I read something in the book ‘Corporate Cancer’ that opened my eyes. After years of trying to advertise my way to fame & fortune, I recently wrote a post on LinkedIn saying advertising for new clients simply doesn’t work. You get a few new clients, just enough to keep you pouring money into advertising, but at the best, fees on new clients barely pay the marketing costs. I still believe that. But now, I know what does work.
Corporate Cancer is well written and easily held my interest, but it has nothing to do with marketing. I didn’t expect to find any marketing revelations in the book, but I did. I got definitive proof in my mind that the best way to spend your marketing dollars is to establish your brand.
The author, Vox Day, spent a couple chapters building the case that converged companies overrun by social justice warriors push positions that are deeply rejected by most of their customers. But SJW warriors hold positions that are low enough in the organization that most SJW activities escape the attention of Senior Management. The remarkable thing that caught my eye is this. Although many (most?) of their customers aggressively dislike or even hate the company’s public positions, most of them hang around because of the Brand. They are more attracted to a well established brand than they dislike how the company actively pushes an agenda they basically hate. While these companies are losing customers, they aren’t bleeding them as you would normally expect, for that reason alone.
If brands are powerful enough to work that kind of magic & keep customers who genuinely dislike a company’s SJW policies from switching to another supplier, then they are very powerful indeed. Imagine what could happen if the company actively pursued their customers’ business instead of ignoring them.
I had already decided to devote my marketing dollars to developing my brand. But now I am doubly convinced, because all of this makes sense.
bizztrategy @ Ellis CPA 