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In my career, I have had the opportunity to market a wide range of products including soap, insurance, thermal spray-coated space shuttle parts, toilet paper, fertility services, OTC drugs and positive character qualities. The list goes on and on. Through this broad range of experience over the last 15 years, I have reached the conclusion that the rules of marketing are about 92% the same, no matter what you’re selling.

Marketers in the medical industry seem to be the most uppity about this, believing that what they do is dramatically different from what other marketers do. I don’t see that. The approach is really the same, isn’t it? Understand your target audience and their needs; figure out what motivates them and how they make their decisions; reach them where they are; do what you say you’ll do (actually, do a little more). No, you can’t promise you’ll heal someone; but you also can’t promise someone that the space shuttle won’t crash with your part on it or that he won’t have a car accident while driving with your insurance. Your promise is that you’ll do all you can to ensure the best possible outcome.

The 8% Difference

The 8% difference, I believe, deals with the nuances surrounding things like health insurance networks, pharmaceutical advertising and law service promotion. Some industries have more fine print than others. If you are aware of the need to understand that 8%, the remaining 92% still applies.

Soap v. Insurance

Included in that 92% is the ability to define your target audience. I have worked with many clients who initially lacked a clear definition of their target. They really didn’t care who bought their product as long as someone did. From a sales standpoint, that may work for a while; if you’re selling soap, you don’t care who buys it as long as you’re moving product. The more they use the product, the more you’ll sell of it. (Aside: From a marketing standpoint, of course, a net too widely cast will catch fewer good fish. Optimum results require defining and marketing to your target).

However, if you are selling insurance, you care a great deal about who is buying your product, because there is risk involved. In the case of insurance, ironically, you don’t want any of your customers to actually use your product. You hope that the ones who don’t use your product keep buying it, and you hope that the ones who do use your product stop buying it. This is a prime example of the importance of understanding your target audience and how to reach them, which falls under the 92% rule.

Uncommon Sense

When I ran a strategic marketing firm in Cincinnati, I remember, in the process of training an employee on marketing strategy, saying, “Really, it’s just common sense.” His reply struck me: “It’s common sense to you, maybe. But it’s not to everyone else.” I say this because I believe that a large portion of the 92% of marketing is innate in some people. Sure, some training is needed to outline the steps; and you need to gain the experience in managing and counseling clients. But some people have an innate empathy that makes them good marketers – that ability to step into the shoes of the target audience and see how and why they make decision. Like initiative, that sense is hard to instill in someone who doesn’t come by it naturally. Not to sound fatalistic, but people are either good marketers… or they aren’t. Be sure that whomever is managing your marketing – internally and externally – has that uncommon sense.

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