I’m not usually fond of eating what is labeled as “junk” food, but every now and then I do fancy a bite of a guilt-packed meal – specially when I’m traveling around and don’t have the luxury of a home cooked one. Today was one of those days! As I strolling down the mall after a meeting with a client, I headed towards the food court and bought my self a well stacked lunch. Just as I finished eating my food, I look around to locate the trash bin and to my surprise I find two adjacent bins – the green one was for recycling (paper, plastic, bottles, cans) and the blue one was labeled for “General Waste – food & others”. I look down on my tray and guess what – I had everything on it. So the question is how do i separate the chicken from the carton plate from the plastic gloves from the rest of the stuff!!! Call me what you like, but I ended up trashing them all in the “Others” bin!
The same logic applies to your marketing campaign – sometimes they flop because they are simply not practical in the eyes of the customer – as beautiful and flashy as they might be, if they do not address the needs of the customer, they are bound to fail. Recently, multiple agencies where pitching for the SUBWAY Arabic Regional Market account – I was amazed by how creative some of the ideas were – but guess what, I turned down more than half of them because they did not take into account the practical side of the business!
So before you endeavor in your next big marketing idea, take a few minutes to think of the practicality of it. Think About It!
I can’t help but have a smile on my face when I’m reading this article. You are absolutely right. Practical is critical. Just like your blog. I love the fact that you share your work and daily experience and lead us to look at them through a business angle. We experience so many things everyday and each of them can inspire us to make a substantial change in our life, career, relationship…but people tend to ignore them. This applies to most marketeers in my opinion. Although I’m not one, I’m pitched by more than enough to make me realize, as you said, their presentations can be as fancy as they can be, and personally I’m amazed by most of them…they are not practical in business world, or they are not practical or specific for my industry. It’s more like selling a fancy bag to a customer who is looking for shoes. Yes, they are related and I might need it for my shoes…but before I get the shoes, how would I know it’s the right bag to match? It’s wrong product at a given time. I suggest (honestly, i believe people know this but just forget doing it most of the time) to marketeers: put yourself on customers’ shoes!! And also, don’t expect the customers would look at bits and pieces. Just like the example John gave above. You really expect me to separate the chicken bones and the carton plate and put them into different bins….come on!!!! If your WHOLE ad doesn’t sell, you are done!!1