Monday, June 12, 2006
What Is Marketing?
Marketing is setting forth in the best-possible light. It's like dating. Marketing avoids acting like it "can't be bothered." And yet, that is the opposite of what many retail employees do. Many front-liners carry on as they were without seeming to notice the presence of a customer with a voting wallet.
Here's a quick guage: Of the last 10 times you were at the supermarket, how many times did both the checker and the bagger talk to you rather than to each other? (Including you fully in their conversation with one another, though rare, counts.) If 10 occasions is too many to remember, consider just the last handful. Or did they converse with each other as though you were at your best if perfectly invisible?
Most of us like to do business with an organization in which it seems everyone gets along--that the co-workers like each other and can actually stand being there (preferably enjoy being there, but how can we ask for so much?). Courteous camaraderie will take a break with a customer approaches, and resume only after the customer is out of sight.
Of course, it's not the employees' fault, at least not at first. Were they trained as ambassadors or only as 10-key operators (nowadays "scanners") and sackers?
From the print shop to the post office, from the lumberyard to the library, every employee (and volunteer; though, volunteers seem to inherently know this) is a representative of the entire company, an ambassador, a marketer, a person on behalf of the organization "dating" the customer's business.
Perhaps as consumers we should apologize for interrupting!
Here's a quick guage: Of the last 10 times you were at the supermarket, how many times did both the checker and the bagger talk to you rather than to each other? (Including you fully in their conversation with one another, though rare, counts.) If 10 occasions is too many to remember, consider just the last handful. Or did they converse with each other as though you were at your best if perfectly invisible?
Most of us like to do business with an organization in which it seems everyone gets along--that the co-workers like each other and can actually stand being there (preferably enjoy being there, but how can we ask for so much?). Courteous camaraderie will take a break with a customer approaches, and resume only after the customer is out of sight.
Of course, it's not the employees' fault, at least not at first. Were they trained as ambassadors or only as 10-key operators (nowadays "scanners") and sackers?
From the print shop to the post office, from the lumberyard to the library, every employee (and volunteer; though, volunteers seem to inherently know this) is a representative of the entire company, an ambassador, a marketer, a person on behalf of the organization "dating" the customer's business.
Perhaps as consumers we should apologize for interrupting!
