I recently heard a reference about branding and marketing that really stuck in my head. It expresses so well just how to think about branding and marketing as it relates to building a business.
” Good marketing is baked in not frosted on. “
Makes you appreciate the beauty of a well-turned phrase to communicate a complex message, doesn’t it?
And it’s so true. Marketing shouldn’t be approached as an add-on after the fact. Marketing should be integral to the creation and development of a business from the start.
Marketing isn’t decoration. It’s core messaging that helps your customer understand what you offer them. This is especially true for the consultants and advisory service businesses we so often work with.
If you offer something intangible, like a service, branding and marketing play a critical role in helping you communicate the benefits of what you offer. And if those benefits are frosted on — surface contrivances — they won’t be believable or successful.
We so often see companies working hard at marketing with messages that are fake and don’t successfully address their customers’ real concerns. Granted, it’s sometimes not easy to know fully what their real concerns are. But you have to do whatever it takes to find out. There’s no shame in calling customers and just plain asking them.
When marketing is an integral part of a business strategy and it’s interwoven into the core sales messages used in customer conversations, marketing can be so much more than frosting. It can be the most key ingredient in your cake.
Get baking! The results are yummy.
— Chris Quinn, principal and brand strategist
( Photo By Brynn, via Wikimedia Commons )
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