Archive for May, 2010

Lyn Chasteen, the engaging publisher of the Austin Business Journal, asked attendees at a recent "Smart Series" breakfast the paper sponsors, to briefly introduce themselves before the morning's talk began. The topic was marketing, and I was the guest speaker. I sipped my coffee and nodded in affirmation as people stood up to give their 30-second intros. Many of them expectantly mentioned that they came to pick up some marketing tips. "Yes," I thought to myself, "I've heard these kinds of expectations expressed many times at events like this"  

I was surprised at one small business owner's blunt introduction. "I hate marketing," he said as the crowd chuckled. Yet surprisingly, he went on to describe how he had been growing his small business with some success since he started it several years ago. He obviously knows something about marketing, but if you pressed him to tell you what, he'd probably shrug his shoulders.

Why is "marketing" a dirty word for many small business owners or their staff members who are in charge of marketing? I believe it starts with what we think, assume or fear marketing is — or isn't.  To digress on that line of thinking — marketing as a dirty word — I'm reminded of the phrase Supreme Court Just Potter Stewart penned in his opinion about obscenity in 1964:  "I know it when it see it."

As consumers or business owners, we intuitively know good marketing (or bad marketing) when we see it.  But we don't know how to define it.  Even for those schooled in the ways of marketing, it sometimes seems like a mystery.

CFO's think it's too expensive and doesn't help the bottom line. Sales people think it sucks and invent their own marketing materials. And the frustrated marketing manager is confounded when asked to demonstrate marketing's ROI.

So, what is marketing, exactly? As I shared with the group that morning, it might not be what you think it is. In part, that's because traditional definitions of marketing are wishy washy. Textbooks discuss the Four P's: Product, Price, Place and Promotion. Webster's defines marketing as, "the act or process of selling or purchasing in a market." Yeah, that helps. The American Marketing Association, a really smart group, says marketing is "the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large." Now that sounds more like a Supreme Court opinion!

I like this definition, invented by Duct Tape Marketing founder John Jantsch:

"Marketing is getting people with a problem or need to know, like and trust you."

Simple and intuitive. Most people nod in agreement when I share that definition with them. It makes sense, and jibes with our experiences of businesses we admire and refer.

In my next post, we'll dig a little deeper on that definition and how to apply it to your business. In the meantime, I'd love to know what you think marketing is. Do you know it when you see it?

Elena's Place, Ruidoso, NM My eight-year old daughter recently commented as we were sitting around our living room, "Dad, there's no place in the world like Elena's place." I assumed she was talking about her friend Elena's house (and suspicious about what they might be doing there to rate such high praise).  But she was referring to a little hole-in-the-wall Mexican restaurant in Ruidoso, New Mexico, called Elena's Place.  We ate there during our Spring Break Ski Trip.

Why after all these weeks did my daughter mention that experience? Remarkable service.  It was exceptional.  We dined at Elena's Place after waiting for more than hour to be seated at another Mexican restaurant (Après-ski dining is crazy in that little town… restaurants get packed fast).   The crowd had just thinned out at Elena's when we walked in. Tina, the warm host/server welcomed us with a grand smile and directed us to a cozy table by the fire.

We inhaled tasty spicy-hot chips and salsa and relished interior Mexican food to die for (Elena, the co-owner with her husband, is from Durango, Mexico.)

But it wasn't the great food that brought us back the next night. It was actually a serving faux pas.  Tina enticed us to try their sopaipillas — a fried Mexican shortbread dessert smothered in cinnamon and honey.  We all shouted, "Yes" to her offer. But alas, "We're out," she said, embarrassed a few minutes later. She quickly scribbled on the back of a restaurant business card "good for free order of sopaipillas" and told us that she'd buy them for us… whenever we came back again, even if we didn't come in to dine, she'd give them to us anytime.

The following night it was the same scenario: Packed restaurants all over town. I fished the Elena's Place card from my pocket and called to see if they had seats.  Tina herself answered.  "Yes.  Hurry.  I'll hold a table for you!" When we arrived, there was a reserved card with her name on a table waiting for us.  We sat. We ate. We laughed at Tina's good humor and memories of her former life in Austin.  Tina introduced us to Elena and her husband Tom. And we finally gorged ourselves on those sopaipillas.

Here's the marketing lesson:  Don't be boring and aim to delight every client or customer.  People don't talk about boring businesses.  Even if you blow it (like not having sopaipillas) people will still like you if you treat them right, and they'll refer you, like I'm doing now.  Check out Elena's Place on Yelp.