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Marketing out of adversity
12/29/2016 5:36:08 AM




One of my favorite quotes comes from abolitionist leader Frederick Douglass. He said, "If there is no struggle, there is no progress.” Douglass would know about struggle in the midst of adversity. He was born a slave in 1818 in Maryland. When he was 20 years old, he escaped to New York, then to Massachusetts, where he became an orator, writer and leader of the anti-slavery movement. Twice before he had attempted to escape slavery, but was unsuccessful. He believed that adversity tested people’s will to get past their own misery. The struggle not only made you a better person, it was a necessary part of life if you were to grow. Another of Douglass’s sayings was this: "Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground.”

Let’s talk about adversity. It is one of the truths of life that troubled times will catch up to you if you live long enough. We all try to avoid hard times, but they are a reality of life. Something unforeseen happens that sets you back. Let’s talk about adversity in your business. I talk to a lot of people who either own or manage a business. Many of them have had a hard time growing their businesses the past several years. The business climate, they tell me, has not been favorable. What do you do when things aren’t going your way? If you take the time to make a plan, adversity can make your business stronger from the struggle.

Let me advocate taking the time to examine what is happening around you and chart it, in writing, in two tools we use in marketing. The first is a SWOT analysis. SWOT is an acronym for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. S and W are internal to your business. This is what you control by the people you hire and the way you conduct business. O and T are external to your business. Adverse situations are listed under Threats. Many times these Threats are caused by a change with your customers – such as a change in your customer base or a shift in their attitudes towards your products and services. The second form we use is a VAC analysis. VAC stands for Values (an unchanging belief system held by your customers), Attitudes (prevailing thoughts that can shift based on popular opinions), and Choices. In adverse business situations involving your customers, typically there is a shift in Attitudes or a change in the Choices that are competing for your customers’ loyalty.

Both the SWOT and the VAC analyses will help you identify the problem. What do you do with this information? This is where marketing can help you. Adversity causes us to make a change. That change needs to be implemented and communicated in your marketing message to your customers. To resist changing is to risk losing your place at the table. For instance, think about the way that mobile devices have used adversity to change their products and market to the shifting attitudes of their customers based on the choices of the competition. Would we all still be using flip phones if the iPhone had not changed the way we perceive using a phone – not so much as a telephone, but as a small computer? Adversity changed the phone market. Choice caused the customer to shift their attitudes. There was struggle and there was progress.

The same is true of your business. If you are experiencing hard times, use the adversity to your benefit. Figure out where the source of the hard time is coming from and market your way out of it.

 

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