Know-How Exchange : Advertising/PR

Great question.

Years ago when I started my own marketing career at Procter & Gamble, the first important lesson I learned is that great marketing starts with a great product. Marketing can't save a lousy product, and a great product can often overcome mediocre marketing.

That's why it's so important to understand consumers and their attitudes, habits, practices, values, needs, priorities and even the words they use to describe all of the above. That understanding will lead you to the creation of a great product. ("Great" in this case means consumers/customers will want it and buy it.)

So when you ask what a new company can do to shape the positioning of a product or service in the media (which is a reflection, after all, of consumers' thinking), the answer that pops into my head is, "Create a great product that anticipates and satisfies an important unmet consumer need."

And if you then ask what Marketing can do to make sure that happens, I say, "Understand the consumer so well that you can develop that great product from the beginning, and then communicate its uniqueness and the benefit it provides in a clear and consistent manner."

Marketing is more about understanding consumers than it is about pushing stuff at people, or about trying to shape, influence or brainwash the media. Consumers and the media are really very smart, and they understand the difference between real value and vacuous hype.

It's time marketers realized that.

Thanks for asking and giving me a chance to use my virtual soapbox.


P.S. That's why PRODUCT is one of the 4 Ps in the traditional Marketing Mix.

Apple's been able to do this partially because they've had a long string of commercial successes on hand. But it wasn't always so. Their early computers were great technologically, but weren't loved by the media because they didn't have/couldn't build huge market share. Early adopters loved them, but they couldn't get to the tipping point for a number of their products. "Apple wasn't always Apple" in the minds of consumers.

Part of Apple's recent success can be humorously illustrated with this cartoon: https://garr.posterous.com/ipad-steve-jobs-and-a-twist-on-simplicity

I think mgoodman is dead on with his “great product” post. And in the case of Apple, I think it was Steve Jobs foresight to use top industrial design firms (most notably IDEO) to help create great product when many technology companies were still housing their product solutions in beige boxes. Truly innovative “form and function” product design is driving the success of many successful products today, but it wasn’t that long ago that companies pretty much ignored this level of design as a great product differentiator.

The following link further describes Ideo’s “culture of innovation” ...
https://www.bnet.com/article/ideos-tim-brown-how-to-build-a-culture-of-inno...

having a great product and providing excellent service is more important than ever.

Maybe great marketing today will help a company more quickly and effectively respond and react (and hopefully anticipate) the market.

The example that comes to mind is Domino's pizza. Apparently the company lost some sort of taste contest... but they did not react with advertisements or by wining and dining the media. They worked hard to improve the product, and their promotions described the recognition that they had a problem, as well as major changes and improvements they were making to improve the product.

No question... you have to start with a great product that fills a need and the ability to communicate the benefits. But there are lots of people, with lots of great ideas, and little, or no money. How do they ever break through the clutter? Only a very few do and it takes true grit, guts, inspiration, and steadfast intent to make the difference.

We worked for seven years to get a new cold remedy into the marketplace. We had no budget. Zero. Everyone thought we were nuts. But the product worked, we believed in it and we kept hammering away. Little by little, we made tiny inroads. Small sales... barely enough to keep us alive. Every avenue was investigated and finally The Cleveland Clinic said they would do a study. We waited and waited. And waited. They finally published the results which gave credibility to our product. Shortly thereafter 60 Minutes did a segment. Words can't describe the rush and the success that followed.

Was it luck that brought us success? Maybe a tiny, tiny bit. Was it brilliant marketing? Not really. It was certainly solid, well presented, but not brilliant. What really made the difference was our intent.