You've Got To Make The Product Interesting, Not Just Make The Ad DifferentBy Rich Harshaw
Have you ever heard the saying, "If you want to know why John Smith buys what John Smith buys, you've got to see the world through John Smith's eyes?" Well, first of all it's true... If you want to know why John Smith buys what John Smith buys, you DO HAVE TO see the world through John Smith's eyes. But here's the thing: most companies know how to do it; they know how to look through John Smith's eyes... but unfortunately, they don't know how to communicate it through to their customers.
The problem is that while most businesses are very good at knowing what John Smith wants, because they aren't communications experts, they don't have the ability to communicate via advertising and marketing their "inside reality" to the outside world. They can't take their good (or great!) inside reality and lead prospects to the conclusion... "I would have to be an absolute fool to do business with anyone else but you." How to do that is what Monopolize Your Marketplace is all about.
Think about your business. Your ability to know what John Smith wants is what has made you as successful as you are now. I'll assume that you have a good inside reality--good products or services, and that you fill a market need. You've probably been studying your market, your prospects, and your business for how many ever years, and you have solutions that add value to John Smith's life. So why, then, aren't you making all the money you should be!!!?? Because you're an expert at what you do, but you're not a communications expert. This is a critical distinction.
So you say, "Well, I'll focus my efforts on marketing so people will find out about us." Hey, there are a whole host of books, workshops, and trainers that try to help you improve your "outside perception." You've got books like Guerrilla Marketing, Marketing Warfare, The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing... and you've got sales and marketing gurus galore that all try to help you make your business look good to the outside world. The problem is, that none of these books or trainers pay any attention to how good your business actually is.
But see, as advertising guru Rosser Reeves once said, "To be effective, you've got to make the product interesting, not just make the ad different." Listen to me repeat that quote: "To be effective, you've got to make the product interesting, not just make the ad different." And that's what too many of the books, gurus, and agencies don't yet understand.
Go to an ad agency or a media sales rep and they'll both say the same thing. They'll say "Just say bring me any old stupid product or service, a big bag of cash, and we'll guarantee that we'll spend all of it." They put all their creative effort into trying to make the ad different, with no thought for the inside reality of the product or service.
Do you think that the dotcoms all failed because of bad marketing? They certainly did have some of the crummiest marketing in history. But the real reason they failed was because they had stupid business ideas in the first place. Nobody wanted to buy pet supplies from the internet, so pets.com failed. Nobody wanted to buy wine off the internet, so wine.com failed. And so on and so forth. But there were plenty of money grubbing ad agencies and media outlets willing to take those big piles of cash that were stolen from stockholders and utterly waste it straight into their own pockets.
If you lost money in the dotcom meltdown, guess where the money went! It didn't just disappear! It went from your hands to the dotcom's hands, who took their multi-million dollar cut and passed the rest to the ad agencies, who took their 15% plus creative fees and passed it on to NBC, ABC, CBS, FOX, and every other media outlet who then took it and bought Ferraris, Lamborghini's, Porches, and $11 million homes. So now you at least know where your money ended up! All based on sorry inside realities. Rosser Reeves probably turned over in his grave 1000 times during the dotcom boom!
But you've got to work on both sides of your business--the inside reality and the outside perception. If you concentrate all your efforts on the "inside reality" but you don't know how to do your marketing like I'm going to show you how in this series of articles, you're setting yourself up for frustration. You'll be pulling your hair out trying to figure out where YOUR big bag of money vanished to, or you'll feel like the "best kept secret in town." Or if you're focusing all your efforts on the "outside perception," -maybe you get your hands on some advertising or direct mail books, or maybe you hire an ad agency or let a media sales rep help out--that could lead to problems. Now you'll have customers that hate your guts because you're selling them a lie! You've got to balance this out and solidify both sides of your business.
Here's what I've found over all of the years of doing this. Most businesses could stand some improvement in both areas.... but they struggle the most with the "outside perception," or in other words... they've built good, solid companies--they offer good value--but with all of the competition that exists, they have problems differentiating themselves in the marketplace. Like I said, they're not communications experts.
Regardless of your situation, or where you're at now, that's what the MYM system is all about... improving both the inside reality and the outside perception of your company. Part of the system deals with innovation and how to make your business competitive from a product, operations, and management standpoint; Then the system also deals with how to communicate and do the marketing--whether that be advertising, direct mail, web-based, or whatever--so that it effectively separates you from your competitors in the minds of the prospects.
The great business philosopher Jim Rohn probably summed it up best. He says to communicate powerfully, first, you've got to have something good to say; then, say it well; and finally, say it often. Does that make sense to you? Have something good to say, say it well, and say it often.
Chances are excellent that you've already got something good to say, and if not, innovation is an inevitable byproduct of implementing the Monopolize System. I'll touch on innovation more later in this series. The MYM system then helps you improve the "outside perception" of your business, or in other words, how to say it well and say it often so people will instantly recognize you as the best choice. You become their no-brainer best decision.
Can you see why it's imperative that these two factors be considered at the same time? Just teaching you how to innovate leaves you with a wonderful, innovative company that nobody knows about. Just teaching you sales or marketing or advertising techniques will drive in business that won't stick around because there's no value. You have to consider both the inside reality and the outside perception. This is the only program in existence that integrates these two important aspects of growing your business.
Stop and think for a minute: what is the inside reality of your business? What is the outside perception? Don't consider what your current customers think about you so much--even though that's important--consider most what your prospects think about you. Can they perceive that you're any different or any better than their alternatives by looking at your ads? What about your brochures? What about your website? Chances are, they can't. Which means even though your inside reality is may be good, the outside perception is probably average, or worse... non-existent.
Go grab your marketing, look at your ads, take a look at your website, Is it instantly obvious specifically and quantifiably what makes you better and unique and different? Do you show your prospect how to judge your industry, what factors they need to consider when deciding, and how you provide value? You'll realize as these concepts start to sink in that the crux of all the marketing problems that exist--including yours--can be wrapped up into one simple statement: Most company's outside perception is not an accurate reflection of their inside reality. I'm going to repeat that one more time for emphasis: Most company's outside perception is not an accurate reflection of their inside reality. What the Monopolize system does, first and foremost, is FIX THAT. (Next Issue: Blame Television For Everything That's Wrong In Your World )
© 2005
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