Small Business Marketing Blog from Duct Tape Marketing

Reminds me about the joke about the Pastor who gives a great sermon on Sunday... Next week, gives the same sermon. Third week, same sermon - the congregation says" Great sermon, but isn't it the same as last week?"

Pastor says - "Glad you noticed - And I'm going to keep repeating it till you all get it!"

I think as business owners, it is easy to get bored of our message - we see it when major companies change thier slogan- So culturally we've been conditioned to want to change our message:

"I'm Lovin' It!"
"You Deserve a Break Today"
"The Real Thing"
"the Pause that refreshes"
"Coke is It"

Most of us aren't talking about national campaigns - we just want to create a great, profitable niche and dominate it. And you're right, we're better off beating our drum to the same beat over and over again, when we find that "right beat".

Dave Rachford (still a CPA and Marketer)

Dave

<pingback>...even heard it yet, let alone grown tired of ...</pingback>

<trackback>Bored with your message? Too Bad!
John Jantsch from Duck Tape Marketing doesn’t care if you are bored with your current marketing message.
You like change, you’re sick of that tired old marketing message and that worn our direct mail letter.
Guess what, it’s a pretty...</trackback>

You've hit the nail on the head with this one, John.

I can't tell you how many clients, bosses, etc. I've had this discussion with.

And there's a potential downside to changing your marketing materials out of boredom: It may make you look small, unreliable and fickle.

Brand recognition and the image of stability have a high value -- especially in the world of B2B.

Thanks for sharing this great advice.

Unfortunately what happens is that most folks don't understand the concept of "champion" versus "challenger". They also don't know that it takes much more than a good message to make direct mail work. Most ignore the two most important parts that must be tested and tweaked and refined - the offer and the list. A great message that is paired with a exhausted list (D&B;) and a poor offer are just lipstick on a pig. As for change for change sake - how about AT&T;'s retirement of the Cingular brand.....

Craig Montgomery
www.montysbox.typepad.com

I think David Rachford's comment is really good. (Thanks David!)

And I'll share this comment as the guitar player in the contemporary worship music band playing in a mainline Christian protestant church...

You can play the same songs every Sunday or two... and you can get pretty tired of them.. But it's not really about *you* getting tired of the same song (or "marketing message")... It's about the people listening to the music.

They don't get tired. Really.

Seriously, in the band I play in, we just get bored to tears of some of our "old" classics. We might practice a song several times a week at home alone. And then practice a song together once as a week as a group several times together. So, by the time Sunday rolls around (the time we play in front of our audience/congregation) we've played the song maybe 8-10 times. Wow. We're tired.

But if someone is in church 2-3 time a month, they're only hearing the song every, like, 20th time we play it. And that means they're far from being bored/burned out.etc,

So it goes with marketing messages. We've rehearsed the message a million times. We've said/advertised/publicized the message a million times...

Yet the prospect has heard the message, maybe, once...

So again I say to David Rachford... good point my new friend....

Steve Nelson, CPA
author Quicken for Dummies, QuickBooks for Dummmies