Do They Like You?

I picked up a new book from Seth Godin recently and am reading it right now.  Or perhaps by the time I publish this and the podcast goes live, I will have finished it.

But I doubt it.  My reading style is reflective when it comes to things like marketing.  I should tell you that the name of Seth’s latest book is This Is Marketing. There are all kinds of bonus features online you can get and a community you can join once you buy the book.

But in just reading the little portion that I’ve read before I started writing today, I noticed that there are parallels to what he wrote and what I’ve been sharing over the years.

Today I want to ask you a serious question that not many business people stop and consider.

The question is:

Do They Like You

Things are different in the advertising and marketing world from when my parents and grandparents were around.  Mass marketing was common because we had mass media.  Mass media was defined by a limited number of media and entertainment options and so the masses of people they attracted were pretty large because of the limited options.

In the video world for example, there were between 3 and 5 TV stations in Fort Wayne, Indiana and they carried programming from ABC, CBS, PBS, NBC and Fox.  Want to know the big news of the day? Sit down and watch the half hour newscast with the family when it came on TV live.

The percentage of people watching one thing at the same time was huge in comparison to today.

Advertising by interruption worked because of the mass of people you would reach.  Same was true of radio, newspaper and other forms of entertainment like movie theaters that seated hundreds at a time to watch the couple of films that were released each week.

Advertising by interruption is a topic I’ll expand on in the future but for now, I want to share with you what happens after you have reached someone by advertising or word of mouth or by accident.

That person is going to form an opinion of you and your business. They are going to ask themselves that question:

Do They Like You

This will determine if they become a long term customer worth thousands of dollars in your future, or if they are never coming back and instead will be worth thousands of dollars to your competitors.

Advertising can’t fix a broken business.

If you screw up and end up chasing away the customers that your advertising brought in, you better fix that leaky boat.

And now a plug for what I do.  I make money when businesses buy advertising solutions from me that air on my radio station, WOWO in Fort Wayne, Indiana and/or pair it up with some of the digital advertising solutions I offer.

But my heart is in looking at the big picture of your business and the entire customer experience.  I want to help you figure out ways to be sure the answer is:

Yes, they like us

Contact me and let’s start a conversation about your marketing, advertising and how to be better in ways that your customers care about.

I’m going to wrap this up with a story of a local restaurant that my wife and I really were rooting for.

After several years of being our Saturday night date night destination, the owner of the building decided that they would not renew the lease of this highly popular restaurant and bar.  The owner decided that they were going to reinvent the place and after being shut down for a couple of weeks, they slowly opened with a limited menu and then a full menu.

Instead of visiting every week, my wife and I visited every other week.  Then we skipped a few weeks.  After our last visit, I said we are only going to visit once a month or less.

Things had changed under the new management.  The last straw for me was the food was inconsistent.  When I finally found a dish I loved and came back two weeks later, it was not the same.  It was such a disappointment.

The service had been slow under new management due to a lack of staff, but we were willing to wait.  A longer wait time for our food was acceptable since it was undergoing this transformation.  The staff was also great, the ones we saw behind the bar and the wait staff that stayed under the new management were like friends.

But when the new place lost it’s appeal with the food and when you are in the food business, that’s deadly.

Sadly, I don’t like them anymore.  They are no longer getting my date night money every week, or my occasional lunch money, or my recommendations to friends and business people.  I won’t write a bad review online, because I want them to get it together, but not on my dime.  I will check back every 4 to 6 weeks and see if they are improving.  If they don’t, they will have to shut down.

My lesson for them and for you is to ask the question:

Do They Like You?

and find out ways to get better, fast.

As always, I’m here to help.