To know us is to love us - right?

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Awareness is a common goal of marketing.

The assumption, of course, is to know me is to buy from me. Image advertising. Being funny, memorable, businesslike, serious, whatever we think will help the customer remember us.

You know the textbook example of great awareness/brand marketing? Movie marketing for Snakes on a Plane. It went viral months before opening day. It had incredible word of mouth. Heck, half the movie was designed by the target audience. Prelaunch estimates projected box office earnings in excess of $100M.

The problem, of course, is that awareness did not translate into sales. Actual U.S. box office? $34M. If you account for both production budget and marketing expenses, the franchise broke even at best. A spectacularly successful failure.

That leap of faith between awareness and sales doesn't play well for marketing teams in tough times, either. How does marketing show me the money?

First, here are my assumptions:
- Your company doesn't already have a century-old storied brand.
- You don't have money or time to build one.
- You are under the gun to drive sales this fiscal year.
- You understand your customers well enough to talk to them in a manner they will consider directly and actionably relevant, or if you don't you're willing to roll up your sleeves and figure it you.

If those are your parameters, then the marketing answer, in my view, is two things.

Thing One: Strategic coordination between operations, marketing, and sales.
Someone is driving the conversation internally and externally so that your company is able to make promises it can keep and live up to the promises it does make. This isn't about perfection or even operational excellence. It's about understanding the reality of your operations, having some clue of your customers' mindset and needs, and being able to put your company in a relevant position between the two. If your marketing message makes either your operational delivery team or your customer facing sales people cringe (let alone complain openly), do some more work before you take it to market.

Thing Two: Direct marketing.
Direct marketing teaches us to question anything that (1) can't be measured, and (2) doesn't lead to revenue.

Run campaigns which intend to get a carefully identified set of persons to take specific actions to move through their buying processes. Measure what actually happens. Then tweak your approach based on prospects' behavior and feedback from sales people.

Awareness building tactics that help you gain credibility with your target buyers and influencers can help. But you should be able to draw a line from those awareness tactics to a step in your demand generation process or in your sales cycle, and identify some evidence of lift. Even if it's anecdotal.

The meat of your marketing budget should go into getting buyers and influencers to take concrete, measurable steps toward you, which lead to other measurable steps, which lead eventually to a sale.

Attention B2B online marketers: one for the swipe file!

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For you non marketers, here's a secret of the trade. Many marketers maintain a little box called the Swipe File. It's just a collection of marketing tactics we've observed that caught our eye as an example of a good idea, good execution, clever humor, whatever.

My tip for your swipe file: Tatum LLC. They have a fantastic email newsletter targeting financial executives. (Full disclosure: I have no relationship with Tatum except for being buddies with some of their current and former team members.)

Regardless of our profession, all of us will be spending more time helping financial executives understand why we want their money for our various game-changing, must-have, do-it-right-now projects and tools.

Wondering how the financial executive thinks? What they're worried about? What language they speak? How they define value?

Or, are you simply a hapless B2B marketing looking for ideas that speak to the executive reader?

Check out Tatum's website & go sign up for their e-blasts. (And it wouldn't hurt to go brush up on financial ratios and Net Present Value, too.)

Buying is irrational...even B2B buying

Is your customer buying...

impulsive gratification?
the right to procrastinate?
the fact that someone else can't have it, while they can?
looking good to a boss?
a moment of positive attention from a significant other?
stress reduction?
adventure?
self confidence?
a class or economic or social statement?
a way to reverse a risky decision (if it goes bad)?
security in the face of perceived danger or attack?
job security?
human kindness and appreciation?
blame avoidance?
rapport?
bragging rights?
found time?
not having to learn a technology or skill?
not having to understand or think about the problem they're solving?

Even B2B buyers are buying for such reasons. It's never about the lowest price for Widget or Service X. Price follows value. Value often lurks in irrational places.

How to charge the highest possible price

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Understand what makes your product most valuable to your customers. Exercise caution when selling under any other circumstances.

Price is always a strategic value question. It gets short shrift in the business plan when the business doesn't understand its customers' buying decisions.

Price power is also why so many companies outsource noncore tasks or divest noncore assets. If I can't deliver enough value to have a business model, I have to retool my delivery model, find new ways to make my existing infrastructure deliver value, or go out of business.

Case in point: Blockbuster and late fees. They're addicted to the revenue stream from late fees, because they haven't identified a strength that rationalizes their current cost structure. They also haven't retooled (or at least haven't finished retooling) to lower their costs. In return, they're losing customers, market share, and business viability as a going concern. Raising prices and adding fees won't save them.

More positive scenarios:

...If your art nets you more in a gallery, then stay away from art fairs - or vice versa.

...If your customers cost you double what they're willing to pay for last-minute work, use price to drive away rush orders.

...Or, specialize in crisis management and become your market's first call at the last minute. Just make sure your premium price accounts for the riskier business model and high pressure -- and the value your client gets out of the arrangement.

Tough times or no, you have more pricing power where you have strength. Don't let trends, fads, or desperation fool you: if you overprice something your customer doesn't value, you'll be worse off than before you started.