Marketing and the Age of Chivalry

Today I am going to talk models. And before you get too excited let me explain that I do not mean the Kate Moss, Claudia Schiffer, Elle MacPherson type of model. I just am not that kind of person and this corner of the blogosphere is not for that kind of talk. No I mean the kind of models so beloved of consultants and experts and gurus and, since I would like to be regarded in that category, I want to introduce you today to my model for communications and to demonstrate quite convincingly I am sure you will agree, that marketing is indeed a chivalrous calling.

Over the past few weeks I have been reviewing the communication activities of businesses and it is becoming clear to me that many businesses, driven by the need to encourage customers and potential customers to buy from them, are bombarding their market with ‘buy me now’ messages without introducing themselves first to their potential customer.

Would you buy from a stranger? Would you hand over money to someone you only had the vaguest inkling of who they were and what they were offering? Would you trust someone if you thought they were not right for you?

And yet this is exactly what many businesses expect their market to do, day in day out. They send out direct mail, e-blasts, e-mails and the like, screaming ‘call me now’, ‘buy me now’, ‘click here’, without first going through the principles of courtship. A customer needs to be wooed, they need to know who you are, what you stand for. They need to learn to trust you, to know that you are right for them before they will get into bed with you, before they will buy from you.

And this is where my model comes in, a model that explains the journey that you need to take the consumer through with your communications. A journey that is going to involve wooing, courtship and seduction but only if we get it right. Who said marketing was not sexy? To me good marketing is about courtship, it’s about preserving the Age of Chivalry.

In recent weeks I have come to know one business very well. It is a great business but it is not stopping to think how it can get more of its target market to think positively of them, to get to be top of mind in their market’s mind, to be first choice. Instead it is single-mindedly intent on selling; on getting customers to buy; on having a one night stand. As a result response rates and the cost effectiveness of its marketing are declining and shrinking dramatically as the pool of interested buyers gets fed up, stagnant and exhausted. It’s time for this business to use my model to increase the pool of buyers aware of its offer, who see its offer as relevant and who then want to buy. And this is where my model, my customer journey, route map comes in.

The act of purchase means that you are being chosen and to get to this point your business has to have been noticed by the customer; they have to like what they see; you have to be relevant to them and their emotional and rational needs; and you have to be top of mind at the time of purchase. These are links in the chain and stage posts on the customer journey, each fashioned by different communications medium over differing periods of time. Not all communications are the same. Each has a different but complimentary role to play. And like everything else you are only as strong as your weakest link.

In the business I described above I am trying to get them to do less product push marketing through direct mail and e-blasts and encouraging them to build awareness, relevance and being top of mind through a sustained PR and events campaign which will show them in a positive and expert light to their target market. If my theory holds true, and I am sure it will, less ‘buy me’
marketing will improve response rates as they broaden the pool of people aware of them, thinking positively of them and wanting to buy. More wooing leads to a more fruitful and longer lasting relationship. If it’s true in life, it’s true in business.

And so as you see effective marketing depends on us marketers preserving the Age of Chivalry.

Is it me?

But has anyone else noticed that, after our recent albeit brief descent into a new Ice Age, the enviro- and eco-mentalists are no longer talking about global warming. They have re-branded. So instead of global warming we now have climate change. Like any lazy marketing director trying to change a dodgy brand proposition, the strategy is to call yourself something different rather than change the proposition and to hope no-one notices. The underlying proposition remains dodgy but there is now new lipstick on the pig. Am I the only one who thinks like this?

Have great week.

Sit felix. Et sit fortanatus.