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Old May 30, 2018, 11:25 AM
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GordonJ GordonJ is offline
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Join Date: Aug 2006
Location: West Palm Beach, FL
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Default The marketing meeting of the circus. Let's have a look.

Quote:
Originally Posted by unpinkpanther View Post
Allan Dib's definition of marketing on that site is worth a read.

Thanks, Gordon

Here is his definition:
Here’s the simplest, most jargon-free, definition of marketing you’re ever likely to come across:

If the circus is coming to town and you paint a sign saying ‘Circus Coming to the Showground Saturday’, that’s advertising.

If you put the sign on the back of an elephant and walk it into town, that’s promotion.

If the elephant walks through the mayor’s flower bed and the local newspaper writes a story about it, that’s publicity.

And if you get the mayor to laugh about it, that’s public relations.

If the town’s citizens go to the circus, you show them the many entertainment booths, explain how much fun they’ll have spending money at the booths, answer their questions and ultimately, they spend a lot at the circus, that’s sales.

And if you planned the whole thing, that’s marketing.


So let's be a fly on the wall at the marketing meeting held in FL every winter.

Here they are:


Bozo is the chair. Other members are Chuckles, Checkers, Krusty, Porky, and Guido.

They are planning the next year, and getting their marketing together. They begin with WHO and WHERE. They look over the coming venues, some are at fairgrounds, some indoors, others in open fields. Some will be the whole shebang, the 5 ring version, smaller venues may only have three rings.

Bozo asks what PRODUCTS will they have available for each venue. They know their TARGET market are kids with their parents.

Porky is in charge of concessions; popcorn, peanuts, pop, fudge, nuts, hot dogs. He is the buyer and has his vendors lined up. Most of the time he can bring along a refrigerated truck which holds a lot of stuff. Some venues have their own concessions, with minimum allowances for the event.

Porky is responsible for finding suppliers, negotiating contracts, making sure of on time deliveries. Since concessions is a cash cow for the circus, Porky has a V.P. designation in the marketing dept.

Chuckles buys stuffed animals. And balloons, toys, all the little trinket souvenirs at the Circus. Does the same job as Porky but for things, not food. He too is a VP.

OK. So the marketing team knows where and when their events will take place, they have past data to give them an educated guess on the number of attendees, and how much they will spend, per person.

They know how many visitors they need to break even, and to make a profit. Their job is to get those numbers of butts into the seats.

So, like either the VIEW FROM THE ROOFTOP or the SQ1 POA, with time lines , they BEGIN at the end. Who and Where. How much. When.

They have a clearly defined goal.

Checkers is VP of advertising. He will run ads, post up signs, make sure the area knows the event is happening. He has a budget, with strict limitations so he has to make every ad count.

Checkers works closely with Krusty, VP of Promotion and Publicity and Public Relations. He arranges for the elephant to march through town, and the mayor's flower garden, he lets the mayor in on it so they BOTH get good press from it.

Krusty does the TV, radio and print and Internet interviews.

Guido is the VP of Marketing, Director, who reports to board. He is the hammer. The guy who makes sure the other clowns do their job.

Now, that is a pretty good staff. Bigger companies have a lot more clowns in their marketing departments.

We one man circuses, have to wear all the hats, unless we delegate or outsource. One problem we have is trying to do it all by ourselves.

One way to ease up this self-induced pressure is to outsource, and find other clowns to work for us. NO shortage of those at Warrior Forum, or Fivver type sites, is there?

Yea, it works for me as a good metaphor for MARKETING.

And it follows a tested and proven pattern:
End result.
Step off rung.
Final push.
Getting ducks in row.

All the way back to the beginning, of what needs to be done to get us to where we want to go. Knowing, there could be detours, weather, volcanoes, incidents and accidents, hints and allegations.

All things we need to deal with on our way to giving our customers want they want...SATISFACTION. Nothing beats a happy child with his little floppy the clown doll he'll sleep with forever, albeit, at a very high cost....but worth every penny. Wise!

Gordon

Last edited by GordonJ : May 30, 2018 at 11:42 AM.
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