Step 5: Everything communicates. Make sure it's saying the right thing.

Read the blue lettering at the top of every page of this Website:. "Your business and its marketing are the same thing."

ONE MORE TIME!

Your business and its marketing are the same thing. It should be obvious by now that every decision you make about your company, i.e....

• What you call it
• How you service your customers
• How you package the solutions you sell
• Where you put it
• The people whom you hire (especially those with direct customer contact)
• How you train your people to interact with customers
• What your billing and collection practices are
• The design of your physical plant
• The way you have your people dress
• What your letterhead looks like
• Ad infinitum, ad nauseum

...communicates to your customers and potential customers something (everything) about you and your company.

Get rid of the crap, multiply the good stuff

Right now, take as objective a look as you can (meaning as customer-centric) around your business. Would you do business with you? Be honest now, your future depends on it.

Here's something you might want to do. On a piece of paper (yes, paper is still a perfectly good technology), write down anything you want your company to be known for. On a second piece of paper, write down everything you don't want your company know for. Then inventory everything tangible and intangible about your firm and decide what it communicates. If it says something on the 'want' list, keep it and buy or do more of it. If it says something on the 'don't want' list, get rid of it, or stop doing it. That exercise alone with probably do more to improve the performance of your company than anything else we can think of. If you can't be entirely objective, get someone who is and who can be honest with you...a spouse, perhaps (especially for you men, a wife-type spouse).

Here's a short list of possible things to be known for, presented here for the purpose of getting your thinking going. This is neither definitive, nor exhaustive, by any means...

• It costs less, saving you money.
• We have more, so there's a much better chance of finding exactly what you're looking for.
• Our sales staff is the most knowledgeable, so you can buy with confidence.
• We have more locations, so we're convenient to get to.
• Buying our product increases the value of your home.
• Using our service increases your standing in the community.
• Buying our product will get you a raise and a promotion at work.
• Our service turns your children into money making machines who can support you in style.
• Buying our product makes you the envy of the neighborhood.
• Buying our product keeps you and your family more comfortable year 'round.
• Buying our product makes you smart.
• Buying our product makes you thin.
• Buying our product makes you rich.
• Buying our product makes you smart, thin and rich.
• Our service lets you earn money on the side.
• Buying our product keeps you dry and odor free.
• Buying our product makes your breath sweeter and, thus, you more attractive.
• Buying our product saves you gas, making your car less expensive to operate.
• Our service makes you the hit of the party.
• Buying our product lets you pretend to be the world's greatest chef.
• Our product keeps your food fresher longer, so you have less food spoil and go to waste.
• Buying our product builds bodies 12 ways.
• Our product protects you in car crashes -- chances are better you'll survive a deadly crash.
• Buying our product keeps your skin as soft and smooth as a baby's behind.
• Using our service lowers your monthly insurance bills by fifty percent.
• Buying our product makes you money without your actually having to work at it.
• Our product keeps vampires away, so you don't have to deal with those pesky bite marks.

To sum up...

Warning: SALES PITCH COMING. Remember that bit about getting an objective third party to look at your business? Well, you didn't think we didn't secretly have us in mind when we suggested using your spouse, did you? Grab the documents on the tools page, and e-mail them to us here at the Socratic Duck. We'll do an analysis of what you send us, we'll send you our recommendations and an action plan you can use as you see fit.

And, so, in conclusion...

IF THERE'S A MAGIC FORMULA for marketing and advertising success, it's to design your company around a powerful idea that gets talked about. When you've got the powerful idea, communicating it to people is easy. Or, as Morris Hite, the advertising legend said..

• "If an ad campaign is built around a weak idea -- or as is so often the case, no idea at all -- I don't give a damn how good the execution is, it's going to fail...If you have a good selling idea, your secretary can write your ad for you."