Marketing systems let businesses make better decisions and excel at what they do best.
Why is it that so many UK companies shun building any kind of solid database from which they can send highly relevant and valuable messages, why do they ignore the importance of positioning themselves in new, unusual and different ways instead of fighting it out on indistinguishable differences, why are they so wrapped up in the product and fail to spend enough time to really understand the customer, why don’t they realise that people buy stories not things, why can’t they see that if you understood what really delivered leads, sales and loyalty you’d know with good certainty where to spend your time and money. The list goes on.
Before I continue to drive this nail into the coffin lid, I must say that I happen to agree (if it’s not already obvious) with some of their frustrations. Especially if we want to see the UK economy improve, which the government and many of us would like to see coming from tangible sectors like advanced manufacturing, green tech, life sciences and the digital world and which also may need to export into other regions and compete.
I put this failing down to a lack of leadership which has plagued the UK since our region was united under a common goal during those dark and perilous periods of war in the early and mid 20th century. Since then how many of the companies that once stood tall and proud are still around today ? How many leaders do we have that are prepared to make the tough decisions and do the right thing ? Where it the philanthropy and spirit of exploration and discovery that gave us the industrial revolution ?
You probably know the answer, so I won’t bore you with opinion. The real question is should we just give up or is this now the time to stand up and fight once again given that our own Prime Minister is now calling for an era of entrepreneurialism to lead this country into better times. We must stand, we must fight and we must get smart about doing it.
Businesses fail or reach early plateaus because they’re not marketing led
If where you stand you know things are must change, then its only through directed thought and right action that a transition will occur.
Having spoken with numerous businesses and teams looking to improve and grow that find themselves frustrated with the results that traditional strategies leave them with I’m astounded, but not surprised by the response. A consistent; “we can’t get the company to change what its doing and start to do the right things even when we know that something has to change”.
For too long short term activities that promote immediate unsustainable gains are taking precedence over a scalable and systematic approach, or that over time businesses become so disconnected from their markets and what made them successful in the beginning that they begin the inevitable decline into oblivion. These are things which a real marketing system can help businesses overcome.
Why? For the same reasons that many of the businesses that once stood tall and proud are no longer here. They got over confident about what they were doing was right and always would be, and didn’t listen to the market and change when it was most needed.
So there are blocks in the system that are currently holding back progress which are not just economic, they’re historic.