Just remember, if you are out front, every time, you will no longer be the leader, because you will be shot and killed. A leader also let’s others lead. By letting others lead, you, the leader, can step back and see the forest and plan and strategize.

Leading is tactical by nature, strategic by choice. Make the right choice as soon as possible and lead from the rear.

Sadly, most of us are in the position where we don’t have a product that will cure cancer or be an iPhone – we have a product that most people don’t know that they want or even need.

What does it take for a product to be a success? Credibility!

Would you buy from a company that no one trusts?
Would you buy from a company that makes a product that kills your pet?
Would you buy from a company that kills all the fish in the ocean?

Of course not – to purchase a product from a company, they must be and have credibility.

What’s it take to build your credibility? It takes time, effort, and understanding from many many different divisions within your company (from money from accounting to contracts from your lawyers to creative from your agencies).

ONE: It takes a strong management team, a marketing heritage, a great spokesperson – all of these are required to get the foundation started on building your credibility.

TWO: Produce a product that has a strong ROI, proposition, and value to your customer.

THREE: Have marquee customers – customers with a name.

FOUR: Have partners that are recognized by their brands. Having Microsoft behind you versus Joe’s Garage Computers goes a long way in building your credibility and success.

FIVE (lastly): Change the market – slightly or incredibly. You have read my article on companies being speedboats or oil tankers -it doesn’t matter in this case; if you can change the direction of the market, then, you have brought credibility to your company, your brand, and your product.

If you skip/ignore one of these, the path to success is extremely difficult if not impossible. They truly are not difficult to accomplish.

There are five legs (I believe) in marketing that support your sales and brand. In no particular order, they are:

Advertising
Promotions
Social Media
Merchandising
Public Relations

Here is how I define each:

Advertising: TV, magazine, newspaper, web. This can be static ads or video ads, on TV or on the web.

Promotions: The easiest way to define this is “Buy two xx’s and get one x free”; “Test drive this car and get a $500 gift card”; or “Send in five box tops and get a free sample”. You want to promote your product or brand and usually this is done by couponing or free giveaways or whatever kind of promotion that you think will get someone to sample OR LEARN ABOUT your product.

Social Media: Funny – this is still being defined out there – is it advertising? No because we are not forced to go to your Facebook page and therefore are not advertised to. Is it Public Relations? Absolutely, but, the customers that go there aren’t looking to be “pitched”, they are going there to be informed about non-pitch subjects. Is it Promotions? It’s certainly going in that direction where Facebook pages are now giving out “free” samples. Is it Merchandising? You could say it kinda is, because of the video’s that can be watched about your product. Obviously, this still has a long way to go. [Which leads to blogs or blogzines or whatever name they're gong to be called this week. Are they part of Social Media or Public Relations? Some people think that blogs are with promotions because they "promote" your product.]

Merchandising: End caps, in-store signage, sampling stations and everything else that you see in brick-n-mortar stores. Is advertising on a web page merchandising, since web pages are become more and more our brick-n-mortar stores?

Public Relations: News releases, press tours, and everything else that is required to get someone else to write or talk about you on TV, Radio, magazine, newspaper, blog, etc.

These five legs should make up your marketing strategy on a consistent basis. Can your brand survive if you only do one or two legs? Of course it can. Some would say it is weaker because you aren’t doing all five legs, especially if you are an agency that does one of the legs that you are not doing.

Are some legs stronger then another? Absolutely. A 30 second spot during the Super Bowl blows away an end-cap at your local hardware store – for brand recognition, but, what about for sales?

Which leads you to: Do I need that Super Bowl ad? No, you don’t – that end-cap may be exactly what you need.

Just be sure to always research each of the legs when you are building your marketing plan and you will discover how important it is to do or not do that Super Bowl ad.

“You sell the product?”
“No.”
“You tell people to buy the product?”
“Yes.”
“So you sell the product?”
“No.”

He has a very small company, meaning he, himself, and him. He hires people as he needs them (contractors, etc.) to do the work that he needs when he needs it. He wants to grow his company but doesn’t understand what “marketing” is and what it could do for him.

Here is what marketing is and what it means to him:

His marketing is telling someone what his company is and does when he is not present to tell them in person.

That’s it.

It’s the same for you and your company – marketing is telling your customer what you do for them without having the capability of sitting down and explaining it to them.

Was reading over a document from a CMO that had recently hired me to do some research work for her.

Don’t let the “innovation” hype scare you – if you know marketing, if you know how to speak to your audience, then, the innovation will follow – you don’t have to lead with it.

You could have 1 million followers on Twitter, but, if none of them buy your product or use your service, it’s worthless (just as if you had a bad advertisement that no one remembered – a waste of time and money).

It truly is quality – quality of your reader, your user, your friend, and your follower that makes a difference. They will tell others about your products benefits and features. They will “share” your page/post and “retweet” you to their friends.

Find and keep the quality individuals and you will be on the way to success.

It isn’t. It is just another piece of the marketing mix that is important to build your brand and message.

What do I mean? I mean this: you still have to convince the market to buy your product, use your services, accept your brand and statement, etc.

An advertisement in a magazine has to drive your customer to “want to do” something – buy, accept, understand, whatever. The same is with your facebook page, or your blog, or a tweet.

Don’t lose sight of the big picture – yes, it’s important to be a part of the “new” (or social) media today – but, don’t have a blog if you aren’t following your marketing plan. Updating your followers with relevant info on Twitter is just as important as making sure that your “buy” of ad time during the World Series hits your target market. If the message is different in a tweet then in an advertisement, review your strategy – everything should point to a single message that you want to put out.

Don’t get caught up in the hype and only do social media – there is more to your marketing mix then just that. Facebook or Twitter or whatever new media you choose is another tool, nothing more or less then that.

Does this make sense?

You are Nike – 20 years ago – do you ask consumers what they “want” as a logo? Or do you just go with the swoosh and hope it sticks? Of course, you hope and it works.

Now, you are Gap and just changed your logo and designers say “you should have asked the public what they want” and because you didn’t, you pull your new logo. Is that right?

As a professional marketer, do you want to “ask” the puplic what they think of your new packaging?

OR DO YOU DO A FOCUS GROUP?! Of course you do a focus group; based on that feedback, you then change your design/logo/brand/packaging/etc. to meet their needs. I have to tell you, their needs are NOT “you should have used Times New Roman font” – it is “I can’t see the benefit list, it is too small” or “Where is the pricing?”

What do you think? Should every change that you make in your brand be “approved” by the public?

As social media continues to grow by leaps and bounds, everyone thinks that they can pursue the American Dream of starting and owning a business by simply putting up a Facebook page and running some cheap ads.

Sadly, this doesn’t work. It takes a little bit more effort and planning.

I can not stress it enough – spend two hours (at least!) writing down a business plan. There are numerous business plan templates that can be downloaded from the web, from ones that take days and days to ones that take less then an hour.

It IS important to know your pricing, your sales strategy, and even your marketing plans. Each step is a requirement (it cannot be skipped) and it is better to have this planned in advance rather then after it is needed.

Spend some time and plan – it will pay off in the long run.