“Do the Right Thing!” Is This Really a Radical Marketing Strategy?

With Paul Newman's passing, there have been a slew of stories about his acting and his activism.  I'm not a particularly political person, but one of his quotes caught my eye this morning.

"Everything is about what's winnable, and not about the morality issues."

Like most things I read, I started to apply this to marketing strategy.  It made me ask the question "Are we simply creating strategies that will win or work for the sake of winning and more money – or is there some value to creating strategies because they meet a real customer need (or want) and provide real value?"

Be Authentic Meet a Real Need and the Money Will Come

When will the "communication powers that be" learn that BS just doesn't fly anymore?  We are all savvy consumers, yet, when we sit in the marketing strategy chair much of that goes out the window and maybe…just maybe…we begin to think that our customers are not as smart as we are.  Or you go to the other extreme and you think that your customers know more about a specific topic than you do.

Neither of these extremes is correct.  And making either assumption is not only stupid on our part, but can be an expensive marketing program to pull off.

Focus on What You Do Well

This is an old strategy made popular by Tom Peters in his book "In Search of Excellence"  but it's still a valid one.  In today's market brimming with choices for everyone – you actually have the luxury of picking a position of strength and finding customers who value that strength.

Get Great Customers that You Respect and Love

Are you still freaking at the "love" term.  Get over it.  If you want to win market share and collect profitable customers — feeling love for them enough to spend time thinking about the details that will make them happy and loyal at any price is worth the "risk" to your professionalism. (smile)

Make it Easy for Them to Choose and Buy from You

You're collecting customers you love who love you back — so you can sell them things.  So have fun in the process.  Build relationships and give them what they want – and some things they didn't know they wanted.