Month: January 2003

8 ways to help make your company’s marketing messages more consistent This article first appeared in MarketingProfs.com http://www.MarketingProfs.com January 2003 Like a house of cards, a marketing message takes a long, painstaking time to build up yet only moments to knock down. Sometimes all it takes is a one little piece of thoughtless communication that contradicts your marketing message. Before you know it, your company is being ridiculed in 90 point caps across the newspapers and becomes cyberbitch of the month across all your industries’ most influential newsgroups and discussion lists. Message neatly massacred and brand duly blitzkrieged. A gem of a problem This is an extreme example, but some years ago a British retail jewelry magnate named Gerald Ratner made a joking yet derisive comment about his company’s products during an after-dinner speech. The press picked it up. And by the next day, customers nationwide were deeply offended. Within a week business in all of his retail outlets (there was a Ratner’s on nearly every British “High Street”) had dried up to mere shadows of their former sales figures. Ratner’s stock values similarly dried up after another few days. Eventually, so did Ratner. And all for a few ill-chosen words. Little things matter Of course, the boss is highly accountable. His comments carry far more weight than those uttered by a disgruntled young Marvin in Customer Service. If...

8 ways to help make your company’s marketing messages more consistent This article first appeared in MarketingProfs.com http://www.MarketingProfs.com January 2003 Like a house of cards, a marketing message takes a long, painstaking time to build up yet only moments to knock down. Sometimes all it takes is a one little piece of thoughtless communication that contradicts your marketing message. Before you know it, your company is being ridiculed in 90 point caps across the newspapers and becomes cyberbitch of the month across all your industries’ most influential newsgroups and discussion lists. Message neatly massacred and brand duly blitzkrieged. A gem of a problem This is an extreme example, but some years ago a British retail jewelry magnate named Gerald Ratner made a joking yet derisive comment about his company’s products during an after-dinner speech. The press picked it up. And by the next day, customers nationwide were deeply offended. Within a week business in all of his retail outlets (there was a Ratner’s on nearly every British “High Street”) had dried up to mere shadows of their former sales figures. Ratner’s stock values similarly dried up after another few days. Eventually, so did Ratner. And all for a few ill-chosen words. Little things matter Of course, the boss is highly accountable. His comments carry far more weight than those uttered by a disgruntled young Marvin in Customer Service. If...