A professional marketer recently suggested that the marketing principles I’ve been addressing related to overt benefit, dramatic difference, and real reasons to believe are outdated… they no longer apply since the dawn of category competition.

The example that she cited was that of GM, Ford, and Chrysler perfecting these principles only to converge on a “commodity position” and obviously struggle in the marketplace.

At times it would be easier to draw this conclusion and search for an easier path to resolve our most fundamental marketing challenges. But respectfully, I disagree. These principles are not outdated.  Rather, I think that these tired organizations have forgotten (or possibly can no longer deliver on) the concepts of REAL reasons to believe and DRAMATIC difference. Their products are painfully inferior to their foreign competitors, and sadly, they no longer have a benefit to offer that is more pronounced than 0% financing.

In fairness to their marketers, the weight of the business economic issues plaguing our auto makers (the burden of healthcare costs, etc.) is probably as much or more to blame for this than anything else.

However, when your category becomes crowded, and if ever wellspring of product innovation runs dry, differentiation can always be found in the provision of service… making bold declarations and standing behind them… building new and REAL reasons to believe.
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I had the pleasure last week of kicking off the 2008 First Friday Forum series for the Retail Merchants Association (RMA) in Virginia. The content of this talk was pulled from a series of my posts on the laws of marketing physics as defined by Doug Hall at the Eureka! Ranch and other helpful insights from such authors as Dr. Robert Cialdini and Chip & Dan Heath (Made to Stick).

Filmed before a group of about 200 Virginia retailers, the RMA produced a nicely edited version of the talk.

As I’ve been asked repeatedly by my readers to provide a video post, I thought this might be of interest to some of you who have gotten to know me only by way of my writing. The talk has been abridged (sacrificing my infomercial humor), but they did a nice job of capturing much of the substance. If you would like to receive the slides from the presentation, shoot me an email or comment.

If you’re not doing ROI calculations before and after your marketing initiatives, you certainly should.  Let me remove any excuse for not doing this…

I’m surprised by how easy it is for marketers to overlook this important calculation as they weigh their creative options and plan their campaigns.  So, let this first act as a simple reminder not to undertake anything marketing-related this year without at least considering your anticipated return… and the return you got the last time you did something similar.

Sometimes it’s admittedly difficult to arrive at solid ROI forecasts in the marketing arena.  Your investment in PR… in word-of-mouth… brand-building….  That’s not to excuse those who turn a blind eye all-together to ROI relative to these activities, but there is no denying that it can be tough.

But when it comes to direct marketing and pay-per-click advertising, you’re insane if you aren’t being diligent about ROI.

This is why I’ve taken a couple of my own ROI calculators and published them here for you to use whenever you like. Bookmark the page. Send it to your colleagues. And never again accept another DM or PPC marketing proposal without a clear calculation of ROI (along with the underlying assumptions).
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