Most of us are familiar with the popular movie "Field of Dreams" starring Kevin Costner. The 1989 film is best known for the voices that whispered "if you build it, they will come." The statement was made to Costner's character, encouraging him to build a baseball field in his backyard in order to get dead baseball legends to come and play.Those words were so popular that 20 years later, many use the phrase in real life to emphasize to others that you have to build on what you believe in. They tell aspiring entrepreneurs that "if you build it [your company]...they [the customers] will come".
Is this true though? Do you just build a company and expect customers to show up? Absolutely not. You have to do much more than just build a company. To get those customers, you have to actually brand and market your company.
Think of it this way: How did you find out about the products that you currently buy? 9 times out of 10 - you either saw a commercial on TV, heard it on the radio, saw it in a magazine, clipped a coupon from a newspaper, saw a banner ad, or got an email promo. You also may have heard about it via word-of-mouth from someone else who learned about it through those outlets.
The point is that you did not telepathically come to know that a certain product existed, and that you could buy it. You were marketed to, and this is exactly what you must do to promote your own services and products.
Whether you are selling a book, opening a coffee shop, or starting a lawn care business - you must understand that customers will not just automatically come to you. They don't know you exist, until you market to them. You can spend $1,000 on your web site, $200 on business cards, and $500 on equipment - and still end up with no customers.
Early on, you must factor in what your marketing strategy will be and create a budget for it. If your marketing initiatives are not realistic or just plain non-existent, I promise you - you will fail in business. If you believe (like so many do) that you will get automatic customers when you start your company, the only thing you will get is automatic failure.
I'm changing the words, right here and right now. The new saying is: "If you build it and market it, they will come."
This is the problem that I had with a previous business partner. We both majored in engineering in college so the thought was that if we built a good product people would naturally want it and tell others about it. We found out the hard way that ideas are easy marketing is the hard part. What are some of your favorite marketing books? I just finished The Purple Cow by Seth Godin.
ReplyDeleteYup. This is true. As a small business owner I am finding that out now. But how much of your budget needs to be dedicated to marketing - on an ongoing basis as well as to launch a new venture?
ReplyDeleteDominique DiPrima
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