Good marketing can overcome an inferior product or service.  By “inferior” I do not mean really terrible.  Really terrible is a “bad” product or service.  Inferior in this sense simply refers to a product or service that is less than premium or top quality.

Excellent marketing can put a mediocre product or service on top.  Just look at some of the software–operating systems and others–on the market today.  If you have more than a passing knowledge of the products available, you are well-aware of products languishing on software shelves that are superior in design and construction and lower in price than more popular products many of which are household words.

This is not an accident!  It is by careful design by excellent minds–not the software but the marketing campaign surrounding it.  These marketers have carefully analyzed the software features (good and bad), the market place, the customers’ likes, dislikes, and usage patterns; and then designed a program to promote the benefits to the customers.  All this while steering the customers away from the true issues of mediocrity of the product.

By continuing this barrage over the years and multiple incarnations, they have convinced us that such-and-such a product is the one to have.  They have also made it very easy for us to use that product.

No marketing can help a bad product or service, with the possible exception of a brief, brilliant burnout.  Nowadays, they are more commonly launched on the Internet or via infomercials though direct mail is still used.  In fact, direct mail may be returning as a favored vehicle for such programs with the more sophisticated “segmentation” of the addressee now available. 

The marketing programs that scream onto the scene with a persistent blitz can briefly inflame enthusiasm to a fever pitch.  But the “shooting star” soon burns itself out.

The market place will ultimately figure out if a product or service is truly bad, and the ground-swell of rejection and returns will soon put the company out of business.  However, if the company is determined to defraud customers, the authorities will finally shut them down.  Of course, with the electronic services and the Internet, this regulatory process is neither as quick nor as effective as it used to be.

To your business success!

Paul Elliott
Marketing With Unbelievable Guarantees!™
http://www.MarketingSuccessBlueprint.com/blog

© 2008, Paul Elliott, All rights reserved world wide.