Marketing is like fishing

Whilst on my summer holidays I spent some time pursuing one of my favourite pastimes - deep sea fishing. And while I watched and waited for a really big fish to take the bait I reflected on the idea that the science of fishing was a lot like the art of marketing…

First, a fisherman (or woman in my case) needs to understand the overall prevailing conditions. The season, the weather, migration patterns, food sources, pollutants and all the other myriad factors affecting water quality and so the quantity and quality of the various breeds of fish available. In marketing, we undertake broad and long range scanning to identify those trends and factors in the economy, political, technological and sociological scenes that may affect our markets.

Second, a fisherman will know their water extremely well – the deep bits, the shallow bits, the dangerous bits, the over-fished bits and those little nooks and crannies that so far are undiscovered by others. And they know that fishing waters change over time – some become more popular with different types of fish and others appear to become empty and barren. Sometimes you need to be quite innovative or seek our new waters. It’s a bit like doing your market research to identify the best place to find the best clients.

Third, you really need to know your fish. The different breeds of fish have very different feeding preferences and habits. What time of the day do they feed? What is their favourite food and therefore the best bait? Sometimes, the fry (the babies) and juvenile fish have different feeding patterns to the mature adults. In marketing, you have to really understand the different segments of your market and the impact of lifecycle on consumer spending patterns - which we do with lots of market and client research.

Fourth, you have to have the right equipment, the right skills and the right bait. You need to know what line strength and rod and reel equipment is appropriate for the different conditions and fish and there is a real skill in choosing the best bait and how high or low it “sits” in the water. If all the other fishers are using one type of bait, some novelty and originality in yours might pay dividends. In marketing terms we have to think about how best to reach and communicate with our prospective clients and also to have exactly the right offer to entice our clients to choose our "hook" rather than one of the others.

Fifth, once you have hooked your fish you need care and skill to actually land it and get it into the boat. Rushing things along and the line might snap and the fish breaks free. Too slow and another, much bigger fish might help itself. This is where selling skills come to the fore in marketing – to convert a good prospect or lead into a profitable and happy client. Of course, in fishing we often throw our fish back but in marketing we will want to retain and nurture the client and build a long term relationship.

And just like marketing and selling in professional services, it helps you a great deal if you have an expert to help and guide you – or even to just reassure you while you wait it out - but sometimes you can just throw a line out there and catch a real whopper!

Elderly, grey, silver, mature or hyperactive?

This week I was asked to present a training session on the subject of marketing to the elderly market. Quite a tricky one as it is right in the middle of consumer marketing land whereas I am a native of business-to-business marketing country.

Anyway. I did a fair bit of research over the past few months – as you do. And I found it quite fascinating. For example, this is a really massive market with 20m in the UK over 50 – responsible for 30% of consumer spending. A segmentation by age showed that there are distinct categories for the 55 to 65, the 65 to 85 and the over 85s and ACORN has 11 specific categories such as “old people, detached homes” and “retired home owners”.

Despite popular views that there is a digital divide, the Internet was named as the number one favourite past time for retired people – with those researched clocking up a staggering six hours a week online. And 40% of retired folk claiming that they were regular Internet shoppers. That puts the younger crackberry addicts to shame! No wonder some of the leading upmarket consumer organisations are investing heavily in social networking communities for older shoppers.

There were some interesting consumer research studies showing that older citizens do not identify with marketing that has negative associations with old age but with those showing incredibly active and adventurous mature folk. Anyway, armed with these and other analyses we brainstormed some pretty wild ideas about what innovative new services we might develop for some of the silver segments – branching out from the current work that solicitors do in the wills, trusts, power of attorney, Court of Protection and probate work – using that trusted adviser status to its full. We also looked at some fairly radical ideas about sensitive marketing campaigns using direct and indirect channels.

I plan to write up a detailed account of my findings and some of the ideas in an article for a future edition of a magazine specialising in the elderly market. Please drop me an email if you would like a copy when it is published.

Integrating "awareness" and "relationship" marketing

Back in 2002, I presented a session for the Law Management Section of The Law Society on cross firm collaboration where I suggested that, in the broadest sense, most business development activities in a law firm could be encapsulated by integrating brand strategies with CRM (Client Relationship Management) programmes.

This presentation came to mind earlier this week in two situations. In the first, I was talking to a firm of patent attorneys, which, like many partnerships, indicated that the partners were focused on serving their clients and had no time for "marketing". What this revealed was that the partners held the commonly incomplete view of marketing that it was concerned only with promotional activities such as web sites, e-shots and seminars that were concerned with generating new business.

This particular firm had a professional, responsive in-house marketing team that were kept tied to their PCs producing tactical marketing communications campaigns – the branding and profile element of marketing. When we got chatting, it became apparent that – like many other professional firms – their focus should be a little more focused on identifying and developing a few target clients and referrers and building stronger relationships with their existing clients in a structured way – the CRM bit. I explained that good marketing (incorporating the more sales oriented business development elements) usually involved getting the right balance of awareness marketing and relationship marketing. Progress.

In a meeting shortly after with some litigators at a law firm, we had an epiphany. Whereas usually we see litigation as non-repeating and transactional where the major effort is on communications – raising awareness of possible future issues, brand development, expertise in particular market and service areas, developing the profiles of individual “stars” - the analysis we did painted a different story. The charts showing the breakdown of the nature of the work completed, the source of the various cases (by both volume and value) and the breakdown of their major referrers showed that over half of their work came from existing major clients and referrers. So the awareness element of their programme was pulled back a bit and more resources were devoted to relationship strategies aimed at existing clients and referrers. Yet more progress!

It’s good to know that whilst marketing is changing at an incredible rate at the moment, some of the fundamental strategic ideas are rather more enduring…