by talksmartly | Jun 28, 2015 | Listening, Marketing, Public Speaking
Marketing: Who do you think you’re talking to? Prior to becoming an instructor, I worked for a time as the brand manager of a medium-sized community. I was tasked with hiring a marketing research/creative firm, facilitating their work, and managing the brand. Because it was a community brand, my employer and I recruited a team of community stakeholders to help with the hiring and implementation process. In response to our initial RFP, the team received many excellent responses. We interviewed five finalists over the course of a couple days. The process was an education. We got to see many unique design philosophies. But one firm, in their presentation, won us over when they asked our hiring panel, “what are the six P’s of marketing?” The brand-team began to deliberate, scrambling to piece together this puzzle. “Product!” I said. “Price, people, promotion, place…” but a sixth??? “Politics.” said the consultant. The group looked around the table, tittered, and nodded their heads. They recognized at that moment the challenge that lay before us: gaining our established, traditional community’s acceptance of a new brand. And this consultant was the only one to recognize that we would be needing to communicate to this audience. Guess who won the bid? (They deserved to–and they did splendid work!) Marketing communication mirrors basic communication rules in so many ways. One of these fundamental rules is to consider your audience. Who are you talking to? Often when we are communicating with people, we are so preoccupied with what we are thinking and trying to say that we forget the listener. In marketing efforts made by small business owners this is also true, especially when it comes to things like logos, taglines, and ad graphics. We forget that...
