Marketing Best Practices

Follow Market Trends...
NOT!
By Dale W. Hutchings
Published: September 2008

In a constantly changing business world, where the old ways of marketing a business are quickly becoming obsolete, it is more important than ever for any size company to think out-of-the-box in promoting its products or services. For many businesses this is easier said than done, especially when a culture has developed in the workplace where the main focus has been on production and hardly ever on marketing. This often leads to a mindset where new ideas are discouraged, doing things the way they have always been done is the norm, and taking the safe approach to doing business is what is encouraged.

I could cite numerous examples of businesses that have failed (or are currently failing) for having this “in-the-box-thinking” mentality. But rather than waste space pointing fingers at such companies, let’s address what you as a business owner or corporate manager can do to create or enhance out-of-the-box thinking when marketing to give you an edge over the competition. Here are several easy steps to become an out-of-the-box marketing thinker:

1. Look At Your Business From A Fresh Perspective.

Put yourself “in the shoes” of a customer or potential customer. Ask yourself questions like: “Is this business doing a good job of letting me know about their products or services?” “Why should I do business with them instead of somebody else?” “What makes their products (or services) unique?” The answers to these questions will be a good first step to out-of-the-box thinking.

2. Encourage Creative Thinking.

Are you always open to new ideas for marketing your business? If so, what have you done to encourage creative thinking in your workplace? In recent years, what new ideas have you introduced into your company that have changed the way your business markets itself? If you are having a tough time coming up with answers, sorry, but you are not encouraging creative thinking in your company. If you have employees, set up a program that rewards them for coming up with great marketing ideas. If you have a storefront or office that gets a lot of traffic, have a suggestion box where customers can offer their recommendations on what you might do to enhance business. If you are a single proprietor, seek out the advice of others. Organize your own brainstorming group with other business owners to help one another. Remember: no matter how big or small you are, there is always a way to augment creative thinking in any business.

3. Listen! Listen! Listen! Have an open ear.

Listen to what employees have to say. Listen to what your customers are telling you. Listen to what your business colleagues suggest. Listen to experts in your industry in regard to marketing trends. Seek out the advice of a marketing professional and listen to what he or she has to say. As Writer/Poet Oliver Wendell Holmes once said, “It is the province of knowledge to speak, and it is the privilege of wisdom to listen.”

4. Think About How To Market Differently Than Your Competition.

Take a serious look at how your competition markets and then ask yourself and/or your staff: “What can we do differently to set us apart?” and “What kinds of marketing tools or measures can we use that our competition isn’t?”

5. Create A Physical Work Environment That Stimulates Creative Thinking.

One of the best, easiest and most effective ways to achieve this is to hire a professional organizer like Theresa Torrez, owner of Functional Beauty -- a Tampa Bay firm devoted to organizing homes and businesses. Also a productivity specialist, Torrez says creating an office or workplace that will enhance creativity depends a lot on a person’s “current habits and thinking styles.” She further emphasizes that natural light is important to creative thinking, but warns that having a window or windows in an office is not always good for stimulating thought. In fact, a window with “a lot of action” outside all day long may be too distracting.

In addition, she says that clutter isn’t always a hindrance to creative thought, provided an individual can easily find an item when he or she needs it. However, she emphasizes that files and books on the floor is a “no-no” for any work setting: “It should be easy for a person to get up from a chair and walk freely in or out of the room.”

At no time in history have there been more advertising messages thrown at us on a daily basis than today. Therefore, to get people’s attention, “out-of-the-box” marketing is more important than ever, a concept every business needs to utilize and simpler to implement than you may think, if you just take easy steps like these.

Dale W. Hutchings, APR, specializes in “out-of-the-box” marketing and has more than 30 years of Public Relations, Marketing and Advertising experience. Since 2001 he has had his own practice with a heavy focus on marketing consultation and copywriting for a wide variety of advertising mediums. For more information on his services visit www.dalewhutchings.com  or contact him via e-mail at: hutch7@verizon.net.

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