Why Marketers Should Question What Their Job Really Is

I’ve written in the past about a pet peeve of mine–auto insurance commercials that claim something like, “people who switched to us saved an average of $236.” It’s not any one company–they all say this. You might wonder how it can be that all of the insurance companies can be cheaper than each other. Or you might think that they are lying. But neither of these explanations gets at the truth.

The claims are true, but for a silly reason. No one switches auto insurance companies to pay more. So, sure, among people who switched, they saved money no matter which company they switched to.

When I explain this, people roll their eyes and wonder why we marketers talk like this. At least, that is how plain folks react.

But when I explain this to marketers, I get a completely different reaction. Marketers say, well, the commercial did its job, because they define the job of that commercial to get people to call or go online for a quote from that company.

This is the part where marketers really need to question what their jobs really are. I mean, what do they think happens after the call is made? If the company in question truly is low-priced, then they probably make a lot of sales this way, which is fine. But most of the companies making this claim are not the lowest-priced in any particular situation. Most of them are higher most of the time, because price isn’t their differentiator in real life–just in their commercial.

So, what is the real job here? I would argue that the job of marketing is to increase sales. If your marketing is getting the wrong prospects to call–the ones that won’t likely close–it is patently not doing its job. It is merely creating the illusion of success without delivering any.

The job of all marketing is to attract customers that buy your product. It’s not surprising that a commercial focused on price will attract people who want a lower price. If that insurance company (like most of them) don’t really deliver lower prices, their advertising is attracting people who mostly won’t buy from them.

We as marketers like to think that if we get a response that the marketing did its job, but if you are targeting the wrong markets, you are just wasting your money. No matter how good a fisherman you are, you need to fish where the fish are. If you are fishing in the wrong lake, then you won’t catch anything.

Why Marketers Should Question What Their Job Really Is