Key Marketing Principle 2: Top of Mind

From last week...

“Deploying a variety of marketing vehicles in conjunction with your group’s on-the-money sales efforts will keep our name on the ‘tip-of-the-tongue’ of important people in FEI’s marketplaces. ‘Out-of-sight, out-of-mind’ is a real phenomenon and can be combated through regular contact.”

Now, on to the final part of this two-part series. Remember, fire = print.

“There’s so much going on in Olympus these days,” Zoot said. “You can’t walk down Scylla Avenue without seeing signs posted on every boulder, column and tower. Commercials are on Olympus-TV. O-puters have advertisements on most O-web pages. How do we cut through the clutter?”

“The amount of marketing overload in today’s information-crazed world is truly amazing,” Marka acknowledged. “Each day, the average Olympian is exposed to more than three thousand advertisements and product names. Unless we market our company’s products and services effectively, FEI will be quickly forgotten in the heat of battle...even with our storied background.”

“This is my main concern,” Zoot said. “I know my runners can cut through the clutter, but I need to know that your marketing programs can do the same.”

“In hyper-competitive marketplaces, like the one for our fire services, it’s important to avoid thinking that our market position is solid. As Fire-Intel’s Andy Grove once put it, ‘Only the paranoid survive,’ ” Marka said. “The ‘fallen angel’ syndrome can quickly beset any fire company, even us.”

Zoot nodded in agreement. It looked to Marka like she was getting the salesman’s valuable buy-in. She unleashed one last salvo supporting her “top-of-mind” concept:



“Companies once dominant in the market, but that have slackened their sales and marketing efforts, often travel the undesirable path from market leader...to wannabe...to has-been. Every major market seems to have at least one fallen angel. No marketing program by itself will ensure a company’s continued success, but it can provide a steady stream of opportunities, even in rapidly changing markets.”