Have you become so distracted that you’re missing the point?

In this edition of Monday Morning Marketing Quote, I’ll touch on a common oversight in marketing. I’ll also give a few research tips for determining your customer’s felt need. Today’s quote is from my partner, Mike Dandridge, and his book, The One-Year Business Turnaround.

“Many businesses miss the point. Your product or service is only valuable if your customer says it is. We know our product and service so well that we are constantly looking for ways to improve it – in our eyes. It’s easy to forget that customers aren’t as familiar with our products as we are and their idea of what’s valuable can be completely different from ours.” – Mike Dandridge

In this Monday Morning Marketing Quote, we learn from Steven Pinker, best-selling author of How the Mind Works. Steven discusses the brain and it’s ability to detect inconsistencies. Together, we’ll learn how this applies to your marketing message.

Sometimes it’s good to just cut loose and have some fun. (But if your marketing looks anything like this, we really need to talk.)

Enjoy the video (from the show, Family Guy) and have a great weekend!

Big thanks to my friend Tamara for sharing this video.

But aligning your actions with your words is easier said than done. Inconsistencies sometimes creep up unintentionally, and these things happen to the best of us.

Even the mighty U.S. Military struggles to recognize and resolve conflicts in the messages it sends.

A recent article from The New York Times quoted Admiral Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as saying, “No amount of public relations will establish credibility if American behavior overseas is perceived as arrogant, uncaring or insulting.”

Admiral Mullen reasoned that American messages to counter extremist propaganda campaigns “lack credibility, because we haven’t invested enough in building trust and relationships, and we haven’t always delivered on promises.”

Bingo.

And just like the U.S. Military, your company must also deliver on its promises. So here are three straightforward questions that you should ask yourself regularly to ensure your actions and words agree.

The Three Questions of Message Alignment:

1. What are your company’s defining characteristics?
   What makes your business special? What are those values that your business stands for, or against?  What promises or claims are being made in your advertising? How about on your website?  And don’t forget about the unspoken expectations customers might have of you. Be diligent. Flush everything out.
2. What signals do your decisions send?
   Look at your business through the eyes of the customer. Start with the basics: Review your hours-of-operation. Comb through your policies and procedures. Examine the decisions that your employees make. And most importantly, gather customer feedback, comments and reviews of your products or services. Google Alerts is a crafty way to keep tabs on your company’s reputation. This free service allows you to choose multiple keywords that are relevant to your business. Google will then scour the Internet and email you each time any of these words have been mentioned relative to to your company.
3. Is there conflict between what you are saying and who you are being?
   Remember, your company’s credibility is at stake here. Move quickly to reconcile any contradiction:  Whack the clichés. Close all loopholes. Substantiate every claim. Investigate any complaint or concern.

Again, get in the routine of using the Three Questions of Message Alignment to ensure that your marketing message remains consistent. Believe me, your company’s credibility depends on it.

* Hat tip to Jeff Sexton for sending me the article on the U.S. Military.