RICHARD BRADBURY THE SCIENCE OF SUCCESS

Strategic Marketing

It sounds very grand doesn’t it ‘STRATEGIC MARKETING’ but it basically means marketing with a plan. Without the intelligent application of a strategic marketing plan none of the people named here would have been successful. I think that in the modern business environment most of us actually already know this. Deep down we know that planned marketing is essential. The real question is how do we design a strategy that is guaranteed to work?

During the early part of my career I found that I had a pretty good instinct for marketing. I was naturally attracted to presenting my work in a new and interesting manner and produced ads, mailers promotions that were memorable and innovative. Without realising it I was tapping into one of the driving forces of human development. Our insatiable desire to discover something different, something new and something memorable. One of the reasons why I wanted to write my book Rich Photographer Poor Photographer, is because our knowledge of neuroscience, over the past decade, has exploded. We now have a much better understanding of how our brains really work.

There are many factors at play here but the base line is that people like to experience something that is different. It excites them and interests them so they remember it and talk about it. That’s why we like to travel, buy new fashion, eat at different restaurants. We are programmed to remember the unusual.

Blogger and marketer Seth Godin has a simple principle that he calls the ‘Purple Cow’ principle. If you are driving along a country road and you see a naturally occurring purple cow you will go “Wow a purple cow!” You will remember that moment and tell everyone about it. You could be driving along all day seeing perfectly good black, brown or white cows and at the end of the day you wouldn’t even remember you saw anything at all. This is because a purple cow is remarkable. Think about that for a second: “Remarkable”...? What is the meaning of the word? We use it to say something is different or cool but it actually means that you’ve seen something that is worth ‘remarking’ on.

Neuroscientist Gregory Berns stated that the brain is just a ‘lazy piece of meat’, It needs something remarkable to jolt it into action and then it starts to fire and get interested. If it doesn’t find anything remarkable then it just ticks along with the same old actions and reactions. Most bodily systems are the same...they are lazy. If you break an arm or a leg you will find that you need to re-teach your body how to use that limb. After weeks of being in a cast your arm will seize up and you will need to exercise it to make it work again.

Our brains are lazy until something remarkable comes along to re-awaken it.

But do not fear, there is help at hand. The reason that we all have not fallen into a permanent state of lethargy is something called ‘Dopamine’. Dopamine is a wonder drug and really could be regarded as the saviour of mankind. If we see, hear or experience something remarkable, different, scary or cool then there we are experiencing what neuroscientists call an “Emotionally Charged Event” or ECG. This causes the amygdala in the prefrontal part of our brains to release Dopamine which in turn gives us a pleasurable experience and results in a memory that is flagged and remembered many times longer than regular memories. It can also be released when we experience intensely bad or scary moments or anything that we find unusual or deeply moving. That’s why we like to watch horror movies with shocking, scary moments or drive fast cars. It’s a drug that can be very addictive.

How are you able to create the perfect strategic marketing campaign?

A well planned marketing strategy is simply essential for long term success. It is important to firmly plant that concept in the forefront of your business brain. Everyone of us will at some point get involved in some marketing for our photographic business. If you do this without a strategic plan of action then you are very likely to cause actual harm rather than expand your current client base. You will waste money chasing new work with little or no return and by doing that, you will kill the enthusiasm you have for marketing as a realistic solution. You will convince yourself that it really doesn’t work, losing all hope of ever achieving your goals. In the next issue I will explain a system for Strategic Marketing that I have designed and tuned over the past decade. It has never failed me and is, in my opinion, the answer to the question of how you achieve strategic marketing success. The answer is R.O.A.R.

Richard Bradbury FBIPP is author of photo business trilogy: RichPhotographerPoorPhotographer Theultimateguidetolaunching,developing&expandingyourphotographicbusiness.

To purchase a copy go to: www.rbradbury.com/RPPP

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