Too many marketers don’t like to acknowledge reality, but some changes in behaviors should lead them to ask, “what does it mean for my brand?”. A recession is coming, and marketers need to acknowledge that time is just as valuable as hard cash in today’s economy. Here are the top two things marketers need to throw in the compost can.
1ne: Personal Branding – P L E A S E! 99% of people out there could care less about your personal brand. Personal branding is another con shown on marketing people by the same people who told us how social media would save us all.
Nobody cares about your personal brand. You should concentrate on learning new things and expanding your knowledge. Better to know a little about many things than in-depth knowledge of just one topic.
2wo: Content marketing – Consumers want to read your content is pure bullshit. Your content is like content in an encyclopedia. It’s there IN CASE they need it, but don’t expect consumers to read your content because they don’t have the time.
3hree: Brands need to tell a story – Sigh, this falls right up there with content marketing. No, most brands do not need to tell a story. They need to convey the kecriticalrand/product benefits as quickly as possible. Save the streportor the bank when you need a loan.
4our: Keeping customers on hold when they call customer service. Social media is full of horror stories of people trying to talk to a live person when they call customer service. “Your call is important to us” does nothing but anger your customers. Customer service is a kecriticalomponent in your branding and should be staffed so people don’t have to wait for people who speak good English.
5ive: Running the same commercials repeatedly – Do you think people are watching your commercials when your frequency is ridiculously high? Let the insurance companies do that. They like to waste money; you need to spend smarter than that.
6ix: Push marketing (not working with retailers) – Retailers know what customers are buying and what moves merchandise much more than most brands. You must visit them with your brokers or salespeople and listen to what they say. Ask their opinions about your direction they will be glad to give them to you.
7even: Hiring people who fit in – So you want someone who will fit in as opposed to someone who may be able to bring new skills and thinking to the job? If you need to think about this, you’re already screwed.
8ight: Spending more time justifying your marketing than actually thinking about what you’re doing – OK, I get it. We all have to answer to management about our budgets, but when you’re spending a lot of time preparing PowerPoint decks and less on the strategy you’re going to lose.
9ine: Treating your people as expendable – Employees don’t work well under stress. It would be best if you treated your people better than your customers.
10en: Not having a mechanism to evaluate your marketing in real-time. This “sticking with your brand marketing for the long term” may help build a brand in your mind, but consumers have moved on to competitors.
