marketing rambles
Steve Martin has a line in one of his stand up routines. It goes something like this: “Let’s say you were going to start a bank. You wouldn’t name it ‘Fred’s Bank’.” Why wouldn’t you do that? Because the perception of your bank would be, oh Fred stores my money in his pockets. That’s really safe.
Richard Reising, my boss, says in his book “Church Marketing 101” that “Marketing is the management of perception.” It really is that simple. Using the example above, Fred could manage the perception of his bank easily by changing the name to something as random as “Security Trust Bank and Loan”. I’d be more willing to bring my business there even though the name is still kindof weird.
Even knowing this simple information about marketing, it is amazing how many organizations, both for-profit and non-profit, choose to ignore this like it doesn’t apply to them. Ever seen a website that looks like it was made in microsoft word? Ever seen a flyer that looks like it came out of a high school 101 design class? What impression did that give you of that particular company? That’s your perception based off of the work, or lack of, they did to shape your perception of their organization.
Marketing efforts are only as good as the strategy you put behind it.
