Shaw & Todd - Advertising and Marketing Communications

Marketing Your Product to the Wrong Target.

A company is very excited about a new product introduction. Marketing communications initiatives need to be developed immediately. The budget is determined, the campaign is created and media is purchased.

At the end of the day the campaign is a flop and not getting the response that everyone hoped for. Why? Because the message was crafted with the wrong target in mind– the advertiser.

All too often, the wants, needs and desires of the customer are overlooked. This is all part of an unfortunate marketing malady we call “talking to yourself.” There are a variety of symptoms too, they include:

• No cohesive strategy (”What!! That’s too expensive!”)
• Messaging that is the same as the competition (”It worked for them!”)
• All benefits and features included in every execution (”Let the buyer sift through it, they’re bound to like something!”)

Penny wise pound foolish? We think so. Just because a marketer’s budget doesn’t rival Proctor & Gamble doesn’t mean they shouldn’t apply a simple truth; the customer is buying the product, not the manufacturer, not the advertising agency, not even the sales and marketing department. Let’s listen to the market. Find out their wants and needs and how to intellectually and emotionally connect to them. Once this becomes part of the marketing discipline, we can then develop unique messages targeted directly to the most important person in the process—the customer.