Inspired by this post at 37 Signals.
This Murphy bottle sticker is just one example of what I like to call “little green lies” — product packaging and advertising claims that try hard to spin natural stats on unnatural products in their favor.
As the 37 Signals highlights, when marketers can’t do anything more than control the message they’re rendered pretty much useless (and in fact potentially dangerous). The absurdity of this label is hard not to miss. I mean plastic comes from corn at some level (that’s naturally derived, right?) This got me thinking about my role as a marketer at a company and what marketing can and can’t do.
What Marketing Can’t Do
Marketing can’t:
- Make your product suck less
- Make your product work better
- Make your product provide more value
- Make the product something people want and love
- Make people happier about your customer service
- Improve your warranty
- Improve your return policy
- Make your customer service people care
- Make your account managers more on the ball
- Make your user interface easier to use
- Make your product easier to use
I could keep going, but I think the point is pretty clear. There are a lot of parts of the overall experience that a consumer has with a company that isn’t controlled by marketing. But often times, the buck is passed to the marketing and PR teams who are tasked with selling it. Putting lipstick on a pig if you will. When marketers feel like they have to spin the value, repackage the product based on message alone you end up with labels like the above. You can imagine the conversation:
“Can we say we’re organic?”
“No.”
“Can we tie into green in any way?”
“Well we’re based on a lot of natural materials.”
“What will legal let us say?”
The answer of course is what’s on the label.
What Marketing Can Do
Of course, there are things that marketing can do. And should do instead.
- Marketers can go talk to customers
- Marketers can listen to people (customers/marketplace/etc.)
- Marketers can research what people are looking for
- Marketers can watch people struggle with their products
- Marketers can decide to make post-sale marketing a priority
- Marketers can work with trainers, customer service reps and all parts of the organization to be more customer-centric
- Marketers can cut their budget and tell the company to spend it on product instead
- Marketers can evangelize for the customer
If you’ve got the responsibility in your organization to be the marketing face of the organization what are you doing?
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