Don't Waste Money on Marketing if You're Not Who You Pretend to Be

I’ve seen many companies, large and small, spending considerable amount of money on marketing campaigns. They invest significantly to improve their image and establish themselves as THE model of innovation, productivity or customer satisfaction. For many of them, unfortunately, all that money is a total waste. Just look at BP’s “Beyond Petroleum” which some have renamed “British Polluters.” Here is how you should avoid doing the same.

 

Are you who you pretend to be?
To deliver meaningful and sustainable results, your marketing campaign needs to be aligned with who you are. You cannot hope to get your customers’ trust if the image you are projecting is completely different with what you offer. Funny enough, most companies do exactly that. How many #1 radio stations are there in your city? I got two great examples to illustrate that.

 

1. The date
I’m sure many of you know well the flirt game. The first time you go out on a date with someone, you try to be the perfect one: good looking, smart, funny, etc. You calculate every move you make and every word you say. You don’t realize it yet, but during the whole night, you are making promises. Promises that you won’t be able to keep.

 

The issue with this game is that it’s not sustainable. Let’s be realistic. You’re no longer calculating every move and every word when you’re five months in the relationship. You start being yourself… the imperfect self. Your partner begins to discover that you don’t only have good qualities. The amazement you had triggered at first begins to falter. 

 

That’s because you are not what you pretended to be. You made unrealistic promises. The exact same thing applies to the relationship you develop with your customers. 

  

2. The travel agency
I went to a travel agency last week to inquire about plane tickets to South America. I came in with my 9-month old daughter and saw a big poster on the wall that read: “We are committed to the highest standards of customer satisfaction” 

 

There were three people seated at their desks. One was serving two people, one was on the phone, and the other was working on her computer. The man serving the two customers said Hi to me when I came in. Then, nobody looked at me or said anything to me for the next 10 minutes. You know what happened? I left. 

 

I left thinking about that poster. Who the heck they thought they were? How can you not be cynical when you have an experience like that? When there’s such a disconnect between who they said they were (a company committed to their customers’ satisfaction) and the reality (three incompetent customer service representatives). How can you trust a company like that?

Can you deliver what you promise?
Brands are promises. For years, Toyota’s marketing has revolved around quality. We believed what their marketing people said because it’s what their engineering people delivered (if we forget about the problems they’ve been experiencing lately).

 

Apple is recognized for its innovation. Not because they’ve spent billions of dollars on marketing campaigns (ok, that too, but finish reading the sentence), but because they’ve delivered innovative products over and over again. They can invest marketing money to reinforce that recognition. And that money won’t be wasted since they have great products to back up their promises. 

 

Do you think you could do the same with your company and your products? Since you are your brand, would you say that you like the image you are projecting? 

  

Invest in yourself first
What’s the answer then? Invest in yourself first. If you want to be known as one of the best employer in town, invest time, money and energy in your human resources programs. Don’t call the marketing agency. Start a flexible working hours project, support employee volunteering or developed an innovative profit sharing program. In other words, take care of your employees, they will take care of spreading the words. They will communicate, not the key messages you thoughtfully crafted in your marketing ads, but the real value they see in your products or services. 

 

Don’t do like these companies who deploy significant communication and marketing efforts to project an image of being a responsible corporate citizen and who don’t have any meaningful initiatives to substantiate their claims. 

 

Company leaders need to put in practice the advice found in personal development books.  Actions speak louder than words. So act first. Then spread the words.

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