Ride the Lightning

HOW DO SMALL EDD FIRMS GET THE WORD OUT?

March 17, 2009

In yesterday's post, there was a comment from Mr. John Smith. A reader who wishes to remain anonymous wrote to rebut something that John said:

Mr. John Smith wote:

“Any marketing professional worth their salt should be capable of defining competitive advantages no matter what size their company or their competitors. This is marketing 101. Having the most resources is no guarantee of success. How resources are used is much more important.”

What Mr. Smith is missing is that although defining competitive advantages is easy, getting the message out is like climbing Everest  for a small firm. The larger firms have deeper pockets from which to feed the advertising machine, and they’re operating from a perceived position of superiority to start with, since the implication in a competitive capitalist system is that a larger company reached the top of the food chain by providing superior service at a lower cost.

A good marketer can do good work, but no amount of marketing genius can make $10,000 do the work of $10 million, and it takes more than talent to topple a company from a “perceived” position as a market leader. In marketing, mindshare matters more than money – that’s why most people still call facial tissue “Kleenex,” and why copies are still thought of as “Xeroxes.”

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As the President of a company whose marketing budget is closer to $10,000 than $10 million, I can only sigh and agree – but I'm still climbing Everest with determination and grit.

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