Business Monday: The Foundation that Precedes Marketing – Bob Salvas

by Bob Salvas, contributing writer

As a business owner, the thought of marketing your business can seem overwhelming at times.  There are too many different options, and to make matters worse, things change over time. What worked yesterday may not work today.  Consumer behavior and advances in technology both affect the way we communicate with those consumers.  That is why it is important to stay as up to date as you can.  There are a bunch of experts to listen to, a ton of books and articles to read, and many classes and conferences to attend (including a terrific local one-day conference called THE MARKETING CAMP which takes place in September).

Keeping up with and educating yourself on marketing and business development is critical to your business success.  But before you invest in a lot of marketing you must have a solid business foundation.  If you do not have the foundation of a good business, no amount of marketing can make you a long-term success.

What makes up the foundation of a good business? Just three things.

They are PRODUCT, PLACE, and PEOPLE:

PRODUCT– This can also be a service.  You must first offer a product/service that is wanted or needed.  It would go without saying that if you offer a product no one wants, you probably aren’t going to do well.  And be mindful of technology.  Film cameras were quickly replaced by digital cameras which were replaced mostly by our phones! So, first there must be some sort of demand for the product and secondly, what will the market bear in terms of price?  What are your competitors charging?  You can certainly charge more than your competitors, but what you offer should be different or offer more value than what is out there currently.

PLACE– If customers come to your place of business, it should be easy to find, have clear signage and parking.  The inside should naturally be clean and orderly as well as organized in a manner that makes sense for a person who might be looking for something specific.  Secondly, what can be done to make your location what we call ‘intrusively visible’ (stands out in a crowd)?  If there is something interesting about the way the building looks, it can often spark conversation in addition to making it easier to find.  And remember, even if you do not have a physical location where you meet with customers, your PLACE is YOU!  How do you dress (branded shirts are a good idea) and what do you drive (a vehicle wrap can give you that ‘intrusive visibility’).  Lastly, whether you are talking about an office or your truck, the branding that represents your company should align with what you are.  Make sure it makes sense.  A pesticide company can have a BIG BLUE BUG, and a pediatric dentist can have bright colors and cartoon characters, but not usually the other way around.

PEOPLE– The most important people to you are the people who work for you, especially those who deal directly with your customers.  You need to start at the beginning, that is, you MUST focus on hiring the right people for the job in the first place.  As a friend of mine says, “If the job is to climb a tree, would you rather hire a squirrel or train a horse?” Training, of course, is still important as even a great employee needs to know what is going on in the business.  But hire the right people first and train them second.  Lastly, give your employees a sense of empowerment and treat them well- basically the better you treat your employees, the better they will treat your customers.  Finally, just like for PLACE, if you have no employees, then the PEOPLE is YOU!

One company that obviously takes these three principles to the next level is DISNEY.  I remember a trip my family took to Disney World when my kids were young.  Here is what I noticed on that trip:

PRODUCT– While Disney is in the entertainment business, their main products at Disney World are the rides. One ride we went on was a flume-type ride called Splash Mountain.  Unlike a ‘regular’ flume ride, the inside tunnels had animated characters from past Disney movies singing and dancing.  Like many of the rides there, it was a story come to life.  Disney takes a simple ride available in other amusement parks, they make it better, more appealing and add more value (and thus get to charge more than a ‘regular’ amusement park!).

PLACE– On our trip we stayed at the Disney Wilderness Lodge Resort.  The accommodation was beautiful and clean as you might imagine.  As we walked around at dusk, we noticed the lanterns that lit the walkway were flickering as if there were candles inside instead of electric lights.  There were prints in the walkway as if to indicate a horse and deer had recently walked on them.  There were many little things that made the place distinctive (and fit the Wildness Lodge theme) and that added to our overall experience.

PEOPLE– On one of the days of our vacation, there was rain in the forecast, so we opted to go to Epcot.  Sure enough, five minutes in the skies exploded and we all ran for cover.   The nearest building ended up being GUEST RELATIONS.  What a bummer- nothing to do there but watch the thunderstorm with about 30 of our new storm-trapped friends.  That is, until a Disney employee came out and announced that they were going to open the doors to the ‘back rooms’ and ‘secret passageways’ of Disney.  They had, it turned out, a way to get us into the next building (which had some fun things to do) without ever going back outside into the storm.  We felt like the cavalry rescued us and had a great time the rest of the day (the rain did eventually stop).   I do not know for certain, but I would bet that the Disney employee did not have to ask anyone for special permission for us to go where we normally would not be allowed to go.  He simply was empowered to take care of the customer, and he cared enough to take care of the customer.

The lesson Disney teaches us is that we are living in THE EXPERIENCE ECONOMY and those who understand this will finish on top.  People will choose you and return to you based more on the experience of working with you more than any other one thing.  The way to develop that good customer experience is to look at all three of the foundational elements mentioned in this article and see how you can improve upon each one or them or make them more unique and different (and fun).

One of the reasons why this is so important for business success is because good marketing can be expensive- it can cost money to get a new customer to walk through the door and try you out.  Once they get there, give them an experience that will make them want to come back again and again (and tell their friends!).

“Whatever you do, do it well. Do it so well that when people see you do it, they will want to come back and see you do it again, and they will want to bring others and show them how well you do what you do.”

-Walt Disney

 ___

 Bob Salvas is a Professional Development Manager for the RI Builders Assn, a marketing consultant, the founder of Momentum Networking, and the co-founder of THE MARKETING CAMP, a yearly conference to help small businesses achieve success.  For more information about THE MARKETING CAMP, go to themarketingcamp.com.  Bob can be reached at 401-359-1602 or at [email protected].