Marketing Issues

[chm2023]

I have noticed an undercurrent on a lot of posts when issues on product, pricing etc come up: the notion that "marketing" is somehow a dirty word. I'm not sure what drives this--there seems to be some implication that marketing is simply a way to charge more money and hoodwink the public, and also some sense that marketing is at odds with professionalism.

I find this curious for several reasons, not the least of which is the old shutting the barn door after the horse has gone bromide.

What does everyone else think?

[drk]

I don't think that marketing and professionalism are necessarily at odds. Certain types of marketing, yes, but in my opinion, marketing at it's best is developing products, services, and messages that fit the public need.

[Spexvet]

I, personally, don't have issues with marketing. I think marketing makes my life easier. This is how I interpret the resistance to marketing. Example:

A consumer learns about Brand X PALs through marketing. They come into the shop and ask for Brand X PALs. By asking lifestyle questions, you feel that a different PAL would serve the patient better, but they insist on Brand X. The patient fails with Brand X, causing the Eye Care Professional headaches, etc. The ECP blames the Brand X marketing machine for his woes.

But I could be wrong.

[jherman]

marketing the Cataract eye drops in your area?

I think it has more to do with the different marketing philosophies out there.

Ya know, create a headache, then sell them asprin type approaches and what not.

James

[For-Life]

Well I have a degree in marketing so I do not think it is a dirty word at all.

I think most people who criticize marketing have no idea even what marketing is.

[ikon44]

I think the way an independant practice would market itself compared with a large chain would be totally different .

[For-Life]

I think the way an independant practice would market itself compared with a large chain would be totally different .

absolutely.

Actually, most companies are completely different in market and should be.

The biggest, absolutely most important thing for marketing is knowing who your customer is. Without that you have nothing.

[fjpod]

How about this marketing strategy. I saw it on a billboard while driving on the New Jersey Turnpike yesterday...


LASIK...20/20 or your money back...Call Dr. xyz

[Chris Ryser]

The biggest, absolutely most important thing for marketing is knowing who your customer is. Without that you have nothing.

You seem to have made the perfect statement

If you advertise in a local newspaper, being a retailer you reach more potential customers than if you do it in national magazine. But then, you reach them but is your message being read and absorbed?

I think that the law of average also applies here. It hits one out of a hundred or out of a thousand, or anywere in between.

I found that advertising, in my case only worked if I continued placing the ads over and over again............until it sank in and produced something. It is also very costly.

[ikon44]

http://www.sightcare.co.uk/

this is a company based in the uk that produces targeted marketing for independants,the website is well worth a visit.

[For-Life]

You seem to have made the perfect statement

If you advertise in a local newspaper, being a retailer you reach more potential customers than if you do it in national magazine. But then, you reach them but is your message being read and absorbed?

I think that the law of average also applies here. It hits one out of a hundred or out of a thousand, or anywere in between.

I found that advertising, in my case only worked if I continued placing the ads over and over again............until it sank in and produced something. It is also very costly.

it is frequency versus reach. So frequency is how many times you hit the same person and reach is how large of an audience you hit. Both are important, but experts believe that frequency is more important.

but there are so many stores that are doing the wrong things. They want to be high class, but then do cheap promotions and sales, and sell junk.

I think part of the reason is everyone wants to have the nicest store. I find it funny how people open up two of the same store. Sure it makes sense in some ways, but maybe we should think about it as with one store we are only reaching x amount of the segment, so maybe with the second store we should attract the segment that we do not go after with the first.

[Chris Ryser]

it is frequency versus reach. So frequency is how many times you hit the same person and reach is how large of an audience you hit. Both are important, but experts believe that frequency is more important.

This is why I chose to go the way of a website, learned a lot, and still am these days.

However if properly done and directed to the right place I can guarantee you that even if you want to reach local customers it can be done with a little time and work invested. And the cost is peanuts versus paid advertising.

[feornot]

[QUOTE=chm2023]I have noticed an undercurrent on a lot of posts when issues on product, pricing etc come up: the notion that "marketing" is somehow a dirty word.

I just can't think of any way to describe marketing as a dirty word. We're either in business or we're not. The chains have always marketed better than the independents--that's why the chains are gaining one percent market share each year for the last decade or more. At our expense!

No one knows our patients like we do. Eyewear's great for seeing, but there's nothing more fashionable you can do to your face to gain notice than to change your eyewear. If we become as fun to come and see as the dentist, we'll be out of business like the gas stations on all four corners of the intersection.

Here's an original quote from me: "Sales is what keeps you in business; marketing is what keeps you in sales."

I was sitting at a business roundtable in Chicago years ago when Christie Hefner was the marquee speaker, and a business professor from Northwestern was sitting across the table from me. He heard me say that and said he's updating his textbook, could he put that quote in it, so I gave him by business card and don't know to this day if I ever got attribution because I lost his business card.

This is from Guerilla Marketing:
www.gmarketing.com/articles/read/13/?PHPSESSID=16a9086476028d90e9d06a096ac337ae

"Marketing Management" author Philip Kotler, says "Authentic marketing
is not the art of selling what you make but knowing what to make. It is the art of identifying and understanding customer needs and creating solutions that deliver satisfaction to the customers, profits to the producers and benefits for the stakeholders. Market innovation is gained by creating customer satisfaction through product innovation, product quality and customer service. It these are absent, no amount of advertising, sales promotion or salesmanship can compensate....

"Your attack must be characterized by a very strong tie with your own target audience. You know them. You serve them. They know it."

[Excerpted] "Once you have a customer, you do all they can to intensify the relationship, not treating all customers and prospects equally. Consider the menswear chain with a database of 47,000 names. Mailings are never more than 3,000 at a time. Who receives the mail? Says the owner, "Only the people appropriate to mail to." When he received trousers of a specific style, he mailed only to those customers to whom he was certain they’d appeal--and enjoyed a 30% response rate.":cheers: :cheers:
I'd be interested in know how all of you market your services and products. I'll bet there are some great ideas out there!

[For-Life]

Kotler is Mr. Marketing and has developed most modern ideas on the concept. So he knows what he is talking about/.