Monday, November 26, 2007

Marketing Musing: Be Authentic

In Week 15 I referenced Naomi Klein and her belief that marketing is not about spin; the heart of every good marketing campaign is a positive and valuable product or service. A new book called Authenticity really digs into this subject and is essential reading. Consumers are more informed that ever; don’t try to pull the wool over their eyes.

Take a brief look back at Week 12 where I talked about creating unexpected experiences in your business. Often times many of the little perceived extras you provide are considered part of the service – you need to look beyond these and wow your customers. Previously I would have said create “amazing experiences” for your customers. Really I should be saying create “authentic, amazing experiences”.

Many PR companies are great – they know a whole bunch of influential folks that you don’t, they know when and how best to reach them and that is hugely valuable in itself. However, never lose sight of your core business offering and that by focusing on making it great the PR will begin to take care of itself.

There is so much noise and clutter in today’s environment. We are told we have to “spin to be heard” which in fact might be true if your product sucks. The authors of Authenticity also wrote “The Experience Economy” in which they talk up the benefits of the service economy. Ironically it is the service economy itself that’s almost self devouring. Every day another “serviced based business” pops up to fight for recognition on behalf of their client’s product. The noise is more deafening than ever. Be authentic.

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