Being remarkable can be inexpensive.
The 'whole brand experience'.
As follow-on to the earlier 'It's costly to be unremarkable.', a simple Q&A: Is advertising really that important? Yes.
Don't believe me? Think about McDonald's—more importantly, consider just why they spend an estimated two billion dollars each year on advertising.
Now think sideways… 'advertising' doesn't have to be conventional placement ads, handbills etcetera… it's any-and-all interaction with everything else—the whole brand experience.
Sidebar: If, as a Network Marketer you don't already consider your tiny unit-of-one enterprise a brand, then have a big & immediate rethink. We're all 'brands' and should behave as such.
The 'whole brand experience' is exactly that—the way you walk'n'talk with your prospective and actual customers. A process which begins in the mind and executed through what some might consider to be relatively insignificant things, 'It' (the experience) is what sets you apart in becoming 'remarkable'—and it happens, quite literally, in the details.
Consider this edited clip from John Moore at Brand Autopsy, in smartly pointing-out that a focus on better products & better customer experience can grow loyalty & market share without the associated media costs:
We all know Starbucks spends very little on advertising—focusing its advertising dollars on making better products & better customer experiences rather than making funnier television commercials.
Starbucks has 'baked' marketing into its business because the whole customer experience is the advertising.
The point here is very simple: a focus on product & service quality is a valid alternative to high media spend, and that customers appreciate it. Satisfy your customers and they'll likely come back. Delight 'em and they'll tell also tell other folk.
As that unit-of-one enterprise you likely don't have the moolah to spend-big on promo so, whilst not downplaying the need-for and value-of appropriate placement ads (which'll provide basic attention-getting exposure), it's vital to be thinking 'alternatives'. Keen readers can grab a lot of useful know-how from Kathy Sierra's excellent 'You can out-spend or out-teach'. (The piece contains at least a half-dozen links to her other work—and it's free.)
Filed by g on December 24 2007
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