During a discussion with one of my clients about different areas of marketing and how they affect a business, it was apparent that he was getting more than a little confused.

A few days ago, a friend of mine sent me the following article which I thought explained things quite clearly.

I thought I’d share it with you…

The 10 areas of Marketing Development Explained:

1. You see a gorgeous girl at a party.
You go up to her and say, ‘I am very rich. Marry me!’
That’s DIRECT MARKETING.

2. You are at a party with a bunch of friends and see a gorgeous girl.
One of your friends goes up to her and pointing at you says, ‘He’s very rich. Marry him!’
That’s ADVERTISING.

3. You see a gorgeous girl at a party.
You go up to her and get her telephone number.
The next day, you call her and say, ‘Hi, I am very rich. Marry me!’
That’s TELEMARKETING.

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I don’t know about you, but on the rare occasions I have a few spare moments to surf the net, I sometimes find myself drifting to YouTube.

Now, ok, there IS a lot of rubbish out there, but I recently came across a company who have used Social Marketing to successfully grow their business.

Let me tell you their story…

Not so long ago, Blendtec was a little-known company that manufactured blenders – their consumer grade blenders cost around $400, so not the cheapest on the market.

Things started to change for them when George Wright joined the company in 2006 as Director of Marketing. The catalyst happened one afternoon, not long after he had started working for there. On the day in question George came across Blendtec CEO Tom Dickson testing the new bearings for the blender – by blending a 2×4 inch piece of wood!

While this was going on, the rest of the company’s employees went on with their work unphased. Apparently the practice of “extreme blending” was a regular occurrence at the factory, as Tom was keen to make sure Blendtec blenders were the best.

Now George, being the smart marketer that he is, recognised the potential to turn this into a marketing story which would make Blendtec stand out from their competitors, both in market visibility and in proving the quality of the Blendtec Blenders.

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… Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

… Unique Sales Point

… Competitive Strategic Advantage (CSA)

… Key Differentiator

Whichever term you’ve heard, these are all different ways of saying the same thing. Regardless of the different “wrappings” given by people over the years, it still boils down to one thing… the ability to differentiate yourself from your competitors in the eyes of your current, and prospective customers.

Like it or not, competition in business across all sectors is becoming more fierce year on year. And as if that isn’t hard enough, along comes this latest downturn in the economy. So what chance do we really have to survive, let alone grow?

If you don’t set your business apart from that of your competition and if you don’t give your clients a compelling reason to buy from you rather than anyone else, then it only comes down to one thing…

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Advertising may or may not be a part of your marketing arsenal, but whether you believe advertising works for your business or not, there are certain times when you should consider using adverts as part of your marketing mix.

Traditionally, the main reasons to advertise are:

1. To increase awareness of your business and the knowledge of your products or services
2. To highlight why customers should buy from you rather than your competitors
3. To create a favourable emotional reaction to your product or service
4. To remind people to buy from you
5. To stimulate impulse purchases

All well and good, but don’t forget that you must remain focused on getting a specific response.

The following are examples of when advertising would be a good choice…

• When you have no other method of reaching your prospect
• When your budget permits
• When awareness of the existence of your company is essential before you approach your prospect directly
• When you can reach the most prospects who can and will buy what you offer cost-effectively
• When your prospects are reachable by one or more different media
• When most of your competitors advertise
• When most of your competitors don’t advertise
• When your target prospects are the mass-market consumer
• When you are increasing the range of products or services you offer
• When you are moving into a new market

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If you have ever been involved in sales for your business, then chances are you’ve heard stories about the pushy “foot-in-the-door” salesmen of days gone by.

The principle they used is fairly straight forward. A salesman would roam housing estates knocking on doors, and the moment someone answered, would jam his toe in the door so the householder couldn’t slam it in his face.

With foot successfully lodged, he would then deliver a well rehearsed sales message about the particular product or service it was he was selling – to the somewhat captive homeowner (whether they were interested or not) – when all THEY wanted to do was to get this irritating man to remove his foot so they could shut the door!

The process these salespeople used was simple…

1. Chase down leads (find a housing estate)
2. Find a prospect (someone who opens the door)
3. Get their attention (jam foot in the door)
4. Pitch to them (recite carefully rehearsed sales pitch)
5. Try and sell them (don’t give up if there seemed to be any chance of a sale)
6. Either sell to them and take the money, or
7. Give up and move on to the next house

It was a numbers game, pure and simple. The more doors that got knocked, the more doors got opened, the more people heard the pitch, the more people bought, the more sales were made.

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