The Grass Just Knows...So Does Your Target Market

Marketing parable for the day: Your marketing message is like a lot like the grass of your lawn during the summer heat.

Huh?

Every summer here in the Midwest, there are two or three heat waves with temperatures in the 90’s. (Don’t let anyone fool you it does get hot around the Great Lakes!) The oppressive heat usually lasts a week or more and seems to drag on and on. To go along with these temperatures is a noticeable lack of rain. This results in a lot of brown, crispy grass dotting the lawns.

Most people combat the mini-drought by turning on the hose and sprinkler in hopes to keep their lawn a little green. Usually their lawn resembles a golf course in Arizona – a small patch of green in a sea brown. Unless you water all the time, it turns out to be a waste of time and water.
Eventually, a thunderstorm will roll in and drench the ground with big, fat rain drops and offer a little relief. What happens next is pretty amazing. The brown grass comes back to life and turns green again. No matter how much you watered and sprinkled before it seems like the next day, the grass comes to life again from a little rain fall!

How does the grass know the difference between the water you poured on it and the rain from the sky? What makes rainwater more effective than ground water? Is rainwater more magical? Does it have some special growth hormones in it? Or, is it just more sincere that ground water?
The answer is: the grass just knows!

It’s the same with your marketing message and how your target market perceives your communications. They can tell if you are authentic or a tad bit deceitful. Potential buyers of your products are searching for valid solutions to their problems and challenges. When you hand them a line of deception or “to good to be true” offers they can sense that you are a risky choice.

True, there are many insincere and dishonest companies in the marketplace making outrageous claims. And many of them are making boatloads of money off of gullible consumers. But their deceptions will eventually catch up to them at a great cost.

Honesty and sincerity in marketing is an absolute necessity. Your reputation is at risk every time you come in contact with your target with any marketing message you present. Are you coming across as a sincere, authentic friend or a cold, indifferent shyster?

Just like the grass, your market will know the difference.