When marketing becomes bad PR

In my other life, I’m a decorative and folk art painter. For the past five years I’ve been going to workshops at a local arts centre on a Friday morning, and they’ve been great fun.

 

This arts centre has been something of a local secret. It took me a long time to find this class.

 

Now that’s all going to change. New management want to get some marketing moving. They want to make sure the community knows the centre’s there. They want to raise the awareness of their brand – possibly something to do with the funding cuts happening everywhere. To that end, we’ve been asked to supply some finished painted pieces for a show that’s going to demonstrate what’s going on at the centre.

 

So I asked what seemed to me to be some very pertinent questions. What do they want to get out of the exercise? For people to know we’re here, they said. That’s fine, said I, but what will you do when people want to come along and join in? They looked puzzled. Hubbub overcame our conversation, and my point was lost. They’re going to find out the hard way. If you raise awareness and you then can’t manage the demand you generate, good marketing is rapidly going to turn into bad PR. Our class is full. Our tutor doesn’t want to open another class. Anyone whose interest is piqued by our display won’t be able to join in. And then they’ll start grumbling about who’s paying for this centre. Hey ho.

 

Managing demand is vital to a successful marketing campaign. Look at what happened with the Olympics tickets in the UK. Huge interest was generated by great marketing. But demand for tickets equally hugely outweighed availability. And the ticket application scheme was dire. Result? Massive national goodwill turned bad.

 

On a day-to-day basis, marketing has to be backed up by the ability to manage demand. Only today the web site e-buyer went down as its £1 sale went online. The sale had been heralded by campaigns on every available channel, and they worked. Demand to get to the right pages was so intensive that the whole site fell over. And from what I hear, when it was eventually up and running again, people could actually get as far as paying before being told that items had gone out of stock. There are now a lot of unhappy ebuyer non-customers out there. And on Facebook.

 

It just takes some decent planning and communication. If you’re promoting a product, a service, a sale, make sure you’ve got enough to satisfy demand. Make sure that everyone in the business knows it’s coming – from web support through sales to receptionists who answer the phones. And definitely make sure you’re not wasting time and money on getting your customers to eventually unlike you.  

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