Marketing Ethics: A wounded animal lashes out

As companies slowly recover from recession and look at their sales and marketing strategy again, Andrew Scott, Managing Director of Purplex Marketing, asks whether it’s time to stop the back-biting and get back to professional marketing.

This year was a landmark for British politics, as the three major party leaders followed our American cousins and went head to head on live TV, hoping to sway the votes of the British people.  The show certainly drew in the viewers and did wonders for British politics, connecting with audience demographics that otherwise would have shown little or no interest in voting.  But what did it do for the party leaders?

While Brown and Cameron attacked each other throughout the debate, Clegg’s popularity increased minute-by-minute.  Was it his policies that overwhelmingly swayed the electorate during the debate?  While Clegg obviously had his part to play in his rise in popularity, Brown and Cameron did most of his selling for him, by undermining and attacking each other.

It’s not just in politics we see this trend.  In response to the recession, both Tesco and Asda have tried “comparison marketing” on TV by pointing out how much lower their prices are than their competitors.  And who came out the winner? Sainsbury’s, who posted a significant increase in profits.

Understand your customers

Marketing is not about how big your budget is, how clever you are at attacking your competitors, or how brash your PR machine is.  Sustainable, long term business growth and profitability comes through really understanding and connecting with your customers in a positive way.

The recession has damaged the fenestration industry and we’ve seen a significant drop in volume.   In such a market, customers – and potential customers – don’t want to see suppliers fight it out or undermine each other, it makes them nervous.  It might give a few short-term wins, but in the long run it damages your brand. We all know an animal is at its most dangerous when wounded.  Do you want to portray your business in this way?

Successful companies who are at the top of their game are driven by marketing principles and ethics that focus on the customer, not their competitors.  Mercedes-Benz may be BMW’s arch rival, but you won’t hear them say “we’re better than they are” because they know it will devalue their own brand values.  Instead, they focus on the demographics of their target customers and what their products will do for them.

With so many changes occurring in the fenestration industry, there is a temptation among sales and marketing departments to undermine or attack competitors, creating rumours or publishing mistruths.  But this is a double edged sword that could be damaging their own business by pushing customers away.

In the long run, companies with strong marketing principles and ethics (brand equity) will ride the wave of recession better because customers will remain, on aggregate, more loyal.  Companies with little or no brand equity are likely to lose customers faster, and it is often these companies who revert to the negative marketing strategies discussed earlier, with the effect of turning off even more customers.

Today, we have a multitude of marketing channels available to us.  But whatever channels we choose as part of our sales and marketing strategy, creating a sense of brand value and integrity will eventually pay dividends.

In the final analysis, we all like to surround ourselves with positive, successful and dynamic people.  It’s human nature. We don’t want to associate with negative people, those that run down others or gossip.

Promoting your company, your products and your service positively, enthusiastically and professionally will attract like-minded customers.  Not just in advertising or promotion, but with the sales team in the field. Selling the positive benefits of your products – rather than undermining your competitors, will gain you respect, credibility and long term benefits.

Andrew Scott is Managing Director of Purplex, the business, marketing and training consultants to the window industry.  Andrew has acquired, built and sold several window companies and advises major organisations on business strategy.   A Fellow of the Institute of Sales & Marketing Management and member of the Institute of Direct Marketing, he has won numerous awards for business growth and strategy.