Muda (pronounced moodí-ah). Thatís Japanese for waste. Specifically, any human activity that uses resources but creates no value. I visited some clients recently and they introduced me to the word muda. I like that word. I think itís an excellent word to describe the kind of marketing that some people do. Many times, their efforts are truly muda. People confuse marketing activity with marketing strategy. They use what I call the pasta principle and think that the more marketing stuff they throw against the wall, the better. In a word, muda. If an activity does not add value, itís a waste of energy. Your marketing needs to add value by educating your clients and prospects so that they will want to do business with you. Marketing materials that only talk about you or your products are a waste. Your materials should talk about the interests of your clients and prospects. The more you focus on their interests, the better your marketing will be. Use the 7-to-1 rule. Talk about what is important to your clients or prospects seven times for each time that you mention yourself or your products. If you follow this simple rule, youíre less likely to generate waste and more likely to create real value for your clients. If you donít have a marketing plan, youíre more likely to create muda. Your marketing plan is your guidepost for the year. Itís designed to help you stay on course and reach your predetermined goals. If you invest quality time setting your goals and then follow your plan, youíre less likely to waste time, energy and money getting there. If youíre not careful with your marketing, itís easy to create more muda than good marketing effort. If you use muda as a test when youíre looking at your marketing ideas, I think you will see better results. If your marketing effort is not creating value for your clients, donít do it! You will simply end up with more muda. The Super Bowl is a great example of potential muda. Everyone knows that the last weekend in January is the pinnacle of marketing and advertising. OK, at least people know that itís time for the Super Bowl and with that comes some great marketing and advertising. Well, maybe not great marketing and advertising, but at least itís new. Major newspapers carry pregame stories about the ads that aired the previous year and those that will air during the current year. The articles talk about how much is being spent for 30 seconds of time. Just before the 2001 game, I also read a story about how many of 2000ís Super Bowl advertisers were no longer in business. It was scary. Marketing people at the dot-com companies figured their businesses would be successful if enough people saw their message. Muda got in the way. Take, for example, a company like monster.com, a Web site that people go to when theyíre looking for a job or when their company needs to hire staff. Monster.com did not go out of business after the 2000 Super Bowl and they had some fun commercials in 2001ís game. The question I have is how much of it was waste? Did the commercials add value to their target market? Does entertainment offer enough value to justify a huge Super Bowl ad budget? Some people will argue that this is part of building brand. In other words, Monster.com is investing so that everyone will know who they are. That may be true, but do all those Super Bowl fans need to know? Is the TV audience composed of enough people in their target market? If the answers to those questions are no, you end up with lots of muda. I donít think most of you are planning Super Bowl ads for next year, but if youíre running ads in your local newspaper, ask yourself if you are creating more waste than good. Do your ads reach enough of your target market so youíre not wasting your time, energy and money? Itís much easier to create lots of muda than it is to craft good marketing. Martin R. Baird is president of Advisormarketing, a full-service marketing management firm that provides a variety of services to financial advisors to help them improve their marketing methods and increase revenues, including seminars and conference speaking engagements on such topics as referrals, marketing, goal setting and customer service. The firm's Web site, www.advisormarketing.com, offers free marketing information and tools for financial advisors. Baird may be reached at mbaird@advisormarketing.com or visit www.advisormarketing.com for marketing tactics that will help your business grow. |
