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What your children can
teach you about marketing
Written by Shirley Lichti for The Record,
May 21, 2003
You can learn a lot about marketing from
your children.
For starters, children teach us the value
of long-term planning. From the time they are born, we plan for
our children, from arranging childcare to determining how to fund
their university education.
Planning
Parents with small children wouldn't dream of setting out on a major
trip without a detailed plan.
Yet many organizations approach marketing
with only vague notions of goals and objectives. Written plans are
imperative. Ideas that exist only in your head are not plans. Written
plans provide a road map to help you and your organization more
effectively reach the final destination.
Patience
Children teach you patience. It takes children weeks and months
to learn how to walk. Some children learn faster than others but
all of them have to go through a process to get there. Even though
they fall repeatedly, they never give up. They simply get back up
again and give it another shot.
While most of us accept that it takes time
for children to learn how to do even the simplest tasks, we are
impatient with our marketing efforts.
Marketing, too, is a process and unfortunately
you can't skip steps. Be patient. Good marketing doesn't happen
overnight. You are unlikely to see immediate results so don't abandon
your marketing campaign before it has a chance to take effect.
It took decades, for example, for consumers
to embrace microwaves but they are ubiquitous today.
Focus
Our children teach us to focus. When you take your children to a
shopping mall they inevitably want to go in a different direction
than you do. If you want to get your tasks accomplished, you need
to get your children focused, not continually changing course every
time something new and interesting catches their eye.
Use the same focus in your marketing efforts.
Set out to develop a year's worth of activities in your plan. They
don't have to be set in concrete. But you'll feel more organized
and less stressed once you focus on your planned activities. Focus
helps you more easily dismiss distractions to your marketing efforts.
Curiosity
Children have a natural curiosity. Most of them are not yet set
in their ways. They are generally pretty flexible and willing to
try new things. I don't think I've ever heard a child say, "We don't
do it that way here."
So even though you may have discovered marketing
techniques that work for you, don't close your mind to new ideas.
Try to stimulate childlike curiosity in your organization.
The 3M Corporation encourages innovation
by setting a goal that 30 per cent of the company's annual revenues
must come from products that did not exist four years ago.
Consistency
Every parent knows how important it is to be consistent with children.
They learn by watching and listening carefully and are extremely
quick to pick up on any inconsistencies in the way we treat them.
They are especially skilled at reminding you when mom says one thing
and dad says another.
In the marketing world, consistency is just
as important. Consumers are bombarded with advertising messages,
making it increasingly difficult to break through and reach them.
By designing integrated communications, you
reinforce a consistent message across campaigns. Nike did this so
well that many of their ads had no copy, only the swoosh, which
became synonymous with the Just Do It message.
Relationship-Building
Time and effort invested in your children eventually reflect back
on you in a positive light.
But ask yourself, do you manage your children
or develop them? You might manage your bottom line at work but hopefully
you put a lot of heart and soul into your relationship with your
children.
It takes more than just financial acumen
to develop a strong product or service with a brand promise people
trust. Some of the most successful companies are those that connect
with consumers on an emotional level.
After all, you don't pay $4-5 for coffee
at Starbucks just to get a caffeine fix. People buy with both their
hearts and minds so don't neglect the importance of building relationships
when designing your marketing campaigns.
Imperfect
As parents we are only human. Children teach us we are not perfect.
All of us make mistakes. Some are more serious than others. But
like children, it's important for us to learn from our mistakes
and carry on.
So go back to your marketing plan. Revisit
your objectives. Measure the results. And if your plan didn't work
the way you hoped, analyse what went wrong, determine what worked,
what didn't, and how to change future campaigns.
And spend some time thinking about what you
can learn about marketing from your children.
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