Business Management Article:

The "Better Product" fallacy

Another fallacy ingrained in the minds of most marketing managers is the belief that the better product will win the marketing battle.

Behind the thinking of many marketing managers is the thought that "truth will out."

In other words, if you have the "facts" on your side, it's only necessary to find a good advertising agency who can communicate those facts to the prospect and a good sales force that can close the sale.

We call this approach "inside-out thinking"- that somehow the advertising agency or the sales force can take the truth, as the company knows it, and use this truth to clear up the misconceptions that reside inside the mind of the prospect.

Don't be fooled. Misconceptions cannot easily be changed by an advertising or sales effort.

What is truth? Inside every human being is a little black box. When a human being is exposed to your advertising or sales claim, that person looks inside the box and says "That's right" or "That's wrong."

The single most wasteful thing you can do in marketing today is to try to change a human mind. Once a mind is made up, it's almost impossible to change.

What is truth? Truth is the perception that's inside the mind of the prospect. It may not be your truth, but it's the only truth you can work with. You have to accept that truth and then deal with it.

Arvind Kumar is an Electrical Engineer from a premier Institute, Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, India. He has 3 years experince in marketing business consulting services and marketing services. He is founder and CEO of www.nuttymarketer.com. You may reach him at arvind@nuttymarketer.com.

Successful organizations are led by people who are visionary. Do you have a vision of where your enterprise is going? Do you spend time working on your business or in your business? It is important to see what is gong on both inside and outside your organization.

I found it important to clarify for employees what "deal-breaker" behavior was at my company. These are the things I insisted would not be tolerated and would lead to immediate or ultimate termination, depending on the nature of the infraction of these hard and fast rules. Here are the behaviors I would not tolerate:

Creativity can be defined as problem identification and idea generation whilst innovation can be defined as idea selection, development and commercialisation.

If you are a department, division or subsidiary manager, your budget is a precious possession whether you work for a business, a non-profit or an association. So why stand by while your public relations team spends too much time and treasure on tactics like press releases, column mentions and brochures? Especially when you could be using an aggressive PR blueprint to persuade your most important outside audiences to your way of thinking, then move them to take actions that lead to your success?

Some interviewers ask great questions; others ask dumb questions; and, worst of all, some ask questions that can get them into legal hot water.