What to spend your marketing budget on?

Depending upon your industry, your experience, even your personal gut feel, as a business owner or marketeer you’ll have your own idea on what to spend your marketing budget on. And how much to allocate to each channel. But it’s worth taking a step back once in a while and reviewing whether what you’re doing is the best for your business.

Have a read of this article on Marketing Week (you may need to register to gain access…it is free) about Pret a Manger.

In the highly competitive world of the brunch / lunch on the run trade, you’d assume that advertising would play a big part. But no. Not for Pret.

They take a different approach. One that’s focused on their menu and the customer experience.

How about this from the Marketing Director “Would I sooner invest in a TV campaign, which ultimately is short lived, or in actually improving the in-store experience? For us, ad spend is improving the menu or optimising the impact of our window displays. We don’t put out paid for traditional ads and that is unlikely to change.”

Pret know that of the vast majority of people buying something from them today, they are highly likely to be doing the same thing the next day, and the next, and the next.

So at the centre of it all is ensuring;

• Their customers have a positive experience, one that is highly likely to encourage them to return tomorrow.
• Conversely and equally importantly, that their customers have no reason to have a bad customer experience (it could very well be that customer’s last).
• What they offer evolves, is in tune with seasons, fads, fashions, diets, and so on.
• They remain true to their brand values, so they continue to remain relevant to their core customer base.

Sounds simple. And in essence it is. But in practice it is no doubt far from it. Continually reviewing the customer experience, implementing changes, testing…it’s a constant process.

In addition, it clearly takes confidence from the marketing and brand team to get to that point…where the attention to broadcast advertising takes a firm back seat to what goes on in their stores and is sold over the counter.

A few thoughts for us all;

• Put your existing consider first. They are your life-blood.
• Based upon what you do, where are the chinks in your product / service that could mean your customers don’t return or give you a bad name to others?
• Weigh up your marketing spend and review where it ought to be focused. Remembering that what goes on during the customer journey is marketing, just as much as that DM piece or advert you’ve just signed off.

Here’s the link again: http://www.marketingweek.com/2015/04/17/pret-a-mangers-marketing-boss-on-succeeding-without-advertising/?nocache=true&adfesuccess=1