The New Rules of Business Marketing!
The below excerpts come from an article Seth Godin wrote for Forbes Magazine. His piece entitled Your Product, Your Customer was published in the May 7, 2007 edition of Forbes on page 90. His words echo what Orrin Woodward and Chris Brady have been talking about for years. Business is built on relationships and trust. In the new economy those who can build networks of customers loyal to a certain product or service will win over the mass marketers trying the old and tired methods of the 60’s and 70’s.
"Great brands and great companies have been built on the back of mass media. You fill your funnel with attention and slowly turn the attention into cash. Traditionally that’s how marketers convert strangers into customers. Whoever has the biggest funnel wins…..Bad news for control freaks everywhere: Your funnel is broken and you’re not in charge anymore.”
We witnessed this phenomenon at the beginning of the internet explosion where marketing companies tried to use the rules for the old game in this new economy. Remember those super bowl commercials where the new hot dot com companies spent millions to try to fill their funnels with mass market attention but ultimately most of them failed? New game, new rules, and those who change the quickest and adapt are the only ones who will survive. Companies who continue to play by the rule book created for the 1960’s and 1970’s are destined for failure.
Seth goes on to explain what is happening. “What’s a marketer to do? You can try to fill the funnel by running innovative ads. You can patch the leaks in your funnel by hiring a cooler agency…..Or you can try something new. First flip the funnel; turn it into a megaphone. But not as a device to yell at people who don’t want to hear from you. Instead, hand the megaphone to your best customers, who can help turn their friends and colleagues into your new best customers.” 
Seth writes about this in his book the Idea Virus. Word of mouth is so much more powerful than anything a marketing company can do to promote a product. Think about the people in your life who you consider credible and trustworthy. Chances are if they have something great to say about a product or service you are going to try it for yourself. The exact opposite is also true. If they have had a poor experience you will most likely never try that product or service based on their recommendations.
“The network was always there, but the internet makes it powerful. It amplifies the happy user and spreads the word. But beware: it also boosts the volume of unhappy users…..Thanks to the network, it’s easier than ever to find your best customers and to broadcast their views. Amazon is filled with page after page of positive reviews by delighted (and uncompensated) customers.”
I have written many past articles on capitalism and the free enterprise market economies. These can probably be found in the archives of this site. A major theme that runs through many of the writings from people like Ayn Rand, Adam Smith, and even Rich Karlgard is that in a free market economy you don’t need much government intervention, regulation, and extensive laws to police the economy because the customer will do that for you. The internet has made this much easier. Businesses must operate with the best interest of their customers in mind and all business owners understand this. Just as good publicity can spread about a great product or service which will bring more customers to the business, poor service will spread just as fast and will affect the bottom line. Once you have lost a customer you have generally lost them for life.
Look how quickly the market turned on JetBlue Airlines after their debacle of leaving thousands of passengers held hostage in airplanes for hours during a snow storm. The outrage was so visceral and spread so quickly that JetBlue ended up having to testify before Congress about the event! Before that we all saw the public outcry against Firestone tires as they gained national attention after their product was found to be faulty which led to multiple horrific crashes which resulted in the loss of life. You could not give away a set of Firestone tires during that time and the CEO had to make numerous national announcements letting the public know about their commitment to safety. It has taken years for them to once again regain the trust of the public!
“The biggest mistake marketers make when they see the power of the consumer network is that they try to control, own, or manipulate it. This always fails because the network doesn’t care about you and can’t be bought. The smartest marketers aim to inspire, not to control…..great companies don’t push the lead!”
Seth Godin highlights very eloquently that companies can not play by the rule book that led to success decades ago. The rules have changed and mass marketing is less valuable now than ever before. Our world is full of marketing noise that we have learned to tune out. The people who we have not tuned out however are the credible and trustworthy friends and family members who share with us their good or bad experiences. This dialogue has more influence on us as consumers than any commercial ever will.
Orrin Woodward and Chris Brady have been far ahead of the curve in this new economy than many of their counterparts. When you read the above excerpts from Seth Godin, what does it all boil down to? Trust! The truth is going to come out about any product or service. If it is great or if it is bad, either way it will be known. Orrin Woodward has said to our board countless times, “We need to do everything so it can pass the New York Times test. No matter what we do we need to ensure that if it made the front page of the New York Times we would be proud. We are going to be honest in everything we do and we are going to be transparent with all our customers.” That is a mandate from our Chairman and that goes right to the heart of the issue Seth talks about. If you operate with those principles as your guiding light then you are going to be very successful in this new economy where word of mouth promotion travels further and quicker than ever before!
