Eight costly marketing mistakes

This article was sent by Mr. Jigar Rajani from FYMMS Alkesh Dinesh Mody Institute - Mumbai University with a

request to publish it on the Blog. It was featured in Economic Times of India dated 28 March 2008. The sources opted by Economic times are mentioned in the Footer. The article very beautifully discusses 8 commonly made mistakes which the marketers make and which should be avoided to make a good and successful marketing plan. Here we go.........

 

Marketing only in the slow times
To grow your business, you need an ongoing, targeted marketing program you can manage year-round along with the day-to-day demands of your new business. One mistake start-up entrepreneurs often make is to put marketing on the back burner and focus exclusively on the few customers they’ve got. Marketing only during the slow times dooms you to living on an economic roller coaster.
Failing to focus
Often, start-up marketers fail because they try to tackle too many types of prospects on a limited, start-up budget. Going after everyone who will listen is a shortcut to failure. On the flip side, when you narrowly focus your marketing efforts on a qualified target audience, you’ll get spectacular results.
Overlooking testing and research
So you think millions of people will want to buy your product or service. What makes you so sure? Before committing lots of cash to launching your new business, do some market research. The Internet is your best source of published information. You can test the market using surveys. Testing can keep you from making costly mistakes based on false assumptions about your product, service or customers.
Relying on just one or two tactics
It’s only natural to rely on the marketing tactics you’re most comfortable with. If you like meeting and talking to new people, you may focus on networking. If you’re shy, on the other hand, you might rely solely on direct mail. Such single-mindedness is a major marketing mistake because it prevents you from exposing a full range of prospects to your message.
Under-spending on marketing
it’s just as important to set aside marketing funds as it is to budget for tools you’re going to need to run your business. If you go to a bank for financing, you’ll be expected to show the banker your marketing budget — because without marketing, there’s very little chance you’ll be able to repay your loan. Even if you’re funding your company without help from a bank or other lender, you need to follow the same guidelines.
Failing to present a professional image
Your marketing materials sell your company image to the world. To be successful, you need a cohesive family of tools that stand up to those of even your largest competitors. If you hand out shoddy, poorly produced marketing materials to prospects, don’t expect to be picked for plum jobs. Also be aware of how your company ‘sounds’ when prospects call.
Ignoring current customers
As your business grows, you may become so focused on getting new customers that you overlook current customers. That is a major mistake, since it generally costs more to win a new customer than to ‘resell’ to an existing one.
Overlooking what tech can do for you
Contact management software and e-mail marketing are just two options that can streamline your marketing efforts and improve your productivity. Without a good contact management program, business contacts may be lost and call-backs missed. Don’t overlook these valuable tools that can help your business grow.
(Source: Microsoft Small Business Centre)

To that last point I would like to add a few more things. Firstly you are reading this blog, and if you are, then probably you are also aware of thousands of other blogs that are present over the internet. Hence we can conclude that blogs and podcasts play a very important role in contemporary times. People argue (in case of Indian subcontinent) that internet penetration is very low, but when we see it in absolute terms the figure tends to be more than some of the developed markets in the world, which means that if properly utilised, the modern marketing tools can form an important ingredient in the marketing mix of any organisation. I would like to quote a few examples in here for supporting my argument.

Example 1: Almost all of the media houses in India produce RSS feeds and they have thousands of subscriptions reaching to millions of readers. This was not possible by conventional marketing in such a cost effective manner.

Example 2: South West Airlines use Twitter to distribute information regarding deals and offers to its clients. And this has proved to be a huge success.

Example 3: Starbucks and Dell use Salesforce.com's "Ideas product" for their "Idea storm" and 'MyStarbucksIdea.com" where in each person can place his or her Idea for Starbucks and if that is accepted by the management, the person is continuously notified about the status of his idea.

Example 4: Dell leads the world with employee representation on Twitter. That means Dell employees have regular interaction with business partners regarding the developments in the company. This not only creates awareness with the clients but also helps build relationship and loyalty with the prospects and clients.

Example 5: Not only is this trend followed outside India, but consider Sunsilk's "Gang of Girls" which was such a hit that Private Equity firms are queuing the company gates for acquiring stake in the program.

Example 6: The examples can go on in an inextensible manner but concluding my article I give a last and the latest example I saw. HUL has launched a completely new website for its "Lux Black" which features an interesting story of the girl visiting the website. The story completely depends on the personality and choices of the girl. A beautiful initiative on the part of HUL to capture the imagination of its Target Market.

By demonstrating so many examples I want to prove just one point. Modern Marketing practices are taken very lightly in India. They should be given more emphasis. Being at a nascent stage, they can be exploited in a better manner, because as the consumers grow weary of it, these practices will also face the same problems that exist with traditional marketing today ie The problems of reaching the target customer in a competitive environment, grabbing user attention and so on and so forth.

Hence Guys with this note, I end up, promising to be back very soon...

Regards

Manish K Gupta

 

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