Page 52 - Duct Tape Marketing

Discover Your Core Marketing Message

products and services define what they are buying, you will be much
better suited to communicate how your product or service is unique.

Capture the Core Message

Once you conduct your customer interviews, and do your competitive
research and a bit of business soul searching, you must move toward
refining your unique point of differentiation into a core message to use
in all of your marketing.

You can achieve this with something I call your marketing purpose
statement.

Your Marketing Purpose Statement

The purpose statement is not meant to be communicated to your cli-
ents, but rather is meant to be the basis for all of your marketing and
customer service activity. Think in terms of this being your rallying
cry in the boardroom. This is how you want to be perceived in plain
English, not polished marketing rhetoric.

A good example might be, “We’re custom home remodelers, and
we want to be known as the ‘we-show-up-when-we-say, no-mess, no-
trash, we’ll-make-your-neighbors-happy, contractor.’ We have hired
the most professional people in the industry, and they stand out
whenever we compete for business or do work for a customer. We take
our Shop-Vac into a sales call to help demonstrate clean!”

This exercise can be fun, but it also allows you to drop the mask
and really articulate the ultimate purpose of your marketing. From
this you may find it easier to craft a more creative marketing message,
and everyone in the firm will “get it” without the marketing polish.

Your marketing purpose statement should become not just a goal

33