There are six marketing imperatives that drive, or should drive, small businesses today. These imperatives are:
1. No matter what business you think you’re in, sooner or later you’re also a marketing organization.
2. As an essentially marketing organization, it follows that marketing becomes its most important business activity.
3. What’s more, as a marketer today you face competition, other organizations are marketing to the same customers or potential customers as you, at an unprecedented level.
4. Because the small organization cannot hope to compete on price or selection, marketing becomes the only way for the small organization to effectively differentiate itself in the marketplace.
5. Marketing is everything you do as an organization that touches your customer in some way; Marketing is a very big umbrella.
6. Finally, the market itself is in charge; he, and he alone, determines the success or failure of your marketing effort.
Among my Webster’s New Collegiate definitions of imperative are “having power to restrain, control, and direct” and “not to be avoided or evaded.” In other words, imperatives are things you must do. Let me briefly explain each of the six marketing imperatives.
First of all, no matter what business you think you are in, sooner or later you are a marketing organization. If you are a traditional business offering a product or service to a local or global market, you are trying to market something to someone. Therefore, it is also a marketing organization.
Second, if this is true, that in addition to anything else you can do as an organization, you are also a marketing organization, then it inevitably follows that marketing becomes the most important thing you can do as a small business, as a non-commercial company. for-profit organization, such as a volunteer group. Period.
That’s a bold statement that I’m sure will raise more than one eyebrow, especially among bankers, lawyers, and accountants. They might argue, for example, that an organization cannot survive without a regular supply of cash, which is provided by loans and/or letters of credit. They might suggest that an organization needs to protect itself against breaches of contract and/or lawsuits, which is the job of a lawyer. They might argue that an organization needs to keep track of its income and expenses to thrive (not to mention stay out of trouble with the IRS), which is what accountants do.
But, I would say that while all of those activities are important and certainly require diligent attention, they are essentially meaningless without paying customers walking in the door; because it is the paying customers that provide the livelihood of a business. What is marketing supposed to do and what is, therefore, why marketing should be an organization’s driving force, its unique focus.
Which brings us to the third imperative: In today’s global economy, fueled by the Internet and dominated by retail juggernauts, all organizations of any kind face competition on an unprecedented level.
Small businesses certainly can’t compete on price. Wal-Mart, Home Depot, OfficeMax, and other so-called category killers, by exercising their bargaining power, can quite often offer an item at retail for what most small businesses would pay for it at wholesale. These 800-pound retail gorillas can fill their 100,000-plus-square-foot big boxes with tens of thousands of items, offering their customers an overwhelming selection—whatever they need, we’ve got it, often in multiple sizes and colors. The last thing a small business should want or even contemplate doing is compete with these folks on price or selection; that’s a no-win scenario if there ever was one.
Finally, thanks to its ability to reach anyone, anywhere, and at any time, the Internet has virtually nullified any location/convenience advantage a local small business or organization might have had.
Marketing is the way a company presents itself in the market. So it brings us to marketing imperative number four: marketing itself more effectively — whatever that means — not only is it the best way, it’s the only way left for companies. small organizations to compete successfully.
The fifth marketing imperative answers the question that naturally follows: If you are a marketing organization, and if marketing is your most important activity, then what is marketing? I offer this definition: Marketing is a very big umbrella, it’s everything you do as an organization that touches your customer, contributor, or member in some way.
A common misconception is that marketing is synonymous with advertising and promotion or is the same as sales. In many organizations what is called the Marketing Department is essentially the Sales Department.
But, like a big umbrella, marketing covers much more territory. For example, how you answer the phone is a marketing decision, or should be. What are the hours you are open and how many people you decide to staff your business with. Of course, how you decorate your business is a marketing decision, as is whether you have a logo and how consistently you use it across various promotional mediums. Whether you use telemarketing or direct mail or the Internet or personal sales calls (or some combination of these) to engage with your customers is definitely a marketing decision. Regardless of how easy or difficult it is to complete the required forms you may use, who determines what goes on the form, your customer service and/or sales staff, or the IT staff processing the information? — is very much a decision with marketing implications. The issues, causes, or groups your organization sponsors have marketing implications, as do the stories you try to get the media to write about you.
Furthermore, I would suggest that many, perhaps most, small organizations tend to view these functions only from a management or cost accounting perspective, rarely, if ever, viewing them as crucial marketing decisions. They should.
The sixth and final imperative is both blindingly obvious and yet almost always overlooked or taken for granted: The market always prevails, it is the final arbiter of your success or failure as a marketing organization. What I’m suggesting here is that despite all of our best efforts to plan and control our marketing efforts — and as marketers we spend a great deal of time and resources planning and controlling — it’s really the market that is at stake. control. Time and time again, large marketing corporations have released a product with a well-planned and well-funded marketing effort, only for the product to be greeted by the market with a huge collective yawn. On the other hand, time and time again I have worked with small businesses that opened their doors expecting to offer certain products or services, only to be told by the market that they actually wanted other products or services. Recognizing this imperative is certainly not meant to excuse marketers from the need to conduct research and develop thoughtful plans. Rather, it is meant to suggest that the smart salesperson understands this imperative and will pay attention, rather than wrestle with what the market may be telling them.
Perhaps in some semi-mythical and happy past, marketing for a small business may have been a “when we get to it” option, but no more. In today’s marketplace, trade aggressively, trade smart, and trade always, or you die.
