The Top Ten Truths of Marketing

Jay Conrad Levinson, The Guerilla Approach To Marketing

Americans rate the importance and relevance of local commercial radio very highly, despite the entry of high-technology competition, a national survey commissioned by American Media Services shows. The survey found that 78% said radio is important in their everyday lives, and 91% said radio is important in American life in general. Nearly three-quarters (74%) said they listen to radio at least once a day.

Other Findings of the Survey Include:

• 1. The Market is Constantly Changing. New families, new prospects, new lifestyles change the marketplace. Nearly one-third of the people in America will move this year. Nearly 5 million Americans will get married. When you stop advertising, you miss evolving opportunities and stop being part of the process. You are not on the bus. You are not in the game.
• 2. People Forget Fast. Remember they are bombarded with thousands of messages – an estimated 3,000 daily. An experiment proved the need for constancy in marketing by running advertising weekly for 13 weeks. After that period 64% of the people surveyed remembered the advertising. One month later, 32% recalled it. Two weeks after that, 21% remembered it. That means that 79% FORGOT IT.
• 3. Your Competition Isn’t Quitting. People will spend money to make purchases. However, if you don’t make them aware that you are selling something, they’ll spend their money elsewhere.
• 4. Marketing Strengthens Your Identity. When you quit marketing, you shortchange your reputation, reliability and the confidence people have in you. When economic conditions turn sour, smart companies continue to advertise. The bond of communications is too precious to break capriciously.
• 5. Marketing Is Essential To Survival and Growth. With very few exceptions, people won’t know you’re there if you don’t get the word out. And when you cease marketing, you’re on the path to non-existence. Just as you can’t start a business without marketing, you can’t maintain one without it.
• 6. Marketing Allows You To Hold On to Old Customers. Many enterprises survive on repeat and referral business. Old customers are the key to both. When old customers don’t hear from you or about you, they tend to forget you.
• 7. Marketing Maintains Morale. Your own morale is improved when you see your marketing at work, and especially when you see that it does, indeed, work. Your employees’ morale is similarly uplifted. And cutting out marketing seems to be a signal of failure to those who actively follow your advertising. That won’t be many people, but it will be some.
• 8. Marketing Gives You an Edge Over Competitors Who Have Ceased Marketing. A troubled economy can be a superb advantage to a marketing-minded entrepreneur. It forces some competitors to stop marketing – giving you a change to pull ahead of them and attract some of their customers. In all ugly economic situations there are winners and losers.
• 9. Marketing Allows Your Business to Continue Operating. You still have some overhead: telephone bills, yellow pages, rent and/or equipment costs, possibly a payroll, and your time. Marketing creates the air overhead breathes.
• 10. You Have Invested Money That You Stand To Lose. If you quit marketing, all of the money you spent for advertising becomes lost as the consumer awareness it purchased slowly dwindles away. Sure, you can buy it again. But you will have to start from scratch. Unless you are planning to go out of business, it is rarely a good idea to cease marketing completely.