Small Business Marketing vs. Large Corporate Marketing through TNT
I watched the TV show Trust Me last night. It is a good show and I recommend it. I’m a big fan of Tom Cavanagh, he was great on Ed and Scrubs, and I like Eric McCormack fine. The show hits home too, as they work in an advertising agency which I have some experience with. While it is fiction some things that happened last night rang true and reinforced to me both the difference between big business marketing and small business marketing and some of the advantages that small businesses actually have over the big boys.
Tom Cavanagh and Erick McCormack from the TNT show "Trust Me"
The storyline revolved around a tagline and whether it was stolen and how it tested in focus groups. It just made me think how old and inefficient the advertising process of large companies is. Focus groups? Taglines? These are not the most important things to bringing new customers to your business and actually improving your bottom line. It used to be the only way but with the tools to track everything. The punchline of the show was that two people were able to torpedo a good tagline in a focus group. That is not efficient! Why use a focus group when the entire world can be your focus group, or at least the world that we are able to drive to your website. You can see, almost in real time how visitors are reacting to offers on your site, the layout and the structure and if they are buying or filling out your contact form. And the best part is that online we can change on a dime.
That is where I feel small businesses have a major advantage over larger competition. Speed and flexibility. If a strategy isn’t working, change it. Now. Small business don’t need to run ideas through commitees, deal with internal politics or focus groups. If we are smart, we can use the tools available to make decisions based on what our customers want, not what we think they might want six months from now. So use those advantages, be flexible and quick. It is how David beat Goliath…