Out of the Mouths of Babes
Out of the Mouths of Babes
By David Avrin (Excerpted from the new book: Visibility Marketing (1016 Career Press)
“Hey Dad,” my then 11 year-old son Spencer calls out to me from his perch on the couch across the family room. Friends and family had converged at my home in the South Denver suburb of Castle Rock, Colorado to watch the Superbowl. “I was just wondering,” Spencer says, “If they can make such great commercials for the Superbowl, why don’t they just make great commercials during the rest of the year?”
This unexpected, but insightful question caught me off-guard. “Yeah, marketing genius,” my brother chides me from across the room. “Answer that one!”
“Buddy,” I said to my son. “The truth is that people in businesses can create really great, funny, cool, interesting, or memorable marketing anytime they decide to and are willing to work hard at it. It just seems more important for them to work harder to be creative when the commercials cost a lot more money — like during the Superbowl. The rest of the year, quite honestly, they are just being lazy. They don't take the time, or push themselves to come up with really great ideas. Worse yet, companies just say “yes” to bad or boring commercials and campaigns that ad agencies and marketing firms make for them, because they trust the “experts” — who are just being lazy.”
“Is that what you do when you go work with clients or give speeches, Dad?” he asks. “Tell people to not be lazy?”
“Sometimes,” I say, smiling. “A lot of business owners don't really know any better. So, I show them why what they are doing and saying isn’t working very well. I teach them ways to be creative all year long, and I push them to not accept anything that isn’t great. And I also make them laugh,” I add, “so they will listen to me.”
“You’re kind of like their marketing coach.”
“Yes, Spencer. That’s exactly what I am.”
Business marketing is like competitive sports in so many ways. There are teammates, opponents, fans, strategy, tactics, preparation and execution. Make no mistake, there are also winners and losers as the “game” is being played-out in a very public forum. Oh, and the score is always being kept. Always.
The most significant difference between business and sports, however, is that the outcome of the business marketing game determines who actually survives as an entity to play again and who does not. It’s not merely the fans that walk away disappointed, with the next game scheduled the following week. No, it’s families that lose homes, children miss out on college options, relationships are strained and entrepreneurs who are robbed of their livelihood—and their dreams along with it. In business, there is so much more at stake.
Businesses can do better. Much better! Owners, entrepreneurs, marketing and sales professionals need a harsh wake-up call. They need to be grabbed by the shoulders, smacked on the helmet and told to stop settling for mediocre messages and marketing that merely inform and take up time and space, but don’t differentiate. Today, effective marketing, visibility marketing, is not about competence, it’s about creating and communicating profound, visible competitive advantage.
-David Avrin, CSP, www.VisibilityInterantional.com
Excerpted from the new book: Visibility Marketing (2016 Career Press)www.VisibilityMarketingBook.com