If you are new to a business that you have just purchased/ established, my strongest advice is that you make the pivotal decision right at the outset…am I going to operate this business with a “production-driven” mindset or instead am I going to operate it with a “marketing-led” mindset ?
If you are genuinely marketing-led in your commercial orientation then you will view marketing as a necessary investment. If, on the other hand” you view marketing purely as an “expense” then you are in fact choosing to work with a “production-driven” mindset.
Over the years I have seen many business owners who like to “think” that they’re “marketing-led” in how they go about operating their businesses, yet their behaviour strongly contradicts these self-thoughts. There are generally three main clues that give their actual orientation away:
i. They never perform market research to test the degree of alignment between their products/ services and their target customers’ needs/ wants/ expectations.
ii. They spend by far the majority of their time focused on product procurement/ service design, versus profiling/ promoting their value proposition in the public domain.
iii. The level of funds which they devote to marketing activity is relatively low compared to industry standards, and when their trading achievements start to wane one of the first items in their P & L to come under scrutiny for downsizing is “marketing” (just out of interest, the other P & L item that is quickly downsized during difficult trading times is “training”).
The silly thing about businesses viewing marketing as an expense is that, along with training, these two business disciplines aren’t just important practices to maintain ALL YEAR AROUND, they are in fact ESSENTIAL. They are also the two most proven vehicles used for turning a business around, for it to improve its cash flow/ sales position. So why would you trim-back budget allocations in these areas when they are primary drivers of business performance ?!
I know of businesses right now that are poised on the cusp of losing substantial market share for a few key reasons, one of which is their refusal to invest appropriately in marketing – instead relying heavily on the products that they offer to pull them through.
Yes, it is very much a conscious choice when it comes to being “marketing-led”…a choice that should improve the chances of your business surviving and thriving significantly. But you must “walk the talk” in order to receive any benefit from being marketing-led in your commercial orientation. Words/ believing alone won’t cut the mustard !