When it comes to folks who want to do their own marketing, as opposed to paying for someone who has spent their career in marketing or at least qualifies as a marketing professional, the evident lack of Marketing Wisdom is embarrasing to witness and can even be a kind of death wish for the business. Given the home-grown marketing efforts that I’ve witnessed in my career, perhaps the best piece of Marketing Wisdom that I can pass along to these would-be Do-It-Yourselfer is…don’t. Hire someone who knows what they’re doing. After all, it’s in your own best interests.

One question I’ve never understood is why people would treat their businesses with less concern than they do their persons. Nobody who’s serious about their personal image cuts their own hair. Why? Because how you look effects what people think about you and how they treat you. For the most part, people want to look their best and/or they don’t want to be laughed at. Yet, a huge swath of businesses for reasons that span the gamut from “saving money” to “marketing’s no big deal” will personally execute their company’s logo, ads and website. The amateurish results speak for themselves.

The amazing thing to me is that many otherwise smart, sophisticated business men and women have a blind spot when it comes to their marketing – often ranking it on the importance scale somewhere below organizing the company party. Here’s a case in point…

A local bank that I’ve worked with on and off over the years recently replaced their senior management with some fresh blood. This was before the national financial melt-down and – to my knowledge – had nothing to with their financial management. The bank maintains that it is solvent and thanks to their relatively prudent lending practices have little if any exposure to the risky loans that have come back to haunt so many “major” banks.

In fact, this bank has of late been proudly touting this information in some local newspaper ads. At least I think that’s what they’re saying. Thanks to a combination of strange color choices and poor judgment regarding the use of white type against a pastel background the ads are very hard to read.

Since a fundamental tenet of advertising layout is “make the message legible,” whoever designed the ad – whether it was the publication (in my neck of the woods, the media will offer free design services…further proof that you get what you pay for) or a bank employee who happens to know how to work a page layout program – whoever designed that ad was clearly not someone used to creating advertising.

Then I note on Craig’s List (Yes, like you, I’m always looking for work) a posting for a job at this very same bank for an employee whose principal responsibility will be to manage the bank’s customer lists. Toward the bottom in the lengthy job description there is a mention of a requirement that this employee be familiar with some computer design software because the job responsibilities include managing the bank’s…brand!

Obviously, the bank’s management doesn’t consider the job of managing their brand important enough to warrant the care and attention of someone with training, skill and experience in Brand Management. No, basic software skills will be sufficient.

Well, there you go. Brand Management, which is one of the essentials of successful marketing, is treated as an afterthought by the bank’s HR folks presumably at the direction of the bank’s management. Granted, maintaining customer lists is a valuable task but I would think – especially in this economy – getting new customers to add that list (a.k.a., marketing) might rank somewhat higher on their list of priorities.

Those of you who read the Bible will be familiar with the Parable of the Talents. For those who don’t read the Bible, the story goes that a king called in three servants and gave each of them a “talent,” that is to say, a sum of money to invest. Sometime later, he called them back for an accounting of their efforts on his behalf. Two of the servants had put the king’s money to work, were able to return much larger amounts, and so were handsomely rewarded. The third, fearing the king’s wrath if he screwed up, buried the talent so, at least, he wouldn’t lose it. The king was not pleased, for he didn’t see this servant’s actions as wise frugality but as slothful ignorance. The servant was punished because he missed the point of his assignment.

What’s the connection?

Of course, the parable’s larger message has to do with spreading the Gospel, but I believe the parable also speaks to a kind of ignorant frugality and the folly of “missing the (the larger) point.”

And, what is my point? Well, if you have to ask I guess you’ll continue to save money by doing your own marketing and when your efforts fail to produce the desired effect you’ll feel justified in saying, “It’s best to focus on maintaining my customer lists.”

A couple of weeks ago the Wall Street Journal ran an article about the challenge and importance of naming a company, and the role of a company’s name in positioning it in the minds of customers. If memory serves me, the article was focusing on naming a new enterprise, but it seems to be equally relevant in modifying or renaming a company.

The gist of the piece was basically that one should give the process of naming a nascent business more than a little thought before investing in a logo, signage, ads and a website. Does that seem like a “Well…duh!” to you? If so, you might be surprised that – in my experience anyway – many  business folk put more effort into naming their bowling teams than they do naming their businesses.

When driving through this part of the world – Sonoma

In like fashion, because Sonoma County is one of several counties immediately north of the

So why comment? Because mundane, unimaginative names make a business invisible – or worse – cause it to be confused with another unrelated concern. What would you think if the entire 6^th grade roll call began with the name Empire? As in, Empire Jones, Empire Gonzales, Empire Fredricksen, Empire Rosenblatt, etc.? Make it kind of hard to summon kids individually, wouldn’t it?

