In looking at the problem I presented in
part one of this test, I’m pretty sure most of you decided to set up your stand first at the marathon, where there was a guaranteed market for your product. What you sacrificed in numbers you more than made up for in quality of prospect. In fact, you probably thought the whole test was a little ridiculous.
Yet I can tell you that over 90% of marketers, many with MBA’s and almost all of them having passed 5th grade, fail this test miserable every single day. Here’s what they do.
Where the CMO puts their Gatorade Stand...
They take about 90 to 95% of their available time (108 to 114 out of the 120 minutes) and put up their stand on the busy street. Many ignore the marathon location all together and the few that do plan to set up their stands go to the organizers and tell them they’re willing to spend 6 to 12 minutes manning it. Because of the short time they’re willing to commit, the organizers give them a spot over 500 feet from the finish line, hidden behind a large elm tree. Only about 10% of the runners even see the stand and only 4 to 8 of the 400 runners even take the time to walk over to it, and then only after they’ve checked out all the other refreshment stands available.
These marketers fail this 5th grade common sense test by ignoring or underfunding search. Look at the above scenario and tell me how it differs from how over 90% of marketers allocate their budgets. Search is lucky to get any scraps left over. If you think it doesn’t make sense, I’d have to agree. When the scenario is reframed in a different context, it seems ridiculous. But it’s business as usual for most marketers.
Because search reaches buyers “already in market”, you’re guaranteed to have prospects that are qualified and interested. Just like Gatorade at the finish line of a marathon, you’re reaching an audience thirsty for what you’re selling. But there’s another similarity between the two scenarios. As I talked about in a previous post, the
alignment of intent is a critical element in engagement with advertising messages. Again, sticking with our marathon analogy, let’s look at how the difference of intent will vary our prospect’s interest in our Gatorade stand:
The Intent: To Quench their Thirst
At the marathon finish line, runners have no other objective but the rest and rehydrate. Your Gatorade stand is perfectly aligned with their intent. They’re actively looking for you. The easier you are to find, the shorter path they have to take to reach their objective – getting something cold to drink. They have nothing else to do, no other pressing objectives to pursue. You have 100% of their attention.
But when you put your stand up beside the busy commuter thoroughfare, that’s a completely different thing. Although the number of prospects is greater by a factor of 100 (40,000 vs 400), you have no idea that any of them are thirsty. Now, given the greater audience, you could use the rationale that odds are good that at least 1 in a hundred motorists would be thirsty. But you have another obstacle to overcome.
Even if a motorist is thirsty, their mind is elsewhere. They have a destination in mind and that’s why they’re in their car, rushing along the boulevard at 40 miles an hour. To get them to stop at your Gatorade stand you have to do three things: catch their attention, give them a reason to put their current task at hand aside for a few moments, and, make it easy for them to stop long enough to get a bottle of Gatorade. The odds of doing any of these successfully are monumentally stacked against you. So this is not a pure numbers game (40,000 vs 400), it’s making sure you reach the market that’s right for you.
It's Not Either/Or
Now, I’m the first to admit that this is not an either/or scenario. If you want to sell as much Gatorade as possible, you’ll need to look at both potential strategies. But you do need to prioritize, and I think any fifth grader would tell you your priorities should be where people are thirstiest. Catch the marathoners and then worry about the motorists. Unfortunately, most CMO’s do exactly the opposite. They spend all day beside the road, standing under their massive signs, hoping that some motorist might be a little parched and low on electrolytes. A few, as an after thought, spend a few minutes slinging Gatorade at the marathon finish line just as the last contests are straggling in and are pleasantly surprised by the success rates they see. Unfortunately, they’ve already missed 98% of the finishers and have no idea how much Gatorade they could have sold had they spent more time there.
The smart 5th grader, upon reading over the
problem again, will also discover that they can get the greatest gain from marathon sales with only a 45 minute commitment of their 2 available hours. That’s all the race organizers are asking for. And this commitment will net them 85 to 90% of the total available sales. There are a finite number of racers and you don’t need to over allocate resources to reach them. You just have to be smart about the allocations. That still leaves you 75 minutes to try your luck with the motorists.
The top of the class 5th grader will try to leverage both strategies, capturing the motivated market at the finish line by allocating enough time to capture a prime position but also taking the time to put the sign up by the road side, directing traffic to the location that’s just a two minute drive away. This way, you’re expanding the market available beyond the marathoners to motorists that are thirsty enough to add a few thirst quenching moments to their daily commute. The one challenge that comes with putting your stand by the finish line is that the number of marathoners is finite, whereas there are always cars whizzing along the thoroughfare.
When put in these terms, it’s really not that difficult to allocate your time in the way designed to realize the maximum return, yet almost every CMO fails this test. Perhaps it’s time to return to fifth grade.