It's All About Making the Phones Ring

We find that “Marketing” is one of the most overused and abused phrases in business. It seems that the overwhelming majority of business people don’t really even understand the essence of marketing.  Most people actually describe Sales Department functions when they talk about marketing.  Or they talk about Advertising.  Advertising is just one of the tools that marketing uses, much in the way a hammer is just one of the tools that carpenter uses, but a hammer itself is not “construction.”  But that's alright because we're here to help.  Our job is to make sure that your marketing efforts are right on target.

Marketing is more than preparing brochures, collateral, and advertisements. Sure, those are important pieces of a marketing effort, but they’re just the more tangible, tactical portions of the execution phase.

In very broad terms, Marketing has two parts: Strategic Planning, and Tactical Execution. Stated another way: “Plan your work, then work your plan.”

Marketing is a very complex discipline, with many facets. At the end of the day, the goal is to make the phones ring – to generate demand for the company’s products and services. But that doesn’t just happen by accident.

In order to generate demand, we need to understand the product offerings, and understand the potential customers. In companies that develop new products, the marketing department will typically be involved in research and analysis to help determine actual customer needs (which often vary from their stated needs) in order to develop a product that will be a success with the target audience.

Then there’s determining the target audience. You can’t market to everyone – you must market to someone. It’s the job of the marketing department to figure out who those someones are, and how to reach them. Then, and only then, can a realistic marketing plan be developed. A plan that identifies who we need to target, and how.

And that is only related to product marketing. Typically, one must market the company and brand itself. Build the name and reputation of the company. Generate incoming inquiries, build word of mouth referrals, and more. This is accomplished in part by examining the brand itself and creating actionable marketing strategies and campaigns that further the promotion of the brand among the core, target groups. Only by understanding who you are, where you want to go, and how you’re going to get there can you put a plan into action.

One of the great challenges with marketing is that one must be hitting on all cylinders to be effective.  A great plan is useless if it’s not executed properly.  Conversely, a great team cannot be successful if there isn’t a solid and reasonable (achievable) plan in place.

401 Consulting helps companies to create realistic, achievable marketing plans with measurable goals, and then tactically execute them in order to demonstrably increase revenues. (We do not believe in advertising for the sake of advertising, or winning creative awards – we’re here to generate real, tangible, successful results!)

Advertising campaigns, collateral design, web site design, online promotions, event marketing, tradeshows, direct mail and public relations campaigns are just some of the rubber-meets-road tactics we employ once we have developed a well thought-out, coherent and cohesive strategic marketing approach.