CALL US I’ve used this term on and off for a few years now and I swear someday I will write a book about it. I the meantime, Me Too Marketing is something I see happening in just about every business segment across the map.
me too mar-ket-ing
noun
Advertising and promotional decisions made by a business because they feel compelled to do exactly what their competitors are doing.
Examples:
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“That coffee shop is doing really well. I bet we could open up one across the street and do better.”
- “Our competitor is on Pinterest. We should be there too.”
- “I hear a lot of businesses advertising on the radio. It must be working for them and we should be doing it.”
Here’s a real life example of this in my neighborhood. I live in a popular wine region in California and my family was one of the first 20 wineries here almost 30 years ago. Today there are over 180 and the area is attempting to become as commercialized as the Napa wine region. The problem? Very few are profitable and most are hanging on by a thread.
So what happened? Two things that I saw firsthand. One, grape growers that would sell grapes to wineries decided they were “getting screwed” by the winemakers because they were selling their grapes at a good price and the winemaker was turning around and charging a small fortune for the wine they produced. Growers got greedy and decided to start their own wineries. “If they can do it, so can I.”
The problem is they didn’t factor in the fact that as a grower, you get paid by the pound so the more you produce the more money you make. As a winemaker you know that the less you grow on the grapevine, the better quality the grapes and wine will be. Now you have the market flooded with subpar wine because growers are doing it the way they always did and producing as much tonnage as they can on the vines, which results in poor quality grapes and mediocre wine.
Second, you have the “sophisticated” wine lover roll through town who says, “Wow honey, I’d love to move here and start a winery. It’s so romantic!” So they sell their house in the suburbs and move to the country, investing everything they have in something they know nothing about, and it all turns out to be 10 times more costly than they imagined and it turns out it’s not as romantic as they thought and a lot of work.
Back to Reality…
No matter what business you are in, no matter what your selling, do yourself a favor and NEVER leap before you look. Whether it is something your competitor is doing, some new marketing idea you heard about, whatever, do your homework first. Just because your neighbor is doing it doesn’t mean it’s working. They could be completely lost in what they are marketing and are grasping at straws to try to find something that will help them sell their product. Stick to the basics. Ask lots of questions. Evaluate costs vs. real return on investment (ROI) from actual people who have used this new medium and compare it to your business.
If you do decide to forge ahead on this new expenditure, start small. If it works, invest a little more, if it doesn’t, kill it and go back to what you know works. Remember, no matter what a salesperson says or promises you have to take it all in stride and get the facts from actual people who have used their product and can speak intelligently about their investment. Also keep in mind that your most valuable asset for gaining new customers isn’t anything someone can sell you to get your name out there, it’s your current customers. Keep them happy and encourage them to tell others and that is where your real business comes from.
