THE TABER REPORT
The Voice of Effective Marketing
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January 2010
Control vs Effectiveness
David Icke's famous quote may have been coined in the context of politics and economics, but it has important implications on the world of marketing and business development. And it even touches on Sales. If you think about really tight Sales organizations, there's a preponderance of control freaks. They're trying to control their accounts, control the sales cycle, control the flow of information to the prospects, even control the flow of information to their boss. Despite all that attention to control, we all know two ironies:
In other words, the zeitgeist of control isn't all that effective. Let's look at an example from Marketing. Advertising is the pinnacle of control: you know every pixel of the images that will be seen, every word of the message, the sequence and timing of the audience experience, and you can get timely measurements along several axes. Yet with all that control comes the following results... that have been consistent over decades:
There's something of a pattern here. McKenna's Marketing Influence Pyramid
From the customer's point of view, the vendors are merely the most aggressive sources of noise (and you thought talk radio was bad...). And unfortunately, the research data from decades of polling, perception studies, focus groups, and just common sense validates McKenna's model. What's a Vendor to Do?
You and I still have to make our numbers, fine. In Marketing, a well executed PR campaign is way more effective than advertising...and way less expensive. But you don't have much control. You can't control what anyone is going to write about you, or how large an audience those writings will reach. However, if you get a good mention by the right writer, columnist, or blogger, the effects can be stunning. This isn't to say that you should focus your attention on print media: far from it. You want to be in the search engines, Twitterverse, and Blogosphere because that's where you're going to get the results. A well executed (and lucky) viral campaign can take this much much further. BlendTec's "Will it Blend" series of videos have reached an audience of millions at a cost of less than $0.01 per view. Although there are things you can do better or worse in viral campaigns, you don't really have any control over what happens with them. When they work, though, they're damned effective. In Sales, the low-control/high-effectiveness formula is on the web. eCommerce sites (and integrated demand-generation tactics) give you very little control over the sales cycle. Sure, you can control what the prospect sees and the attractiveness of your offer...but you can't do much to directly influence them. You can't even predict when they're going to buy. But if you've got the right offer, buy they will. Effectiveness Comes from Credibility and Influence, not Control
This style of marketing might look soft-sell, but it's anything but. True,
you're not hawking -- but you are systematically trying to get into the
customer's head. The whole point is to be an active participant in a
community conversation, to be believed so that you can have influence. Once people are listening, you can
orchestrate at least part of their decision process, even if you'll never
control it.
Is It Really a Product? -- coming in February
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If you're trying to influence the customer, you have to be much more
attentive to their needs and perceptions. You need to send them
information they care about, and even invited you to send. You need to
build your stature as a source of industry best practices, not just "the
best product." Even if all you do is sell product, the goal is to be viewed
as a credible resource, not just a purveyor. Being a market
leader means:
