Remember Guitar Hero? It’s that video game where you hold a tiny guitar and mash 5 buttons in a pattern to “play” epic rock songs. It’s a lot of fun and if you crank up the volume, it sure makes you feel like a rockstar.
But… you aren’t really jamming and you’re certainly not about to replace Slash in Guns ‘N Roses… You are pressing buttons. Green button, blue button, green button, yellow button. In real life, that series of buttons sounds like Morse code, not rock ’n’ roll.
I used to do marketing like that. Green button = Facebook ads. Yellow button = new blog. The result of mashing these buttons was a disconnected pattern of marketing activities.
This way of operating is not uncommon. If our businesses were a band, some of our marketing departments are full of expert Guitar Hero players that don’t get it.
But there is a fix…
This is Jerry. Jerry owns one of the many food carts in NYC.
Jerry knows zero marketing jargon but he’s got real business chops. Jerry has been forced to figure out how to turn his own money into more money. And if he doesn’t, he doesn’t eat.
Here’s why Jerry is a strong marketer and businessman:
- He knows (and loves) his product
- He knows his customers and talks to them regularly (he doesn’t just email out surveys)
- He knows his competitors and notices when they change something
- He understands what factors are affecting foot traffic today
- He understands how the weather and seasonality affect his business
- He knows when he can raise his price and by how much
- He understands how discounting affects his profit
If Jerry joined your marketing team, it’s likely company executives would love working with him.
Jerry gets it.
Jerry wouldn’t ask company executives to applaud him for playing his tiny toy guitar, he’d get out a real guitar and jam with them. He would become a trusted bandmate teammate.
After all that’s the goal. Not to impress company executives, but to be a trusted teammate.
Rant over. Gonna go play some Guitar Hero.
