Time for a Change in Your Small Business Marketing Attitude?
By 
Walt Goshert on Jun 25, 2008 in Client Relationship Building
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Dave Webb of Mission Driven Marketing started a Twitter conversation about this post at Business Week that’s stuck in my head all day:
Meet the Antipreneurs
They’re against advertising, corporate America, and globalization. That’s good for business
Oh really?
First of all Dave, having spent 23 years in Colorado, I always feel a special bond with my online Denver friends. Plus, I love your tagline: “Make a profit. Make a difference.” Thanks for raising my blood pressure in pointing out this article.
Alright… here we go…
I make no apologies. I’m in business to make a profit. What drives me is my idea, my vision of how the profits from my business give me the opportunity to make a difference. It’s not a responsibility I take lightly. It’s something that’s very personal and highly motivating to me. A cause greater than simply making money for my own comfort and ego satisfaction. But, to put it out front and use it to market my business, while something I could do just as easily as some animal-loving Vegan shoe store, seems somehow crass and shallow.
And what I sure as hell don’t need is Business Week, a big business media dinosaur, preaching to me about how to run and market my damn business. And trying to play some dumb-ass, shallow guilt-trip on me.
I’m an entrepreneur and a free market capitalist.
Anti-preneurs? Real cute. Real clever. It sucks.
Now, in addition to all the taxes, regulations, insurance, and all the other productivity sucking stuff I must do to stay in business, somehow I need to work in “politically correct” capitalism?
So let me see if I understand your point here Jeremy Quittner… if I “advertise” my business, yet give a larger percentage of my profits to the local battered women’s shelter, I’m less socially responsible somehow than the business who exploits word of mouth with a targeted group of wealthy, and guilt-ridden, environmentally-conscious hypocrites?
BTW Business Week, nice touch on the hyperlinks to Nissan and Nike, plus loading up your page with banner ads and Adsense. Sure makes me want to come back real soon… Hey, at least you had the sense of context not to interrupt me with the usual forced- play vid of some damn gas-sucking SUV ad before I could read the article. But, your freaking annoying Verizon Video kept loading as I’m trying to read the article. Oh yeah, great job in throwing a little link luv at the “Anti-preneurs” you profiled.
Business Week: Zero street cred on this topic. This piece is another dumb, lame old media attempt at linkbait.
Psst, Business Week, let me tell ya a little secret…
You wanna know the truth about why small businesses don’t advertise?
They don’t know how to do it effectively. It takes a marketing pro not to piss off your prospects, yet still drive sales.
Never mind. You guys don’t understand. Or care.
________“Inside the Ropes”________
Where Small Business Marketing Pros Play to Win FREE E-Course “7 Simple Marketing ‘Secrets’ of the Pros”__________________________________________
Popularity: 15% [?]
| 3.6 (1 person) |
6 Comment(s)
By
Dave Webb
(Check me out!) on Jun 26, 2008 | Reply
Wow, when you ask for opinions about subjects that people are passionate about you never know what kind nerve you might hit!
Thanks for sharing your take on this. I got a similar reaction from J.P. Micek at TribalSeduction.com, and judging from the comments on the BizWeek article, others were not too thrilled either.
The term “antipreneur” seems to be a goad that pricked their sensibilities.
Being a former radio guy, my attention was caught by the guy & his wife who started an internet radio station with a passionate following and no advertising. What I found interesting, with this guy and the others, is “their marketing strategy is targeted toward consumers who have grown cynical about buying products and services from larger companies, whose methods they deem irresponsible.”I have found that this cynicism is a growing trend, especially among young people, and is influencing buying decisions.
A recent study by the American Marketing Association found:One out of every three consumers said they would be more likely to buy a product or service if they knew that a certain amount of the purchase price was being donated directly to a cause or campaign.Young people age 18-24 and women are most likely to buy a product or service connected to cause-related marketing.40% of women versus 30% of men were more likely to buy a product or service if they knew that a certain amount of the purchase price was being donated directly to a cause or campaign.46% of respondents age 18-24 versus 31% of respondents 45-64 were more likely to buy a product or service if they knew that a certain amount of the purchase price was being donated directly to a cause or campaign.
I agree, Walt, that by giving a percentage of your profits to a local charity, you are not less socially responsible than the businesses in this article. I thought the statement that “Antipreneurs are quick to differentiate their efforts to reform capitalism from social entrepreneurs’ attempts to harness business for philanthropic ends” was utterly ridiculous.
