On GPS Marketing

You’ve most likely seen the Mayhem GPS commercial. “I’m your GPS. Turn right up ahead. You never update me. So now, I just have to wing it. I meant, turn left up ahead. Recalculating. TURN RIGHT NOW!” followed by a colossal wreck involving multiple vehicles.

Maps show us what exists, as well as the relationships between a place and the world around it. They explain how a part fits into a bigger picture. They also represent ideas and a form of reality, demonstrate boundaries; depict characteristics and other intangibles such as history and relationships. Marketing maps should do the same.

The Map is Only a Tool

However, like other real world maps, map apps, and GPS, these maps are tools that must be used correctly. How many times have you entered an address into your GPS only to be told the location you are seeking does not exist? Or worse, if you live somewhere like I do where city lines run jagged and down the middle of a street, you may think the address is in one city, but it is in another. Then to add to the mayhem, there is an identical address in that other town. It only seemed logical to accept the perceived data you were being offered as accurate with the information you were given. All you did was ask the question. But did you ask the right question?

The Map is Not Reality

The problem with maps, map apps, or GPS is they do not reflect reality. Maps exist to show us something about the world. They reflect perceptions of the world. They frequently lack real-time data, and if updates are not done, or if the wrong information is entered into the GPS system, you may very well find yourself at the wrong location after several wrong turns. Bad data in equals bad data out.

It is the same in sales and marketing. Things can change quickly: contacts within an organization change, priorities change, new information is released, or an alternative appears.

The Map is Not the Territory

Your marketing process may be a well-designed map full of visual symbols representing solutions, oriented north of your territory, but if it doesn’t align with your buyer’s map of their territory, confusion will develop. Make sure you are asking the right questions.

What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You

“Maps are essential. Planning a journey without a map is like building a house without drawings.” — Mark Jenkins, The Hard Way: Stories of Danger, Survival, and the Soul of Adventure

• Do you know exactly what your buyer perceives to be their problem?


• Do you know why they feel that is a problem?


• Do you know how it became a problem?


• Is that mountain on their map really a mountain or is it a volcano?

On GPS Marketing