Jump Start Your Marketing Brain. Doug Hall

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СКАЧАТЬ Meaningful Marketing and Mindless Marketing can be successful in the short term. The difference between the two lies in longer-term success rates and profitability. Research shows that Meaningful Marketing initiatives are twice as likely to succeed in the marketplace long term and five times less likely to be vulnerable to pricing pressures.

      In short, Meaningful Marketing enables you to sell more with less investment of your time and money. Mindless Marketing requires that you sell your product at a lower price, spend more on promotion and advertising repetitions, and hope for a Pavlovian response from customers.

      A comprehensive discussion of the differences between Meaningful Marketing and Mindless Marketing can be found in Chapter 6. I’ve placed it near the back of the book, as the discussion is somewhat theoretical, and I wanted the Scientific Advice and Practical Ideas to be up front. In today’s overstressed world, many marketers just don’t have the time to read theory. They want ANSWERS, and THEY WANT THEM NOW. Feel free to read this chapter out of order if you’re interested in having a deeper understanding of the theory before exploring the tactics.

       HOW THIS BOOK IS ORGANIZED

      Jump Start Your MARKETING Brain uses a unique two-page format. The left-hand page details a piece of Scientific Advice, its essence distilled into a single sentence at the top of the page. Dr. Deming said, “A goal without a method is nonsense.” So to reduce my chances of writing a book of nonsense, I’ve placed a collection of Practical Ideas on the right-hand page, specific ideas for applying the Scientific Advice to your sales and marketing challenges. I’ve purposely provided an overabundance of suggestions to guarantee that you’ll find ideas to help you no matter what your situation.

       The advice and ideas are clustered into chapters.

      Chapter 1: Marketing Strategy: Marketing Strategy myths and misconceptions are exposed and NEW SYSTEMS of strategic thinking are detailed in this extensive review of what really drives marketing success.

      Chapter 2: Marketing Message: The focus here is on how to create more Meaningful Marketing Messages—the kinds of marketing messages that generate significant, sustained success in the marketplace.

      Chapter 3: Mindless Marketing: Here you will find a collection of Persuasion Tricks that are very effective at persuading customers to do that which they don’t consciously choose to do. Just understand that customers who come to you mindlessly will also leave just as mindlessly. In effect, you are basically renting customers. This chapter comes between the “Marketing Message” and “Selling” chapters as the advice and ideas apply to both disciplines.

      Chapter 4: Selling: This chapter provides advice, ideas, and ammunition to help the front-line warriors increase their return on every hour they spend. In the case of small-and medium-sized businesses, the same person often does both marketing and sales. That said, I recommend that even when you do hold both roles, you think of them as distinct tasks. The thinking systems that drive success in marketing are separate from those that drive selling success.

      Chapter 5: Leadership & Teamwork: Advice and ideas to inspire you and your team.

       Chapter 6: Meaningful Marketing vs. Mindless

      Marketing: The last chapter defines the differences between Meaningful Marketing Messages and Mindless Marketing Persuasion Tricks.

      Technical Appendix: For those who get as excited as I do about data, here’s an overload of technical references, discussion, and documentation.

      WARNING: This book could OVERWHELM YOU. It’s a DEEP DIVE into the complex world of sales and marketing. It’s for those with a genuine commitment to measurably improving their success rate.

      If you’re not really passionate about marketing or are not truly committed, then you should stop here and take the book back to where you got it. The first book in this series, Jump Start Your BUSINESS Brain, provides a simpler, bigger-picture view of how to measurably improve your marketing and innovation success rates.

       YOU ARE GUARANTEED TO WIN MORE THAN YOU LOSE

      As Ben Franklin once said, “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.” The truths detailed on these pages are proven probabilities. They are not black-and-white certainties. They have been proven statistically and, to me, beyond a reasonable doubt. However, while they are widely applicable, they are not universally applicable. There will be situations in which they are irrelevant or just don’t apply.

      Then, too, even truths with high statistical odds are not certainties. For a weather forecast of 80 percent chance of rain to be statistically correct, it must not rain about 20 percent of the time, or one out of five times.

      With any individual event, there is a chance that a truth may not apply. However, with repeated application, statistical forecasts become reality. Thus, if you apply the advice as articulated in this book, you will WIN MORE than you will lose.

      My goal on these pages is to translate scientific findings into written advice. It’s advice; it’s not THE LAW. You are free to not follow the advice. You are free to bet on long shots. Just don’t complain when you lose more than you win.

       EXTRA DOSES

      If you are a true Marketing Revolutionary, SIGN UP for Eureka! Espresso at www.DougHall.com. Eureka! Espresso is my occasional e-newsletter and audio PodCast of intense ideas, musing, and rants on marketing and innovation.

      The Espresso name is more than an alliteration. I’m such a coffee fanatic that at the Eureka! Ranch we have our own brand called Brain Brew. It’s an intense brew stoked with caffeine and the flavor of four of the world’s most prized coffee beans. A test found that after chugging three cups of Brain Brew, participants invented 40 percent more ideas than the decaffeinated control group.

      I believe in following in the footsteps of such noted coffee lovers as Franklin, Twain, Voltaire, Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms. I believe that the power of one’s mind is directly proportional to the quantity and quality of coffee one drinks.

      I understand that the impact of coffee on health is richly debated. Myself, I’m on the side of Voltaire, who reportedly drank some fifty cups of coffee a day. When told that drinking coffee was a “slow poison,” the philosopher replied that it must be very slow indeed, as he had been drinking that much coffee every day for more than eighty years!

       THE WHITE SPACE IS YOUR SPACE

      Throughout this book I’ve purposely left WHITE SPACE. This is your space for thinking. This is your space for “connecting the dots” between the scientific advice and your world. PLEASE BE BOLD—read and write with a PEN. Write, scribble, think, jot, create, and challenge yourself to find smarter and more creative ways to revolutionize your marketing success.

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