Just to let all those who do read this post know. I am currently taking part in an online training course presented by David about e-marketing and it is worth GOLD!! If such an opportunity comes your way, don’t let it pass you by!

@Dennis - Your comment just goes to show that marketing (and overall business) blunders are common in companies of all sizes. I guess the small business owners can take comfort in the fact that these things regularly happen on much larger scale — and at much greater cost! The good news is that there is hope! We can all learn and improve and change and adapt. Thanks for the response.

Great post. Here’s a little spin-off on this I experienced at a company that acquired a company I worked for. Wall Street was saying as a whole that they needed a better marketing approach. So, they acquired a very aggressive market-focused company (which Michael, happened to be a Canadian-based company). However, they did not change anything within their own culture or approach. I used to support a Japanese manufacturer in the states, and one of the products this new company rolled out was a web-based system that allowed the Japanese company to track important information. Company exec’s touted this thing to the hilt to our Japanese customer, that it worked great, was real-time info, etc. Then, a few weeks later, one person told me that the system didn’t work, never had worked, and could not be counted on to provide accurate info. If you’ve ever dealt with a Japanese company, honor and truthfulness are extremely important. Needless to say, they lost respect for us quickly.

Anyway, one of their key approaches (tongue in cheek), was, “Mr. Customer, I know you’re telling us what you want, and I know we’ve never run a business like yours before, but here’s what you want, because we’re experts at what we do. Despite the evidence you provided that supports your idea of what you want, it’s just wrong because we know, and because this is the way we’ve always done it. So the sooner you get on board with this, the easier our life will be, the more money we’ll make and then we’ll be ready to stick it to you again the next time you need something.”

Sad but true!

Blessings,
Dennis

BTW, this company is now teetering on the edge of extinction due to the financial market crisis. Jack Welch once said, “change or die.” The long version of what he said was, “when the rate of change outside an organization exceeds the rate of change inside the organization, the failure of that organization is imminent.”