Well-known marketer and social media personality Gary Vaynerchuk once stated, ‘Sales is just bad marketing’. He meant that if a brand’s marketing is on point, then a sales system is less crucial, superfluous even.
Admittedly, this statement does nothing to cool any simmering resentments between sales and marketing teams, and Gary Vee would probably admit it was an exaggeration designed to drive the central point that no sales team is a match for great marketing and branding, at least not in the long run.
I’m a firm believer in the idea that most great companies are essentially marketing companies first and foremost, even when they are selling another product or service.
Apple are often mentioned in this context, but I prefer to use the example of Rolex. The Swiss watch giant generates over three times the revenue of its nearest competitor in the luxury Swiss watch market (see image on the opposite page). Are its watches the most expensive? No. Are they the cheapest? No. Are they objectively the best? No. So how and why are Rolex so dominant? Well, it’s largely the company’s unrelenting commitment to marketing and brand strategy.
One could argue Rolex don’t even need to spend money on marketing. The company, which is owned by a charity, cannot in most cases come close to satisfying demand for its watches, even with multiple factories working at 24-hour capacity. And yet it continues to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on marketing every year. So why? My opinion is Rolex does this in order to maintain a ‘loop of dominance’. To:
- keep demand for product high, which in turn
- keeps supply scarce, building desirability and in turn
- keeps brand prestige high
- repeat
In addition to this, Rolex’s relentlessness means its competitors are never afforded the opportunity to grab enough attention. So, in many ways Rolex is a marketing company that sells watches. And Rolex don’t need a sales team. It retains a network of ‘authorised dealers’ who also don’t need to engage in ‘sales’, instead requiring expertise in customer care and the management of expectations whilst demand far outweighs supply. So in this context, Gary Vaynerchuk’s assertion is correct.
The three factors impacting success
Rolex is a singular but broad-use case for marketing. There are, of course, many ways in which marketing can and should be used to advance your aims for the business you work within or own. As you might expect me to say, the value of marketing in a general sense is indisputable. However, its specific value to your business will be dependent predominantly on three factors; your goals, your strategy, and the execution of said strategy.
Defining Goals: Your aims can be whatever you want them to be, but usually they are defined as greater brand awareness, customer engagement, lead generation, customer service, or a combination of any of the above. You just need to decide what goals you are setting out to achieve before you can create a plan to achieve them.
The ‘Rope’ Strategy: I feel that ‘strategy’ is a word so often used surrounding marketing that it’s lost a lot of its resonance. It’s essentially the plan of how and why marketing activities are carried out. In my view, if your company is engaging in any marketing whatsoever then it should be doing so in line with a strategy. Not only does having a plan mean you waste less time and money on activities which don’t affect your aims, but it means your campaigns will benefit from a sort of ‘levelling up’. In essence, the positive impact of your marketing becomes more than the mere sum of its parts. As an example, if a business’s marketing begins and ends with posting on social media without much of a plan then it’s unlikely to be effective in any meaningful way. If, however, there is a strategy for the posts then they are much more likely to achieve a valuable goal. But also, if the social media strategy is aligned with a wider marketing plan, then the same activity will also contribute to the broader impact of the campaign, and the reverse is also true. If every element is linked, then every element is stronger than standing alone, much like the fibres of a rope.
Implement and Execute: This final step is probably most critical to the success or otherwise of any campaign. A good practical understanding of business is needed to define goals, and experience and knowledge is needed to write an effective strategy, but the execution is the stage at which a great strategy can be undermined, or a mediocre strategy can be elevated. It’s the step where knowledge, experience, creativity, and instinct are most keenly required. This is the part I most recommend being fulfilled by a Marketing professional. And I’ll shock you all now by putting myself forward.
What do I value?
I like to help businesses that deserve to be well known and successful become more so; to highlight companies that are not only good at what they do but are driven by positive values as well as commercial success. I can then feel proud about doing my job well, because I’m helping more people discover a positive business rather than a cynical one.
Fortunately for all of us, I’d say most local SMEs are motivated by positive values, and I love finding out their ‘why’, the story behind those brands. That’s the thrill, the value for me. Finding out your ‘why’ is like opening a story book or music box, it is often both inspiring and a powerful inspiration for your marketing.
Contact REES Media and Marketing at info@tryrees.co.uk, call 01604 385227, or visit www.tryrees.co.uk
