Is it remarkable?

Increasingly as the product element of marketing is removed from our remit, we are left to promote products or services we didn’t develop or contribute to.

It can mean a gap between what we know the customer needs (and what we need to reach them) and what we have.

It can mean that people who don’t have customer insights are effectively holding the success of marketing to ransom.

This is a difficult situation as we are often asked to achieve higher targets with the same (or less) money for products or services that don’t make achieving this easy.

It doesn’t necessarily mean the products are poor, but in a fragmented world with limited attention spans we need the product or service to be remarkable.  To resonate with customers.  To make a difference in their lives.

Is it remarkable?

Remarkable is such a desultory word these days, but it means we wish to comment on it, we wish to talk about it, to share our views and experiences.

Is it remarkable?

Without a remarkable product or service (or point of difference) we are therefore pressed to make the marketing and advertising campaign remarkable – the ‘viral’ element (shudder) of the campaign that means people are sharing the campaign itself.

Which is nice for poor executives who think this is what marketers should achieve, but it certainly doesn’t guarantee sales.

Is it remarkable?

Developing a remarkable campaign is a very expensive bandaid if you have a product or service that isn’t remarkable.

Tear this bandaid off.

Get involved in the product development process.

Use your customer insights and your analysis and your lag and lead data to inform a discussion focusing on making a product or service that is remarkable.

Be remarkable in your pursuit of excellence for your customer.