Why one-trick ponies don’t draw crowds

Do you get the feeling you’ve tried everything in your marketing and it’s just not working, or at least it’s not working anything like as well as you’d hoped?

As a result, you’re wondering if there’s something wrong with your product or service, your pricing, or your marketing strategy?

It could be that one or more of those things needs attention. But more likely, you need to adapt your marketing and communication strategies to your market’s need for a longer-term process.

These days we expect everything to be instant. But when you’re trying to build a market (which is what marketing is supposed to do) the process takes time.

We plan marketing and its supporting communication as if we expect an instant response.

Our marketing says “this is who we are, this is what we do (or this is what our product does), this is the offer — buy now”. And we’re disappointed when most of the market says “no thanks”, or just ignores us.

Unless you’re doing business in a market which makes instant decisions, you need to approach marketing as a long-term process.

FMCG is the only sector which can expect a more or less instant response. That’s because it deals, by definition, in fast-moving consumer goods (i.e. soft drink, groceries, paper towels and toilet rolls) the stuff that everyone needs, and needs often.

Businesses which sell those products use marketing to remind consumers of their needs, establish and maintain brand awareness, and (usually) to link it to a particular retail outlet. It’s a single-step system which produces immediate results.

But if your business sells other things — such as higher value goods, professional services, or provides goods or services to other businesses — you can easily make the mistake of assuming your marketing will succeed with the same approach.

However, in sectors other than FMCG, single-step marketing rarely works effectively.

For example in the business-to-business market, buyers’ decision-making is a multi-stage process. The larger the purchase and the bigger the buying organisation, the more people will be involved and the longer the process will take.

Businesses (and individuals too) need to first see a problem, identify it as a key need in their situation, convince themselves that your offer is the best solution, and build arguments which rationalise value and justify purchase (either to themselves, or to colleagues or superiors).

That process can take weeks or months, and sometimes even years. It is a complex process in which personal relationships are established and nurtured, and trust and credibility built.

Ask yourself, when you’re considering a significant business or personal purchase (one which you regard as a major financial or emotional commitment), who do you involve, what additional information or opinions do you seek, and how long does it all take?

No wonder then — when our marketing is a “one-trick pony”, based on a single-step offer-and-response approach — that it doesn’t draw crowds (or lots of sales).

You need to adapt your marketing to your market’s decision processes (click here for the One-Trick Pony test).

You need marketing and communication strategies which match the stages of the buying process for your goods or services. You might say it’s a bit like choosing horses for courses . . .