met one who is a big Ramones fan. As a businessperson how well do you know your optimal audience?
Oh hit me, please
Some business owners specialize in a very peculiar form of masochism. The take great delight in trying to sell their goods or services to prospects with no authority, desire, or money. They further torture themselves by carefully crafting their message and placing it in exquisitely chosen and produced media. The following pattern appears with predictable regularity.
Hours are spent agonizing over the perfect way to position their company.
Incredible marketing materials are researched and produced.
Materials are provided at great expense to the wrong audience.
Poor response rates are received from all of their printed and web-based communications materials.
Audience choice is another key element for success in your marketing communications activities. Don’t shotgun your approach to this, rather carefully pick your targets. You can have the best message in the best media rendered less than useless by picking the wrong targets.
Never underestimate the power of the list in any of your marketing communications initiatives. Prior to writing off your media take the time to test it with several lists. You just might be pleasantly surprised.
