A Three-Legged Race

Business Engineering?

The other say I was asked why Business Engineering? Why would I name my business Fortier Business Engineered Marketing? And, what makes me a marketing engineer as it states on my business card? Here's how I responded. For quite some time, people in my profession have used the expression, when referring to marketing and advertising that it was "more art than science" to deflect client questions about either hoped-for results or the lack of recognizable results. So, with that in mind, you might say that what I do as a marketing and advertising professional is more of a craft than a professional practice. Engineering on the other hand is accepted as science. With a science, the results are less fuzzy. They’re either as expected or less than expected. Either outcome, however, can be traced to the specific cause and, usually, without much doubt.

Marketing and advertising, on the other hand, has long had to deal with the infamous statement presented by the founder of the legendary Wanamaker's Department Stores. John Wanamaker said, "Fifty percent of my ad budget is wasted, but I don’t know which fifty percent." It's been a very long time since those words were spoken. And, until recently, they were reflective of the best you could hope for as far as your advertising investment was concerned. No more! With the advent of the internet and social networking devices such as Facebook, My Space and Twitter, just to name a few, that is no longer true. Let’s go back to business engineering. Sure the basics of marketing mix and the analysis of variable and invariable market analysis such as SWOT (Strength-Weakness-Opportunities-Threats) are still proven methods. And, most surely, good advertising copy is just that, as well as, memorable. But, delivery system has changed dramatically from mass media to media with almost laser-like precision.

We'll Return After This Commercial Interruption...

Gone are the days of the classic “commercial interruption” and here to stay are the new ways to deliver your sales message such as Facebook, My Space and Twitter. Once (seems like just days ago) they seemed to be created just for the young or the young at heart. Today, they have evolved into bonafide business tools and the result is that the business world is no longer neatly divided into buyers and sellers. If you really think about it, it never really was. Today’s (web) world is divided into Followers, Fans and Friends. The consumer has a weapon greater than cash. Their voice and their right to make it heard. Consumer voices have a platform or pulpit, if you will, and it is the internet. Marketing and advertising professionals aren’t the only ones who need to be held accountable. Businesses are just as accountable to their customers.

If you own or operate a business, you must cultivate raving fans that will follow your every move, befriend your brand and praise you from mountaintops or, abuse them and watch as they slash and burn their way across social networks spewing their anger and pain about their less than acceptable experience with your company. Truth be told, this is the way it should have always been! In 1946, No Place to Hide was written by David J. Bradley in 1946 about the atomic testing in Bikini Atoll. Today, the danger to businesses is not, perhaps, of atomic proportion. However, business owners can no longer hide in today’s internet-fueled environment. Consumer culture demands transparency now more than ever. That transparency goes beyond the picture windows that were in nearly every Dunkin Donuts so their customers could see how clean the baking operation was.

The Proof is In the Pudding

Marketers and advertisers also cannot hide. The proof, as the old saying goes, is in the pudding. Pudding is or it is not pudding. It cannot be kind of a pudding. Results are obvious or they are not. That’s where the saying came from. Today's advertising copy has to be spot on in order to attract, inspire and create an insatiable desire within the reader, viewer or listener to call, click or visit you. If it directs consumers to your coded website page, you can immediately tell if it's working or not. Too many businesses are not integrating their old-fashioned, off-line traditional advertising with the new, emerging online digital media. That's where the business engineering comes in! All of your advertising has to work in harmony. Yet, people are funny. They know what a newspaper ad, a radio and television commercial is but still expect them to perform even though they know, at best, it's still a crap shoot compared to what they can and should do with today’s new media tools.

There are lots of reasons why your advertising fails. Sometimes it’s because you won’t let the marketing and advertising professional you hired do what they know needs to be done. Sometimes it’s because the marketing and advertising professional you hired doesn’t listen and thinks they can tell you what needs to be done. Business engineering requires listening and trust. No longer can uncaring advertising guys do what makes them feel good rather than do for their client what needs to be done. Today, the results, or lack of results of your advertising, whether you’re going it alone or are working with someone, are easily visible and traceable.

Traditional Off-Line v. New Digital Online Media

I tell both my students and clients that regardless of whether you’re using traditional off-line advertising media or the new digital online advertising media, it all starts with the message. There are basically two kinds of messages as far as I’m concerned; the message that’s intended to bring you new business and the message that’s directed towards your existing customers. The first has to answer the universal question: what’s in it for me? The second has to answer the question that’s always just below the surface: what have you done for me lately. Once you accomplish that, the rest is up to your front line (the folks who deal with customers directly).

Now, the basic, tried and true, formula for creating effective print, television or radio advertising is the same as creating a good web banner ad on a website that gets lots of click traffic. It’s called A. I. D. A – Attention, Interest, Desire and Action. Getting attention means catching the eye, the ear or the intellect. Keeping their interest requires “talking” about them, their problems and the solutions you have to offer. Desire, as Napoleon Hill said, “…is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything.” What do you have to offer that will create a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything? Can you offer the answer to their vanity, impatience, greed, selfishness, laziness and fear?

They are the human faults we all wrestle with. Or, can you offer them happiness that can only come from a sense of control, a longing to belong or, a need for affection? If you can and if your message communicates directly to them and you ask them, tell them or show them how to get what they want in the quickest, most efficient manner for a value exchange they cannot ignore or pass instruct them on how to call, click or where to visit to claim their reward.

It’s a three-legged race between the buyer’s needs and wants, the seller’s promise or offer and the media that carries the message. Business engineering assesses how things are, determines objectives and builds a plan of action that delivers the attention, traffic and inquiries you need to turn into sales. So, when referring to business engineering, it is "more science than art" and, with that in mind, remember its goal is excellent business communication, which definitely requires skill.