Marc Petock shares some marketing know how with the ControlTrends Community
Marc Petock is one of the prolific marketing minds in our industry. A very special thanks to Marc for sharing some of his marketing knowledge in this post.
I thought I’d take this month off from writing specifically about our industry and instead, share a few things from my marketing and communications side. So, here you go.
Brand vs. Marketing
You may be asking yourself: what is the difference between branding and marketing and which of the two should my company be focusing on? The answer is that they are similar in the sense they are about getting a company noticed, but different implementations of recognition. This includes different practices in the entire process of keeping a company competitive, unique and customers coming back.
Branding deals more with an image or the quality and assets that go along with it. These may include a company logo, company values, a message that should resonate with a desired company audience and things of this nature. Marketing, on the other hand, deals with tasks and activities in terms of communicating with an audience or making the company’s presence felt. It is getting a message out there to prospective audience or customers. It is also about capturing leads and includes aspects such as social media coordination or email campaigns.
Both aspects are important for successful companies to thrive and expand their customer bases. A successful or thriving company should have a message that resonates with an audience and makes its values known through branding. It should also have assets, such as a logo, which become part of this message and image. However, it also needs effective marketing to showcase its brand to new audiences and expand in reach. Once branding and marketing is done in an effective fashion, the third step in the process takes place and that is sales.
And when it comes to a brand, if you don’t have a brand, you are not in the game.
Customer Engagement
When it comes to engaging with customers, there are two sentences that are most important to every customer and every prospective customer and should be ready with answers:
“Our clients hire us to provide [benefit(s) to the client.]”
“They hire us, rather than somebody else, because [something unique that the competition doesn’t have but the customer values.]”
Communications
The biggest communication problem is we do not listen to understand. We listen to reply.
Price
When it comes to price:
You don’t pick the cheapest car You don’t pick the cheapest house You don’t pick the cheapest doctor You don’t pick the cheapest vacation You don’t pick the cheapest education
WHY pick the cheapest solution?
When the decision is price, everyone loses in a race to the bottom.
And one of my favorites, the Airbus Fighter Jet Story.
Airbus Fighter Jet Story
An Airbus 380 is on its way across the Atlantic. It flies consistently at 800 km/h in 30,000 feet, when suddenly a Eurofighter with Tempo Mach 2 appears.
The pilot of the fighter jet slows down, flies alongside the Airbus and greets the pilot of the passenger plane by radio: “Airbus flight, boring flight, isn’t it? Take care and have a look here!”
He rolls his jet on its back, accelerates, breaks through the sound barrier, rises rapidly to a dizzying height, only to swoop down almost to sea level in a breathtaking dive. He loops back next to the Airbus and asks, “Well, how was that?”
The Airbus pilot answers: “Very impressive, but now have a look here!”
The jet pilot watches the Airbus, but nothing happens. It continues to fly stubbornly straight, with the same speed. After five minutes, the Airbus pilot radioed, “Well, what are you saying now?”
The jet pilot asks confused: “What did you do?” The other laughs and says, “I got up, stretched my legs, went to the bathroom, got a cup of coffee and a cake.
The moral of the story is:
When you are young, speed and adrenaline seem to be great. But as you get older and wiser, comfort and peace are not to be despised either.
This is called S.O.S.: Slower, Older, Smarter.
Dedicated to all my friends who like me like the S.O.S. approach!
And finally, when it comes to marketing my personal approach is to start from humility, not grandiosity; learn everything you can from everyone you can and then and only then — look for gaps and opportunities to innovate.
Marc Petock is the Chief Marketing & Communications Officer at Lynxspring
One Response