Naming a company is a great opportunity to begin a process that is essential in a market crowded with competition – the process of differentiation. Personally, I think a visit to the Internet or the Yellow Pages is a prudent place to start any name search, with the idea that any name you find there should not be your first choice, and any name you find there more than once should be totally off limits. There are a couple of time honored ways to proceed: One is create a new word, or neologism. Also one can use words out of context – non sequiturs. And, of course you can use personal names. Neologisms – some famous examples include Kodak, Xerox, Clorox and Jacuzzi to name a few. One word of caution if you are going to take this route – do some research beforehand. Just because something is new to you doesn’t mean it’s new to everyone else.

Non-Sequiturs – the world-famous on-line purveyor of nearly everything, Amazon, comes immediately to mind. The Internet is full of examples: Google, Yahoo, YouTube, eBay, …

Personal Names – that’s what we did when naming the current iteration of our company some years ago. Rustad is a fairly uncommon name in these parts, so Rustad Marketing had the virtue of being unique. If your surname is more common, you can use a first or middle name if they are more distinctive.

Or course you not only want your name to be unique but once your company starts to make money, you want to prevent your competitors from copying it. That’s what Trademarks are for. If you intend to apply for a trademark I suggest you check out www.uspto.gov beforehand. They have a great little tool that allows you to research existing trademarks. Also, it’s a good idea to visit www.godady.com and do search on URLs (.com, .org, etc.) before you get too far down the naming road.

Whatever you choose to do, when all is said and done, it’s the product or service which you deliver that gives name its real meaning and value.

One thing that we hear from many businesses is that “all new our business comes from referrals, so we don’t have to do any marketing.” I love it. Businesses just emerge, like mushrooms over night, and somehow clients are drawn to them. Would that it were true…or even possible.

The old axiom of “Build a better mousetrap and the world will beat a path to your door” only holds true once the world learns of your creation. The “learning of the creation” part is…marketing. All of these businesses fortunate enough to exist on referrals alone, not only marketing at the time of their inception – they market all the time. It’s merely that they don’t think of it as marketing.

Some examples to spur discussion…

I’ll bet my nonexistent pension*  that all of these non-marketing businesses mailed letters, made countless visits and telephones calls, joined tip clubs, and did whatever else they could think of to inform the “world” when they first hung out their shingle. In which case, they owe their status as “non-marketers” to…effective marketing.

As an aside: in the event that someone out there walked out of a previous business situation with enough clients to start their own business and they continue to survive on the strength of those original relationships without the benefit of any additional marketing, I would say that you’re living on borrowed time. Consider what your situation would be if one of your current employees decides to start their own business the same way you started yours.

How many owners of business play golf and – thanks to the vast numbers and proximity of potential clients on golf courses – claim related expenses as deductions for business promotion. No, I’m not calling them out for a tax dodge, I’m merely pointing out that golf is an excellent marketing opportunity. You’re relatively isolated for about four hours with little to talk about but the weather, the opposite sex, the state of the world and business.

Many companies who claim to do no advertising will still run a half-dozen ads a year supporting some worthy charity, civic event, school fundraiser, youth sports team, etc. If you live in a semi-rural area as I do, it’s not long before you run into the same logos and company names. While the mere sight of someone’s business ID may not necessarily incline you to do business with them, the familiarity developed through repeated exposure certainly greases the skids when you encounter them in person…”Say, I’ve heard of you.”

Appearances at civic events such as those sponsored by the local chamber of commerce, Rotary meetings (and to be fair, Kiwanis, Lions, Elks, Odd Fellows, etc.), media events, fund raisers all count as “showing the flag.” In a county the size of the one where I practice my trade, I can count on seeing 30 people that I know at any event that attracts more than 50 attendees.

Public Relations, while being its own discipline, counts as part of an overall marketing effort. Virtually any “ink” that your business in the media gets counts as marketing. The possible exceptions being news that you’re closing your doors or that the FBI recently broke them down.

Do you take your clients to lunch, send Holiday presents and/or remember their birthdays? All of these are marketing.

Do you have a website? If it’s been executed with an eye towards Search Engine Optimization it is most definitely a marketing tool. If not, if the Home page is a kaleidoscope of Flash, or it hasn’t been updated since Netscape with the dominant search engine then you really aren’t marketing…at least on the Internet.

*despite my advanced age I have kids young enough that  I expect to be working right up the moment I ascend to meet the Lord.