Friday, August 28, 2009

Newton's Third Law of Marketing

Marketing is not immune to the rule that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.


It doesn’t matter what you do, some people will be drawn to it and others will be pushed away. It is a fact of nature, physics, and yes…marketing.


Any marketing campaign should inspire passion, positive and negative. You can’t have one without the other. Without passion, any marketing campaign is destined to flounder in its own mediocrity and will fall, unnoticed, into the blank pages of a book titled “Unremarkable”.


Our fear of a negative reaction, no matter how small, paralyses us and forces us into apathy. We fear that somebody might take it the wrong way so we ignore those that would embrace it. We water ourselves, our creativity, and our brand down to avoid a reaction. In doing so, we create our own self-fulfilling prophecy of failure.


We, as credit unions, can no longer afford to coast along; hoping the rate on our ad will bring in new members. We must inspire passion, create advocates (inherently creating “opponents” in the process), and embrace brave new approaches in order to stand out and be noticed.


You can’t please everyone, so stop trying and please the ones that matter to you and your brand.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Beautifully written. Hope the west coast treats you well. Debra Trautman

Andy said...

Thanks Debra, I'm glad you enjoyed it. The west coast is treating me great. I'm really enjoying it.

Anonymous said...

Very good point from an insider perspective, but what is it that you might imply? What type of marketing campaign will grab the ear of the common person? All marketing from credit unions and banks sound the same to me.

Must the credit union movement prove they are different of just better?

I think a truly different approach would have to include marketing responses by non credit union civilians. Maybe this would give an outsiders perspective as to what makes a credit union unattractive to them. Consistently polling current credit union members only tells you what your current members need. Maybe the real question should be what would it take to make you want to join a credit union.

Hope the west coast is a little more entertaining than Augusta Maine.

From an old comrad. Hope life is good.

Unknown said...

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-Andrew @ Acton