By Brian H Meredith
From the NZBusiness Magazine "Marketing Maestro" Archive.
First published April 2006
“Every year there’s a game of soccer between our marketing department and support staff. And every year, the support staff win. Or so they thought – until the spin doctors took over and this was the outcome....."
“The marketing department is pleased to announce”, read a memo issued to all employees after the game, “that for the 2005 soccer season, we came in second place, having lost but one game all year. The support department, however, had a dismal season, as they won only one game””
Extract from “All In A Day’s Work” Courtesy of Readers Digest
Gosh, what tricky fellows those marketing types are – hehehe.
A recent episode of the UK version of television show “The Apprentice” included a challenge where the teams were required to source and re-sell fruit. An all female team won the challenge by generating the greatest profit.
However, when it came to the Boardroom post mortem session, the women were severely chastised by Board Chairman, Sir Alan Sugars, a very successful, fabulously wealthy and highly regarded British industrialist.
Why?
Because they had used their “femininity” to secure their fruit stock at well below market rates and because the fruit that they secured was of a very poor quality that their customers were likely to have been very dissatisfied with within a day of two of purchasing it. The women, however, thought they were being very clever. Oh, so smart. Oh how wrong they were.
If marketing (and therefore business) were to be defined as being “the art of arresting the human intelligence for just long enough to extract money from it” then the women did a terrific job. They, and many real world sales and business people, seem to have a deep rooted commitment to this definition of the business & marketing concept.
Somewhere along the line they have developed the idea that being sharp operators is good for business. That the best qualification for being able to maximise profit is to be a smartass. That the sole role of customers is to be the tit from which the milk of commerce flows.
These are people who would first smile at the marketing department’s soccer press release before giving them the thumbs up and uttering the ubiquitous kiwi exclamation of support - “Good on yer mate!”
Spin, dishonesty and contempt for customers seems to have become the accepted way of things
Smart (or sharp) practice is now too close to being the “norm” for comfort.
Fleecing customers on some dimension or another seems to have become “just the way it is”, something customers just have to learn put up with – caveat emptor!
Misleading or downright dishonest advertising is common (if some advertisers didn’t want to mislead, why would there even be small print in advertising – many of the things in the small print deserve to be in the BIGGEST print – assuming the advertiser gives a damn about customers, that is.)
Companies who send out letters to customers signed by fictional creations and not real people (banks are the masters of this) are dishonest and show ill concealed contempt for their customers.
Sales people who can’t control their mouths and completely forget what their ears are for are dishonest and showing an ill concealed contempt for their prospects.
PR “specialists” who seek to control or blur the edges of truth are dishonest and showing contempt for the customers of clients for whom they are working. And their clients who sign off on their work are guilty of the same crimes.
It is not “clever” to deceive.
It is not “smart” to play fast & loose with the truth.
It is not “salesmanship” to get one over on a customer or prospect.
So why are these practices so common?
Greed, Short Termism & Contempt.
I wrote of short termism last month. So let greed and contempt be the theme and the lesson of this month’s diatribe.
Honesty & Integrity.
Ethics & Morals.
These are perhaps the most powerful business & marketing tools in the box. These are the tools that allow organisations, businesses & brands to develop, craft, nourish & nurture, long term, sustainable and mutually profitable relationships with customers.
And customers will always reward them for it. Eventually, consistently and handsomely.
The cowboys (and girls) will, I regret, continue to come and go and sully the reputation of business & marketing along the way. Some of them, when their ways become institutionalised & ingrained in large organisations, may well survive for much longer than others.
But, finally, the business and marketing craftsmen and women, who know the right tools to use from their box, are the ones who will survive & thrive, building, developing and nurturing relationships with customers when the smart alecs are propping up some dingy bar and telling anyone who will listen of the time they did that awesome deal with some poor fool - “There’s one born every minute” they’ll slur.
Yes, indeed, there most surely is.
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