There’s no guarantee your marketing will make a difference. Ever. No matter how good your message is.
And yet, you’ve got to work for a strong message anyway. It’s the only logical thing to do.
Allow me to explain.
It can happen: You’ve got a good message. But you get a bad result.
Let’s say you’re promoting an outdoor festival. You’ve got a great lineup of artists and vendors. You’ve come up with a clever, unforgettable event name, and your promo video has gone viral. Then, on the date of the festival, there’s an all-day monsoon. Nobody shows up. Good message, bad result.
You’re launching a new product. Research shows a desperate need, and your clever hype campaign has everybody talking. Then, the day before the product is to be shipped out to stores, the warehouse burns down. No product gets distributed; no sales happen. Good message, bad result.
You’re doing a surprise one-day pop-up shop. Your plan is a same-day PR blitz that leverages local media outlets with breaking-news urgency to spread word-of-mouth. Then, the morning of the sale, there’s a terrible plane crash out at the airport. Your story gets bumped. Good message, bad result.
Are any of these bad results the fault of the message?
Now let’s consider flipside scenarios.
It can happen: You’ve got a bad message, but you get a good result.
Again, let’s say you’re promoting an outdoor festival. You hired an artist to design a beautiful poster. But instead of proportioning it properly for various social platforms, an intern simply mashes and stretches the poster image, distorting the work of art to the point that it’s bordering on illegible. Despite this, record crowds show up. Bad message, good results.
You’re launching a new product. Your CEO insists on starring in the marketing campaign, boasting and calling himself the next Steve Jobs. Your campaign is the joke of the industry, relentlessly roasted on social media. Nevertheless, the product is outstanding, and sales blow past projections. Bad message, good result.
You’re doing a surprise one-day pop-up shop. Your plan is a day-of blitz on all the socials. Only thing is, you forget to include the location. Luckily, word gets around and people find out on their own. Lines are two blocks long, and everything’s sold out by lunchtime. Bad message, good result.
In these examples, did a bad message cause failure?
Not at all. In fact, according to my research, message matters most. And it’s not even close.
But it’s time somebody said it — there are 4 realities of message effectiveness.
As the above examples illustrate:
Again, this is not to say that your message is irrelevant. I’m just pointing out that your message is not the only factor. After all, message is part of promotion, and promotion is only one of the four Ps. If your product is undesirable… if you try to sell it at the wrong place… or if you price it wrong… it doesn’t matter how good your message is.
All that said, your message is undeniably a factor. What you say and how you say it can influence people, consciously or subconsciously. It can even overcome shortcomings in other areas. So you have a choice to make: Either you take control of your message, or you take your chances.
Either you take control of your message. Or take your chances.
Well for heaven’s sake, why would you take your chances with a bad message? You wouldn’t, I’m sure. At least not intentionally.
But what if your message is bad and you don’t realize it? You really oughta find out. Read up on what makes a message work.
Surely nobody’d argue with that assertion. But let me offer a supporting argument. Which I confess is probably a real stretch. But what the heck.
Here’s that list again:
Let’s pretend that each one of those is a 25% probability. Wouldn’t you want to put your money on #1? A good message can’t hurt you; it can only help you. So like I said in the beginning, it’s the only option that makes sense.
Two takeaways for you:
In other words, as odd as it sounds:
Your message may not matter. And yet, it’s the thing that matters most.
Your message may not matter. And yet, it’s the thing that matters most.
Don’t you want to be more confident and more effective? Of course you do. So take these three steps:
