Do you make these mistakes in marketing? Part 8 [ ] No crisis management plan. You’ll get one only after you need it. Like security bars on the windows, they are usually installed when the damage has been done. A crisis management plan is essential risk management discipline. Who speaks to the media when something catastrophic like a product tampering or major customer incident happens? Who is on the response team? What does an employee do if they uncover a potential public relations disaster? It’s in the plan. But where’s the plan?

[ ] Locking your customers out by poor packaging design. How often as a consumer have you had trouble opening a “fast moving packaged good”? Some products are impenetrable without the aid of a sharp object. The type size is so small on the instructions only an ant could read it, and the ant market is limited. Packaging that ignores the average person (forget the baby boomers who have declining dexterity and eye sight) is a bad joke… How often does a failed product owe its demise to inhumane packaging? Some companies in overseas markets will film a family opening their packaging and trying to assemble and use the product, searching for barriers to satisfaction. Wise. How do you lock your customers out?

[ ] Failing to court your best customers; chasing new ones instead. You’d think this was a given in these days of CRM but marketing is still a male-dominated profession and the lust for the chase of fresh prey still throbs in the loins of the warriors. It is so much more satisfying to bag a new segment (at huge cost) than to consolidate and grow an existing profitable segment. Of course, the hunter usually doesn’t know the profit contribution from existing customers. He is looking for a new one night stand and it’s hard to turn a man away from the new to romance the familiar. Women should lead marketing organizations, if only in the interests of their financial health.  ¶ 12:13 PM