Sir Elton and Consistency
April 5, 2009 at 4:14 pm 4 comments
My wife Peggy and I (along with good friends Gary and Ellen) attended an Elton John concert last night. What struck me, in addition to 2 1/2 hours of great music, was the fact that Elton John has been doing his thing for about 40 years. And the 9,000 jubilant fans were cheering hardest for the songs first published in the early 1970′s: Rocket Man, Benny and the Jets and Tiny Dancer to name a few. The crowd wasn’t screaming “Give us your new stuff” or “We’re tired of your old songs.” They (me included) liked hearing the best of this great artist, regardless of whether it was created yesterday or before many in the audience were born. Elton John is savvy enough to know this so he continues to present himself in a congruent manner and always performs to SRO crowds.
So what does this have to do with marketing? Simply this. You will usually benefit more from a consistent and persistent message than in continually reinventing yourself and trying to be something new. We as marketers get tired of our messaging much faster than our prospects and customers. After all, we live with it every day. This of course doesn’t apply if you have a crappy message or are not differentiated from your competitors. Then by all means take a whack at coming up with revamped positioning, new value proposition, etc. But make sure you are doing it for the right reason, not just because you are personally tired your message or aren’t executing aainst it correctly. And please don’t create a new message before your prospects really know your existing message. That’s called wasteful and wasteful marketing is bad marketing.
Carpe Ocasio
1.
Susan | April 6, 2009 at 2:42 pm
I agree wasteful marketing is bad marketing. However, reinventing seems to be the norm in some marketing departments. I see a new challenge…how to stop reinventing and stay with what works.
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Chris Ryan | April 6, 2009 at 3:55 pm
Susan, your point is well taken. Doing what is already proven to work is not only more effective, but usually a lot less expensive.
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Wayne | April 10, 2009 at 3:18 pm
Winston Churchill once said….
However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.
4.
Chris Ryan | April 10, 2009 at 3:34 pm
Wayne, you and Winston Churchill are correct: What can’t be measured can’t be improved. No matter how well things have worked in the past, you need to keep an eye on the results and be prepared to change direction as necessary.