The 5 ridiculous reasons why people don’t see the benefit of marketing

If we had a pound for the number of times people have given up on marketing because ‘it simply doesn’t work’, then we could be sat on a beach somewhere, happily drinking a Pina Colada or two, and not worrying about ever having to work again.

Because, despite all the great marketing campaigns by brands such as Nike and Apple, and people counting down the days until the John Lewis Christmas ad drops, there are still people who are convinced marketing doesn’t work.

Even worse, they keep dredging up the same old tired reasons for marketing failing to deliver what they see as tangible results. Let’s take a look at what they are.

1. They expect immediate results

Sadly, too many people think marketing is a quick fix. That they can shove a few posts on social media, and they will be inundated with new business. If only it was that simple!

Marketing just like any business activity needs to be planned. You need to know who you want to reach and why. You need a strategy of what you are doing and when. You need to plan activity, monitor activity, and adapt activity as and when needed.

The problem is as soon as something doesn’t work, people assume it’s never going to work. “But we posted for 3 months on social media and nothing happened”. But do you actually know why you were using social media in the first place? Was it for brand awareness, to increase sales or to increase visits to your website?  Were you posting the right type of content? Were you reaching the right people?

Joe Wicks might have become the nation’s PE teacher during lockdown and have amassed over 4.7 million followers on his Instagram account, but contrary to popular opinion he was not an overnight sensation. In fact, it took him over 10 years to get where he is now.

Ten years, not just of hard graft, but of exploring different kinds of marketing (he started standing at train stations with handheld banners) until he had a clear idea of who he wanted to reach and the best way of reaching them. And crucially, he took the time to work out what resonated with his target audience with the result he has become a content marketing whizz and built a multi-million-pound empire.

The beauty of marketing today is it’s so measurable, so even if something doesn’t go to plan you have the data at your fingertips to work out why. Are you reaching the right demographics on social media? Are you making it clear about what you offer or is your messaging confusing?  Is feedback about your customer service letting the side down? Yes, how your team interact with customers is marketing.

And, then there is the rule of 7.  The approach might have been devised by movie studios back in the 1930s but the concept is still relevant today. Customers need to see your brand at least 7 times before they commit to a purchase. And, as we’ll find out, that doesn’t mean you can get away with just 7 social media posts.

2. What we’ve got here… is failure to communicate

“We also market ourselves across multi-communication platforms – with press advertising, TV and radio, direct email campaigns and experiential events all forming part of our marketing mix. And of course, there’s online.”

That’s a quote from the John Lewis website about their marketing activity. And you’ll notice ‘online’ is just one of many activities. Sadly, this multi-channel approach is often overlooked by many businesses who just don’t get marketing. They tend to opt for one channel, normally social, as it’s seen as a cheap and easy thing to do, and then hope for the best. And when it doesn’t work, they decide marketing doesn’t work.

But as already mentioned, people need to see your brand 7 times before they will commit, so just opting for one marketing channel is somewhat short-sighted. Yes, it might work for some brands, but by and large, you need to be looking at a range of activity which targets your consumer base and gets your name out there.

Like most things it won’t work properly, if you don’t do it properly, which brings us nicely onto the next issue.

3. Everyone thinks marketing is easy

   A few posts on social media; a couple of ads in a magazine; some flyers – how hard can it be? Because people assume marketing is just about a bit of design, and dare we say a bit soft and fluffy, they think it doesn’t take much and that so-and-so’s son can knock something up quickly while he’s on his school holidays.

Wrong. Marketing is a discipline and so much more than a couple of adverts or a few pretty pictures on social media.

Marketing is about delivering the right product at the right price in the right place at the right time.  It involves monitoring market trends, your competitors and your customers; developing pricing strategies; using data (and there is a lot of it) to create effective marketing strategies which target the right demographics; and then using the data gleaned from campaigns to refine and change as necessary. It’s everything your company does to draw in customers and then maintain those relationships.

Or in the words of the Chartered Institute of Marketing; “Marketing is the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying customer requirements profitably.”

So no, it’s not about using Canva to come up with a logo, and then using AI to write a marketing brochure. By all means, give it a go, but when you fail don’t blame marketing.

4. If you build it, they will come
   

   You might have the best product ever. You might even have an award-winning product, but if you don’t tell anyone about it, how will anyone ever know about it?

“But we’ve haven’t had to do any marketing so far and we’re doing quite well.” Lucky you. But what happens when your friends and family no longer want to buy your products or services? What happens when that big order doesn’t materialise? What do you do then?

You may not think you’ve done any marketing, but word-of-mouth is a marketing activity, but like we’ve already mentioned, you should never rely on just one channel, especially one where you can’t control who gets your message or what that message actually is.

And just because you’re busy now, doesn’t mean you’ll be busy in the future. One of the biggest mistakes is to wait until you are desperate for business to start marketing. As already mentioned, marketing takes time to be effective, and it also takes investment, which if you’re on your downers, you’ll be loathed to do. But if you don’t invest, chances are your sales revenue isn’t going to improve, which means you won’t be doing any marketing, or anything else for that matter, any time soon. The morale of the story – start marketing now,  before it’s too late.

5. They don’t realise the product is to blame

How many times on The Apprentice have teams been castigated because the product is ? Okay, their logo design always leaves something to be desired, but, more often than not, it’s the product that makes or breaks a pitch. Yes, I would love to try that new skincare brand called Venom which stains my skin green!

One of the key elements of any marketing strategy is about whether you are offering something people actually want. It’s too easy to blame marketing for not working when the reality is your product or service just isn’t unique, special or even good enough. And even if your product is a bit rubbish, you might just get away with it if you price it correctly and have a clear idea about who you are targeting, what marketing channels they use and what messaging will make them stop, take note and hopefully make a purchase.

Remember, marketing is an investment, not a nice to do. It’s not just money out of the door for no reason. If done properly it should be delivering tangible and measurable results and yes, giving you a return on investment.

Still not convinced? Well, they know what they say – a bad workman always blames his tools!