Our fish and chip shop is run by Chinese people, which is confusing but it is very good. It is only a mile away from our house but I still manage to drive past another chippy on the way. Someone recommended the 'Chinese' to us or 'Tres Bon' as it is named (again confusingly). So Word of Mouth got us in there and great Fish & Chips keep us going back. Not cheap, but great value.
These guys don't appear to do any promotion apart from the sign above the shop and a small sign inside for the OAP lunch, which does look tremendous value. So in Marketing terms these guys are in a place close enough to me but not the closest. They offer value but not the lowest price. They do little if any promotion (although the big sign above the shop does say 'Very Good'). They do provide a great product and WOM does the rest for them.
Perhaps some Marketing departments should just be smaller and called 'Promotions'? The other elements of the Marketing mix should of course be understood and worked on by pretty much ever other employee; most of your business activity is in some way Marketing. So take the guy on the gate to the next offsite and give him some cocktails, who knows what you might come up with.
One thing that I have noticed about a lot of Marketing departments is that theory and practice seem to live in parallel without much of a real connection. (I've worked in a few so don't take this personally) When you read about Marketing it all sounds very sensible with everything done for a reason, with a plan, measured activity, performance and a Return On Investment. In reality you hear Marketing types drop 'ROI' into the conversation confidently and often but rarely will you hear an actual number from them. An estimate would be fine, if it is reasonable.....and a number.
Do you need to promote your business? Well yes probably. In my local town there are plenty of pubs and few Market themselves out of the pub apart from Wetherspoons (which is full.....with very low prices). Many pubs are empty and sadly shutting down. Recently one of our pubs has moved temporarily, not the building but the operation. It has moved to an empty pub while the original premises is being refurbished. An unusual situation perhaps but they have moved to a pub that no one has been able to make work. In fact I believe the previous landlord tried to burn it down! These guys have the most expensive lager for miles but in quick time with a little spruce up this pub is proving to be a great success. So much so that when the refurb of the first is finished the business might have 2 pubs. These guys do engage in promotion both in and out of the pub, not much but a bit of social media, website, texts and a lot of friendly banter. They don't compete on price (although there is a happy hour) but they do provide a nice experience to a certain crowd which is a large proportion of this town. So if they can do well in a competitive market with a high price and in any place with some promotion then they must have a great product.
Do you do business with anyone that doesn't provide you with a great product? Actually let me ask that again, do you do repeat business with anyone that doesn't provide you with a great product? You might be locked in a contract perhaps and maybe you will not renew? I have a couple of those.
Anyhoo while we are talking about 'plaice' I went to Padstow or 'Padstein' last weekend. That Rick Stein, while being a superb chef, seems to know a great deal about business. We stayed above his 'cafe'. They promised good food and it was awesome, and not ridiculously priced, it was certainly value. The room was small but marketed as nice but very small. It turned out to be bigger than we expected. They made a promise on their website, they kept that promise and then they over-delivered. Therefore we are going back and I would highly recommend that you go there too. Marketing is easy if you get your product right......and build a reputation like Rick Stein.
My idea is for you to shut your Marketing department down for a month (Might not work for everyone so think about this first! In fact this will only work if you have a premises that your customers physically visit) Shut them down and send them out to work!
I work in a business with premises all around the country and indeed globally. Rather like the chippy we have physical sites with big signs above; they aren't in French but they are similarly to the point. Maybe we don't need a Marketing department? The company I work for is a gym company (alright Marketing it is a Health and Fitness company.........but in truth it is mainly gym right now). If I ran Marketing on day one I would shut them down for a month and send them into the gyms to help with our product. They could clean the place, help members and learn about the business. They are all nice people so in no time they would contribute to improving the experience for members and then WOM and indeed online WOM would do their job for them.
Then I would send them back to a smaller 'Promotions' department, baseline where we are and then run campaigns with predicted and measured Return On Investment.
And at 6 quid for fish & chips I reckon I represent a healthy Customer Lifetime Value so I look forward to receiving the invitation to Mr Wong's golf day in Le Touquet.
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