You can’t control gas prices, weather, or competition… but you CAN react. In the “right” way.
Here’s the dirty little secret about marketing: for many businesses, marketing affects just 9% to 15% of short-term sales. The rest of short-term revenue is attributed to non-marketing factors; all the external issues that affect a consumer’s purchase decision, including weather (“Man, I don’t want to get out of my car in this rain!), gas prices (I’m not driving 15 miles just to get to that store… it will wait.), your operational practices (“Where’s my 10% off coupon that I usually get in the Sunday paper?”), and your competition (Yeah, but, Joe’s Pizza offers a Kids-Eat-Free night.). All of these factors are out of your control.
Growing a business is complex. You can have the best marketing campaigns in the world to drive people into a store or business, and if cash registers are broken and accounting departments can’t process invoices, sales will fall. In those situations, you can max out your marketing budget and revenues won’t move.
Similarly, in today’s perceived recessionary economy, you can’t market successfully unless you take into account nonmarketing factors such as macroeconomic dislocations that may be lowering sales. For example, a home improvements retailer might develop messages that address budget concerns by appealing to the cost savings of “doing it yourself” rather than hiring a contractor.
Don’t, however, think that doing everything stated above will dramatically move the needle. When it comes to marketing, judging outcomes is complicated. By continuing to market, you at least have neutralized a falloff.
So, what can a CMO / CEO learn from this? Above all, the influence of non-marketing factors on marketing teaches us the importance of understanding the big picture… the relationship between the two so that your sales forecasts more accurately reflect reality; including those factors you may not be able to control.
About Wendi McGowan