E-MarkeTIP




		MARKETING



		BRANDING



		POSITIONING



		DESIGN & LAYOUT

		For more information on building your brand, contact: john@mengassociates.com

E-MarkeTIP is a monthly marketing column by John Meng of Meng & Associates Inc., a full-service marketing firm, specializing in strategic positioning, brand building and public relations custom-fit to the needs of small- to medium-sized companies.

Be a quitter. Recently while I was chastising my eight-year-old son for quitting a game because things were not going his way, I realized he had all the instincts of a world-class marketer. Conventional wisdom tells us that success comes to those who work hard and never quit. Poppycock! That so-called wisdom may be fine for the Mary Poppins and Muppet crowd, but it’s nowhere close to the world of marketing. Good marketers are never afraid to quit and, in fact, a successful strategy may actually depend on knowing when to quit.

There is an ancient military axiom that recommends reinforcing success and abandoning failure, and seemingly as proof, military successes throughout history have been achieved by feeding resources to the commanders making the most progress. It’s a strategy lesson that every marketer should heed.

Many business managers today still follow the old conventional wisdom. They believe that if they have a better product and if they work harder than the competition, they will succeed. Some companies hold massive seminars to inspire team sales and they walk on hot coals together to build team unity. Others dish out Employee-of-the-Month awards like they were Rolaids at a Texas chili festival.

"If at first you don't succeed, try, and try again. Then give up. There's no sense in being a damned fool about it."

- W.C. Fields

However, despite the hard work and pep rallies, marketing history shows that a company with several product lines typically has products that are winners and products that are losers. Realistically, the loser products should be cut loose and resources shifted to reinforce the winners. Instead, these companies spend even more time and resources on the losers. These managers adopt a ‘human wave’ strategy and throw more salespeople, more advertising, more of everything at the problem when there are few signs of success. They think that if they try just a little harder, they will achieve market leadership. But, in almost every case, a company would be better off quitting the failed strategy or product line.

If a marketing strategy doesn’t work, doesn’t reflect the product’s position and/or doesn’t resonate with the consumers, no amount of product loyalty, hard work, seminars, additional employees or resources will make it successful. That’s when you have to be a quitter and try a new approach. The sooner you stop a failing campaign, the more resources you have to try again.

So follow the example of an eight-year-old marketer. When things aren’t going your way with a current marketing strategy, don’t squander your resources. Be a quitter.