I drove past a house on my way home the other day. It is over a month past Christmas and they still have a plastic Santa Claus in their yard. I wondered how long they would leave it there – until spring, maybe all summer? I thought that was a perfect metaphor for businesses that need to change their marketing, but had not done so and found themselves being irrelevant. What once was iconic and cutting edge had its time and is now detrimental to their brand.

Let’s address the big question first: how do you know when it is time to change your marketing strategy? The answer is when your target market stops responding in a positive way to your marketing. If you are measuring the success of your marketing, you should notice when there is a downturn in your analytics. Let’s dig a little deeper. There are certain factors that cause the attitudes of customers to change over time. When that happens, your marketing strategy has to change too in order to stay relevant to them. Here are some common changes in the marketplace.

Technology changes and marketing methods have to change with them. I remember when Smartphones were first introduced. It was not long after their introduction that apps became a significant method of receiving information. I remember talking to a client of mine at that time and he told me they were shifting their marketing dollars away from their website to a phone app as the primary source of communicating information with their customers. When was the last time you studied the way your customers get the information they want? It is important that you move marketing to them in the way they prefer to get their information.

Attitudes have also changed in regard to the way we define terms. For instance, what is a short time, long time and reasonable time for you to take possession of something you have purchased? It would depend upon the item you have bought. If I buy an apple at the grocery store, I would expect that purchase to take 10 minutes. If I am buying a new suit that must be tailored to fit me, I would think it reasonable to get it in a week. If I am ordering a new car, I might expect it in a few weeks of my purchasing it. But our expectation of time of delivery has changed over the past few years. We now expect items we purchase to be delivered to us overnight, if not faster. Definitions of time have changed, so you must adjust your marketing to accommodate the new definition. Time is not the only thing that has been redefined. We have redefined items such as what is humorous, what is acceptable language, what is fashionable to wear in specific settings, etc. Attitudes change often and when they do, they tend to redefine concepts in the general marketplace. Your marketing needs to keep pace with the changes.

Finally, your marketing story may need to change because everyone has heard it before. Attention spans and tolerance for repeated storylines are not what they used to be. If your story has grown stale with consumers, freshen it up. Brands get old and need a facelift every now and then. When was the last time you told your story in a different way?

If there is a plastic Santa still representing your brand, it is time to change your marketing strategy. Stay current, understand what consumers want from you, tell your story in a way that is relevant to them.