Masonry Magazine August 2002 Page. 47
Being on more comfortable ground of marketing mimicry, we tend to steal, with minor change for appearance-sake, the campaigns of other companies and hope for the same consumer reaction. We react instead of act. We follow, not lead.
Our competitor is the cause and we're complacently content being the effect. We're safe, but we've relinquished that all too rare opportunity to be truly unique and innovative; an opportunity that has led to incredible success stories for multitudes of wealthy and happily retired business people before us.
Not that we periodically don't bemoan our fate. We do reflect at times. We wring our hands, scratch our heads, read of another marketing success by our most fierce competitor and mutter our bitterness over not following through on a similar thought. "They ain't so great," we say. "I thought of the same thing last year." (Pause) "Guess I shoulda' acted..." And we return to our day. Can you say, "Baaaaaaaaa!"
Being a coward has a downside
BUT DON'T GO SELLING your wool for sweaters just yet. There's still hope. What have we learned? Well, first the bad stuff.
We've learned our competition is now out in front; we've learned the bandwagon has started in the parade and all we can do now is jump on; and we've learned that momentum-so integral in successful market surges-has passed. Oh, and we're sure this is no way to become an industry leader.
But lo and behold, we do discern something positive. We notice a recurring theme. We begin to understand a yet heretofore intangible and previously unquantifiable attribute permeating through our many marketing drubbings: the calculated element of risk.
It turns out that many, if not most, industry leaders didn't get to where they are now on luck, lineage, shady dealing, or even on their skills alone. Many simply had the courage to act on their beliefs and abilities.
They discovered along the way that risk-in our example, a marketing risk-and reward are inextricably linked and that sometimes taking a calculated risk was the only avenue left to guide their (sometimes) fledgling and teetering companies through inevitable down periods and market stagnation.
Search further and you will find that, indeed, history is virtually littered with these types of stories, stories about leaders who, no smarter or more skilled than you or me, simply took the right risk at the right time.
PLANK-TIE
YOUR NAME IMPRINTED HERE
Manufactured
by ISI
Scaffold
Plank
Protection
180 Mill Street, Waynesboro, VA 22980
(540) 949-6839 FAX (540) 949-5531
email isi@scaffoldstrap.com
When my projects
look good, I look
good.
PROSOCO
SINCE 1939
Sure Klean Custom Masonry
products and other cleaners
ensure my architectural concrete
and brick buildings are clean,
color-uniform, and water-
repellent.
(800) 255-4255 www.prosoco.com
And those are
specs that make
everyone look
great.
The Voice of the Mason Contractor
August 2002
Masonry 45