Targeting Norm

Believe it or not, some Inc. readers have the unmitigated gall to challenge our columnist's thinking. But don't worry, Norm can take it.

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Norm Brodsky is a veteran entrepreneur.

One of the great joys of writing Street Smarts is the opportunity to get feedback from a lot of very smart and articulate entrepreneurs. Unfortunately, I don't have time to answer every letter, but I read all of them and greatly appreciate getting them--even the ones that are critical of me. I've received quite a few such comments lately in response to a couple of columns, and I want to share some of them with you. I don't necessarily agree with the critics, but you may, and in any case they deserve to be heard.

A lot of the letters concerned my column on marketing ("Marketing for Dummies," October 2005), many of the letters coming from readers who have marketing businesses and took offense at what they viewed as a putdown of their profession. One person described me as "the Grinch Who Stole Marketing." Then there was Jim Connelly, the founder of Cedarock Creative in Antioch, Illinois:

I do what I do because it helps business owners increase sales. I am not a designer who designs solely to improve my portfolio or pad my checkbook. I believe a number of business owners read your column with high regard, and I hope you can find a way to express your views without trashing the marketing industry in future columns.

I did not mean to trash the marketing industry, Jim, and I'm sorry if I came across that way. I believe marketing does have a role to play--in very large companies. If you can afford to spend hundreds of thousands, or millions, of dollars on a marketing campaign, you can certainly use it to create an image (that is, a brand) that has real, tangible value. Take salt, for example. When people decide to spend 69 cents for Morton's rather than 65 cents for the store brand, what they're paying for is Morton's marketing, which has convinced them that the Morton's brand is worth the extra four cents, even though the two products are identical. Entrepreneurs don't have the luxury of building an image or brand that way. The world we live in is extremely competitive, and we have to make sure that we get the most out of every dollar we spend. If we don't do that, we're being reckless, and we're going to get in trouble. That's why I believe that, for companies like ours, marketing is a waste of money and time. There is simply no way we'll be able to charge a premium based on an image cooked up by marketers. We're better off spending our limited resources on activities that lead directly to sales.

Richard Grady of the ConsulttUs Group in Plano, Texas, thought my definition of marketing was all wrong:

I think you may be confusing readers. You say marketing is "using advertising, signage, design, packaging, brochures, stationery, business cards, and so on to manufacture an image of your company for the ostensible purpose of making customers and prospective customers more interested in buying whatever you sell." What you are really talking about are communication tools, such as websites, brochures, hats, truck signage, billboards, etc. Using those tools is not marketing, any more than using hammers, nails, saws, glue, wire, wood, etc., is home construction. Marketing is what you're talking about when you say, "You should use it [money and time] to make your business better and build your reputation in the industry. The best way to develop a great reputation isn't by marketing--it's by acting in a way that earns respect." How do you know what it really takes to develop a great reputation and earn respect? Marketing will give you the answers, through research, strategic planning, and defined tactics.

I beg to differ, Richard. You don't need "research, strategic planning, and defined tactics" to figure out how to build a great reputation. You do it by having principles and sticking to them. A great reputation comes from competing fairly, providing excellent service to your customers, treating your suppliers right, being a solid citizen in your community, and creating a great place to work. Yes, a giant corporation will frequently launch a marketing campaign in an attempt to bolster its image and improve its reputation, but such campaigns are proof positive that the company has failed to build a great reputation the old-fashioned way--by earning it. For smaller companies, image marketing is a gigantic waste of time and money.

Christie Turner of Invisible Marketing in Dallas also thought I had the wrong definition of marketing:

At my company we have an old PowerPoint presentation and the sales support people hate it. But our salespeople closed millions of dollars of business last year, and nobody bought or didn't buy because of our slides. Customers buy because they fall in love with our people, and it's my job to help accelerate that process, not to get in the way with "image" marketing that doesn't reflect who we are. That said, I think that your definition of marketing--my profession--is rather unkind. Marketing is about thinking beyond the deal at hand to questions like "How can I find and close more deals?" The job of marketing people is to help you tell your story. They should make what's special about your company more visible. Anything else isn't marketing. It's self-indulgence and you should certainly view it as a waste of money.

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