I also agree that the “antipreneur” label inflames the issues unnecessarily and that BizWeek’s framing of them didn’t paint the picture with the proper brush.
However, I don’t know that I agree with your statement that these businesses “exploit word of mouth with a targeted group of wealthy, and guilt-ridden, environmentally-conscious hypocrites”. Maybe it is overt exploitation. Or, maybe they’ve just made a strong emotional connection with a constituency that resonates with their message. This is what I find intriguing. I can’t judge whether there’s hypocrisy involved. I can say that having that kind of intense connection with your customers is, now more than ever, a critical component of your marketing strategy and should not be discounted.
Thanx for fueling the conversation!
By
Walt Goshert
(Check me out!) on Jun 26, 2008 | Reply
Dave,
Thanks for planting the seed of this post with your Tweet, and coming back and responding. It’s a subject worth kicking around.
“Anti-preneur”? The term makes no sense to me. If you’re “Anti”- “preneur”… get a job and sleep easy. That’s the lame, linkbait tactic that BW, New York Times and other “old-school” media tends to adopt. In fact, it’s an “old-school” advertising ploy also. Cute and clever vs. actually using and testing direct response techniques that actually DO sell.
Yeah, the radio guy’s Business Model made the most sense, and seemed the most feasible and genuine to me. But, nothing new considering Sirus, last.fm…
Are people cynical about big business? Sure. Nothing new there either. Some of it’s deserved due to bone-headed corporate thinking and irresponsible short-term tactics driven by the quarterly earnings mentality. Few corporations have a long-term view, and few have a corporate ethic that rings true with their customers.
So the young demo is more likely to buy a “cause” product? Sure, they are more idealistic, but the ultimate vote is where the dollars are spent. They’re still buying lots of “soul-less” corporate stuff like mobile phones, cars, TVs, etc from large multi-nationals. Is the percentage of “cause” purchases increasing? That’s the key question.This means a shift in attitudes and buying patterns.
The Vegan thing rubbed me the wrong way. Why? Too preachy with an elitist air about it. Hey, I love animals, but I happen to value my relationships with other humans above my concerns about whether my belt is leather. While I’m sure there is a niche that drinks the Vegan Kool-Aid, I personally feel the movement lacks perspective… but that’s me.
Funny, as I’m writing this comment response, a client in Phoenix asked me if I’d be interested in doing some ads, Press Release, and Case Studies on “Green” construction. Hummm… am I conflicted?
By
Dave Webb
(Check me out!) on Jun 27, 2008 | Reply
LOL! Guess you’ll get an opportunity to help a client connect with a target market that is passionate about going “Green”!And that’s really my point. So what if the vegan thing rubs YOU the wrong way. You are obviously NOT their target market. But, just as passionately as you feel against it, there are those who are passionately for it, and those people ARE their target market. They have leveraged an issue that they feel strongly about to make a strong emotional connection with others who feel the same way, and THAT is a smart marketing strategy, all politics aside.BTW, I’m not a vegan either. I’ve always had this fantasy of swinging through the jungle like Tarzan in a loin-cloth, and leaping on to the back of a wild boar, getting it into a full-nelson, breaking its neck, plunging my teeth into it’s jugular vein to make sure it’s dead and roasting it over an open fire. But, I also like fruit, nuts, granola and yogurt. So which niche do I fit into? Maybe the split-personality niche. ;-D
By
Walt Goshert
(Check me out!) on Jun 27, 2008 | Reply
Yeah Dave, I agree. When you can stoke passions and emotions, it’s smart marketing because you’ll get response.
I have no problems with this approach as long as you can “walk the walk”… and know up-front, the long term price of your decision.
As a business owner, is your passion consistent, transparent, and honest with your ACTIONS?
For example, my “Green” contractor friend… probably wants to make sure no one shows up on a job site slurping coffee outta a styrofoam cup… plus it probably takes him out of the Trex deck business.
By
JohnH
(Check me out!) on Jul 1, 2008 | Reply
Walt, these antipreneurs may be against advertising, but they aren’t against marketing. That’s all this is anyway: identifying a profitable segment and creating a brand that the segment can identify with. Whether we like it or not, it’s a good strategy for getting free PR and WOM advertising.
By
Walt Goshert
(Check me out!) on Jul 1, 2008 | Reply
John,
You’re right… the strategy of targeting a market and delivering a message that resonates is a basic, time-tested marketing strategy… and really nothing new.
Interesting how small businesses are figuring this out, yet big businesses and old line media like Business Week are as clumsy as ever.