Marketing awakens, Product wins — Customers

Scene 1:

A few months back, an exasperated CMO mentioned to me that there’s nothing she/Marketing can do to increase revenue. It all just depends on the product. I recorded that in my head and moved on.

Scene 2:

I had been seeing a lot of ads for a particular new shaving razor in orange. I had read about it in the news. It was brilliant in every Marketing dimension. Catchy name. Distinct color (bright orange compared to the dull razor that’s been around since Flintstones’ era). Lot of money spent on ads online. Media coverage. Beautiful website and perfect eCommerce experience of ordering a trial. Pretty packaging. I must admit that the package was so nice that I kept it for several days after opening it.

There was just one problem. I tried the product and was pretty disappointed. While it was cheaper than the big brand, I noticed almost nothing better about the product. Maybe I’m just so unrefined.

Result — I cancelled the subscription. Game over.

Scene 3:

A few weeks later a friend recommended a new brand of razor. I looked at the website and it seemed OK. A dull name. Videos touting distinct product features but videos didn’t seem very high quality. The “technical” features of the product did intrigue me enough to give it a try. The eCommerce aspect of the website was pretty good though not as cosmetically beautiful. Almost no media coverage or ads that I had ever been exposed to.

I received the product, tried it and really liked it. It delivered well on the distinct features it promised in their not-so-great videos.

Result — I’ve been a customer since several months and am pretty much locked. Now I tell people about it.

Observations:

Product quality trumps branding/packaging/ads (provided all other elements of the customer experience like website are decent).

Marketing is paramount to reach customers before anyone else.

Marketing awakens sleeping customers who might not know what’s out there and may not care to search because it’s easy to live with status quo.

At B2C and B2B companies primarily selling online without a real sales team, Marketing’s engagement with a customer is short-lived. Get them to trial phase and then it’s Product Quality that will dictate conversion.

At B2B companies selling complex products via a sales team (especially field sales), Marketing’s job gets stretched over a long period of time because of the duration of the sales cycle and no. of people involved. While in the end, it’ll be about product quality, the end comes after a long time.

Revenue-centric marketers stay engaged during the entire sales cycle spanning months or more. They measure and impact the entire trajectory till win/loss. In fact, this is what lets them help the Sales team increase win rates compared to companies where Marketing washes its hands off with holy water after dumping leads in CRM.