Canadian Marketing Blog

Four Things Marketing Cannot Do.

Marketing can solve any problem - right? Wrong.

1 - Marketing cannot create repeat customers. Once a customer has experience with your company, they will judge you based on how that interaction went. Marketing can help to get the first sale but after that, the company, product or service speaks for themselves louder than any marketing.

2 - Marketing cannot fix bad service. No amount of marketing can convince a customer your company is good if your service is poor. I almost laugh when I see hugely expensive advertising campaigns for companies I have dealt with that leave me on hold for an hour without solving a problem they created.

3 - Marketing cannot change who you are. For example, would Wal-mart win by saying it sells fine wine? Would Saks Fifth Avenue be able to convince customers they are the "lowest price"? Customers will simply not think it is plausible. Over time you can change the customers' perception of your company but that takes a lot of time. Marketing alone though cannot change who you are in the market. You need to be who you say you are.

4 - Marketing cannot hide the truth. In this day of the internet, it is very short sighted for any company to think they can market away the truth long term. And trying to do so would not only be virtually impossible but outrageously expensive.

In the end, marketing can enhance a good product or service but can do little to make a poor product or service sell or be accepted in the market. I am a big believer in marketing (or why would I write for CMA?) but believe spending time and money on delivering excellence should be the first step for any entrepreneur or business.

Excellence first - marketing later.

Unless you consider "customer service" part of the marketing function. Advertising can't do these things, but perhaps a broader conception of marketing - for example considering the call centre part of the marketing function - is what is needed?

Weak. I disagree with this article.

It's all marketing. Marketing should be infused and considered at all levels of the organization.

Your actions should tell your story.

"The Canadian Marketing Association is wrong" said Michael Klein's tweet this morning, linking to this critique at: http://www.michaelklein.ca/2009/11/09/its-all-marketing/

Nothing like criticism to get me to click!

Elizabeth,

My apologies for the sensational tweet. :) At least it drove some traffic here for discussion.

I do think Jim's post was interesting. And, if applied strictly to the the Marketing Department...it make a lot of sense. I agree the Marketing department can't tackle these problems alone.

Cheers,
Mike

Although I can see this post more on the comunication side of things, I agree with the post, even in a broader level.
Even if you have a great call center, comunication, promotion, placement, you will never "reset" the customer feeling twards you... you can correct it, if it went badly in the first approach, but it will never reset the relationship.

But then again Marketing also does "Product "... so I believe that what is meant here is that Product surpasses all the other marketing keypoints. And I agree.

Strategically, it's always critical the external messaging aligns with internal messaging/training. There should be a single, seamless message so that when the customer interacts with your organization, the promise can be delivered on the ground.

Great article Jim!
I agree especially that's important to understand the limitations of even great marketing and to focus on the other elements of building long-term customer relationships, one customer at a time - salesmanship and customer service.