ultraswank.net

More than ever, businesses need great marketing strategies—strategies that cut through the noise of others shouting for attention. Because the days of ad saturation and customer inundation are done; people are more skeptical than ever and have a low trust level for conventional marketing methods.

By contrast, Jesus was so effective in marketing that with no budget, no social media, no ads, no email spam campaign, no mass communications—employing only word of mouth—he drew crowds so huge that most Chief Marketing Officers would’ve passed out from disbelief!

It’s safe to say we could learn a thing or two from him. What was his secret?

[Disclaimer: The fundamental starting point of a great marketing campaign is a great product or service. In fact, according to Seth Godin “Remarkable” is a necessity in marketing today. Not “ok,” not “good,” or “not bad”… but “WOW!!!!!”]

The marketing strategies of the master Marketer

So what did Jesus do? Did he hand out flyers? Did he go up to everyone and say, “Hey, buy my stuff!”?

Jesus served. He met people’s needs.

The Bible says,

From there He went all over Galilee. He used synagogues for meeting places and taught people the truth of God. God’s kingdom was His theme – that beginning right now they were under God’s government, a good government! He also healed people of their diseases and of the bad effects of their bad lives. Word got around the entire Roman province of Syria. People brought anybody with an ailment, whether mental, emotional, or physical. Jesus healed them, one and all. More and more people came, the momentum gathering. Besides those from Galilee, crowds came from the ‘Ten Towns’ across the lake, others up from Jerusalem and Judea, still others from across the Jordan.
— Matthew 4: 23-25, The Message Bible

Jesus met the needs of people and as a result word about him spread near and far.

It was service that caused Airwalk to explode in 1990s. At its height Airwalk reached sales over $200 million. By piggybacking on emerging trends, by having inspiring, funny, quirky, and sticky ad campaigns (on a very small budget), by having a great product, and by catering to early adopters (in the form of teenage trendsetters) Airwalk built a global following.

They worked hard to serve the needs of their customers and, as a result, were rewarded richly.

Unfortunately, Airwalk made a mistake many businesses make: they stopped serving.

How?

1. At the height of their success, Airwalk had great marketing but let the quality of the product slip.
2. They changed their market segmentation strategy. Before, they produced special shoes for trendsetters (the group that made them) and more ordinary shoes for everyone else. They changed that strategy and just “went mainstream.” Trendsetters no longer had access to special Airwalk shoes at exclusive boutiques…they got shoes everyone else was wearing. As a result the trendsetters got a disregard for the brand. (Malcolm Gladwell, The Tipping Point, p 213-215)

When a company focuses on business and not on people, business suffers!

Service is the best form of marketing

This is why, from very early on—before most analysts had any idea what was in the wind—Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos believed in building the company through word of mouth and exceptional service. Needless to say—as Amazon’s performance through the economic downturn demonstrates—it worked! And it’s still working.

If you serve people like you mean it, you’ll move from obscurity to notoriety; from mediocrity to greatness. Imagine how effective a marketing strategy could be if it moved from “finding ways to best get customers” to “finding ways to best serve people.”

Wouldn’t you like to be notorious for great service?

Michael Holmes is a Queens, NY-based blogger and speaker who teaches business and leadership development from a biblical perspective. He is the author of I Shall Raise Thee Up: Ancient Principles for Lasting Greatness.