It has long been thought that the way to go about marketing your business is on your own.  That a competitor should never be mentioned to a potential customer for fear that they will become a customer of your competitor rather than you.  Each business being like an island on which no other businesses exist.

Obviously, marketing this way works or it wouldn’t be done.  The effort and the expense is all yours and the results are all yours, good or bad.  As we all know, advertising is very expensive and having a campaign that doesn’t produce good results is extremely expensive.

For the sake of argument, lets say your business is on a block that has 10 stores on it.  These businesses could be all antique shops or restaurants or whatever.  Some would believe that one or two of these shops going out of business is a good thing for the businesses that remain.  That the customers that would have went to the one or two that went out of business would then become customers of the remaining businesses.  I, on the other hand, would have to argue against that.  In my opinion, if one or two businesses on the block are closed, not only do their customers  go elsewhere but so do others.  The perception of the block with closed businesses is that of a declining area, one in which people are less likely to spend their time and money.

Now, let’s think in terms of that same block being a community.  The 10 businesses working together for the betterment of all the businesses, of the community.  Those 10 businesses are now sharing the expense and  effort of marketing and advertising.  Now advertising becomes much more affordable and with 10 people working together, bouncing ideas off of each other, also becomes more creative.  The best part is that once customers begin to feel the synergy on the block, they will come to trust and be extremely loyal to the community.  This then changes the perception of the area and attracts more customers to your community.

What are your thoughts on this?  Do you agree or disagree with my line of thinking?  Share your comments below.  Let’s get a conversation going.

Photo credit:  Edgar Barany

The other day I posted this question to a college blog I was writing for and I thought that you might be interested as well.

How should a university be teaching subject matter when, with the present information revolution that has been going on for the past ten years, changes things almost on a daily basis?  This new available information does not have much of an impact on the hard sciences (chemistry, bio-chemistry, physics or medicine) nor does it impact history, philosophy, music or the languages.  However, sociology, business, marketing and communications are changing, literally, daily.

With the accessibility of the multitude of new platforms available and the mechanisms for people sharing information and conversation, societal norms are no longer normal. People are developing new expectations of companies and other people in general.  Sharing is becoming the norm.  Honesty is not just expected but required and interaction is demanded.

You know I have a love of statistics and one of the most common I get a kick out of is:  4 out of 5 pediatricians recommend X.  This is the same thing as saying, 1 out of 5 pediatricians would not recommend X.  Or to belabor this further, 20% of ALL pediatricians would NOT recommend X.  So now, are you going to give X to YOUR kid?

Now the real funny thing about this is, parents are learning not to believe (or even look at) this claim in advertising.  Instead, they will go on Facebook and ask their friends or even go to Twitter and ask the world for their advice.  There is becoming less and less of a need for advertising and even less of a reason to believe claims in advertising.  I don’t have to believe or trust you any longer.  I have access to enough people to ask, that I can find 2 or 3, or 300, which have a firsthand experience with you.  They have nothing to gain or lose from telling me the truth about you or your product.

In the world of everyday issues, collective wisdom is the determinate of the choices being made.  As platforms expand, become the norm and are used throughout society, information will be garnered by means of the collective wisdom of society.  Businesses, marketing firms and universities would be well advised to get out in front of it.

Photo by Gary Hayes