Oops, Are You Doing “Tactic Marketing?” No Wonder It’s Not Working

Not long ago, I was at a social gathering and, as usually happens at these things when they discover I own a marketing agency, I got asked for on-the-spot consulting advice—this time by a gentleman who owned a chain of health food stores on the west coast. 

His grandfather started the business during the Great Depression, and against all odds it had managed to survive three generations of family ownership, two major recessions, and countless changes of government policies in regards to "natural health regulations." 

But now it was in peril.

Surprisingly three of the nine stores had to be permanently shut down during the pandemic and things weren't looking so rosy for the remaining six stores. 

I say surprisingly because according to recent data, during just a 6 week period in 2020, Americans spent a staggering $435 million dollars more on natural health supplements - substantially more than in the previous year.

If you owned a chain of health food stores in 2020, doesn't this sound like the perfect storm of opportunity to you?

It sure did to me, so what was going wrong?

Clearly far more than could be pinpointed in a short conversation at dinner, let alone solved, which to his credit he quickly acknowledged by promptly calling my assistant to book a Business Transformation Consult.

In scouring through his company's marketing, inventory lists, and sales records and having interviewed his key members of staff, it became quickly apparent what the real problem was. It was an obvious yet ironically well-hidden problem that was like a fast growing cancer in his business:

the owner was no longer the one in control of his stores, his employees were. 

They were the ones calling the shots, deciding on opening hours, determining return policies, and which products to promote – or not.

They opened late and closed early.

Shelves were dusty, retail displays were tired and the customer experience was anything but positive. 

But that's not even the half of it. 

Perhaps the worst part was that the owner's son had been put in charge of marketing with dire results.

Instead of beginning with strategy and understanding his customers and their unmet needs, he was blowing their marketing budget on producing expensive viral videos that got great engagement, but had no impact on sales.

In other words, the son had lost sight of who their customers really were and instead was chasing marketing tactic after tactic thinking this is what would bring them sales. Surely someone who watches those videos was going to buy right?

Wrong. 

The business owner had also gone wrong by fully handing the reins over to others thinking they had the company’s best interests at heart and would act accordingly - something I see on a pretty frequent basis, especially in medical practices.

In analyzing past customer demographics it was apparent that the vast majority of the stores' customer base skewed much older – fifties and above. No wonder sales had all but dried up. That's why just leaping in and launching a new marketing tactic, rarely works.

 The Key Marketing Lesson For Your Business

Marketing should never start with tactics – it should always start with strategy. It takes just 7 simple steps to do this using the Client Stampede Formula®.

If you've been convinced to implement marketing tactic after tactic – and you're getting disappointing results, then that's a sure sign your marketing strategy is way off. Even though I don't know your business, I'd wager it's also what’s causing you to waste large sums of money.

Don't get fooled into thinking the fix for your marketing is to “do more to make more money” – that more marketing tactics is what's needed. 

Very likely it's less.

Afterall, if your current marketing isn't getting you great results then why would it make sense to do more of it? 

What you need to do is to go back to the drawing board to devise better strategy. This will also result in better messaging, better branding, better targeting and far more effective ads for your business that result in more sales.

Leave tactic marketing to your competitors so they can blow through their marketing budgets in record time.

Always, always start with strategy.