This Issue: Your Small Company Can Market as Forcefully as the Big Boys

Recently, a new study found that today’s college students are more narcissistic and self-centered than ever before. The psychologists who conducted the research blamed the trend, in part, to the fact that the current generation of American parents are constantly telling their children how wonderful they are the whole time they’re growing up.

“We need to stop endlessly repeating ‘You’re special’ and having children repeat that back,” said lead author Jean Twenge of San Diego State University.

It’s not that we don’t want our children to think that they’re special. It’s just that we give them such an inflated sense of self-worth and we make them think they can accomplish anything and everything that they often feel they don’t even have to try in life. They feel they can do anything without making much of an effort.

And this translates into real life. I define myself as being “cautiously positive.” People who say, “You can do anything you want,” are simply unrealistic. Some things are just not possible. For example, if I thought today I could become an Olympic gold medal swimmer, I’d need a shrink more than I’d need a swimming coach. No matter how many lessons I take, how hard I train, or how many steroids I consume, it’ll never happen.

We all encounter roadblocks, obstacles that block our progress. Some of them are surmountable. But most often, we have options if we remain positive. We can’t all do everything we want. But when we encounter problems, we can walk away, climb over, go around, or go under them. If we keep our focus and momentum intact, we’ll be able to achieve our goals.

If you're a small business owner, the word “marketing” can be scary. How can you compete with the big companies in your line of business? How can you catch up with competitors who have a head start in the race for customers?

The good news is, you don’t have to compete with them. You can set your own course and outdistance them.

In fact, there is a secret of marketing success that will actually give you an advantage if you are a small, new business. And that secret is focus. If you focus on your customer and focus your marketing efforts, you can market as effectively as the big boys. In fact, you can do an even better job of becoming your customer's company of choice.

To unleash the power of focus . . .

• Pinpoint and attack your competitors’ weaknesses. Maybe they aren’t open during the hours when customers want them to be. Maybe their premises are dirty. Maybe they don’t offer extra services like delivery or on-site service. Analyze what they do, do better - and you can turn their head start into your advantage.
• Don’t try to reach everyone with a “one-size-fits-all” ad campaign. Instead, identify your primary customer group - young mothers, homeowners in your town - and start marketing aggressively to them alone.
• Use low-cost, highly targeted vehicles to deliver your message. Put up flyers in churches, supermarkets, and other places where your customers go. Advertise only in the publications you know they read. You’ll make more money by tight focus than by a scattergun approach.
• Communicate with your customers one-on-one. Shop where they shop, attend the events they attend and get to know them. You’ll learn just as much as you ever will by spending tens of thousands of dollars on expensive focus groups and market research.

So focus on your customers and think small, not big, while you target your marketing efforts to them. Dr. Donald Sexton, who teaches The Marketing Mastery Program at Trump University, goes so far as to say that your company has to become your customer, not just sell to them. That's the kind of focus that can establish a strong competitive advantage, even in a crowded marketplace. 

Customer service lessons from the JetBlue disaster

JetBlue is still recovering from its February fiasco at JFK Airport in New York. You remember - snow and extreme cold brought air travel to a standstill, but JetBlue decided to keep flying anyway. Its planes rolled out onto the tarmac and got stuck there, stranding passengers within view of the terminal. It was 11 hours until the airline figured out a way to get them back indoors. Then things got even worse the next day, when flight cancellations inconvenienced 100,000 more JetBlue customers. 

Afterwards, JetBlue took steps to rebuild its customer relationships. The CEO, David Neeleman, took responsibility, and JetBlue issued vouchers for free flights to passengers who were inconvenienced.

The company did what it could to manage negative fallout in the press, but the remedies were generally perceived as “too little, too late.”

What all business-owners can learn from JetBlue’s problems . . .

Because all businesses live or die on their ability to satisfy customers, you can write a business plan based on the critical lessons from JetBlue’s disaster, no matter what your business is:

• Put customer service first. Regularly remind everyone in your company that customer satisfaction is central to your company culture. 
• Take charge. If you own a company that hits a crisis, you need to step out, take responsibility and say that your organization is committed to making things right.
• Plan. Have contingency plans in place so that your people know what to do in the event of an emergency.
• Learn from experience. After a crisis has passed, analyze it to find out what went wrong. There is no other way to prevent it from happening again.

 Above all, tell your employees that they are encouraged to resolve customer problems on the spot, without waiting for approval from above. With the right training, a ground crew member or another JetBlue employee could have helped out and JetBlue would have looked good in the eyes of its customers, not bad. Empowering the people in your organization motivates them, protects you and solves big customer-service problems while they are still small. That is a win/win/win strategy all around.

Editor's note: There's lots more to be learned about customer relations in The Marketing Mastery Program from Trump University. Investigate it now. 

A post on this blog a few weeks ago described the marketing traction that small businesses can develop by sending out press releases to local media. Today, I would like to add to that strategy.

The first step is to have your company contribute to the quality of life in your community. You could buy a new piece of medical equipment for a local hospital, offer jobs to local retirees, or sponsor a new playground. Once you have done your good deeds, send out press releases about your activities to local media - newspapers, radio stations, regional cable networks. They will be eager to tell your news.

When you demonstrate your commitment to your community, you will receive more far-ranging benefits than you can generate from advertising alone. (After all, advertising is intended to generate sales and usually not much more.) When your community involvement makes news, you:

• Cultivate customers who will be much more eager to buy from you than from your competitors.
• Create “buzz” for your company and what you sell.
• Transmit a marketing message that remains active in the minds of your customers for months and even years.
• Establish your brand as something that people can believe in, not just buy.
• Encourage local vendors, investors, service providers and other businesses to contact you.

With community-cenetered public relations, you can talk to your customers like a neighbor, not just another business that wants their money. If you can accomplish and help people too, that is a classic win/win for everyone involved.