I really love opportunities to speak with students. Typically, I join a marketing classroom once a quarter at SFU, BCIT or Langara. Recently I was on a Zoom with a BCIT Trade and Consumer Show Marketing class, presenting on Levelling-Up custom merchandise for powerful audience engagement.
Beyond the chance to keep the old public speaking muscles active, it’s inspiring to experience students’ passion and wonder for the work we do. They ask questions that lazy old marketers like me haven’t considered in ages — if ever.
Last week, Wallace posed a true doozy of a question. He asked: “Rich, can you sum up what ‘Marketing’ means to you in three words?” Marketing in three words?! One of the most nebulous concepts in our modern business world…oh my! I felt the pixels of dozens of digital cameras boring into me — gotta think on my feet!
And, then it hit me. PEOPLE WHO RETURN. That’s my three-word marketing mantra — PEOPLE WHO RETURN.
Let’s break it down:
- PEOPLE. Customers. Clients. Patients. Followers. Your tribe. Whatever you call them, you need someone to buy your product or service. Without them, nothing happens.
- WHO. An action must take place. WHO is the inspiration (or client!) for that action to begin.
- RETURN. Yay, this is the best part. Unless you’re some weird Facebook account that sells fake brand name goods (ahem, not like I would EVER fall for this) you want return customers. One-and-done customer acquisition schemes don’t care but the rest of us want returns, returns, returns. PEOPLE WHO RETURN buy once and de facto, again and again.
Last week I shared a flurry of emails with Betsy, a client (and friend) since 1999. PBJ Merch Co. also renewed our Nurse Next Door (in-home elder care) webstore contract. This represents a 13-year long relationship!
Our small business wants PEOPLE WHO RETURN, and we tailor our marketing to that. We use the power of custom merchandise and promotional products to show people that they’re important to us and should return. We augment that with digital and modern marketing that supports our aim for PEOPLE WHO RETURN.
If you’d like similar support for your brand, please get in touch. And if we haven’t heard from you in awhile, we’d love it if you returned.