Goodman On Marketing
Good Access To Information

If you have heard one of my presentations before, you may recall this: I often start off by asking, How many of you believe that information or knowledge is power Inevitably, a show of hands indicates agreement. At this point I state, You are all wrong. Maybe not the best way to win over a crowd, but when I add,

The use of information or knowledge is power, the participants start nodding their heads in agreement. Information for information's sake is useless. I carry a CD with me to illustrate the point. On this CD you may have all of the information on all your customers, potential customers, the market environment, competitors, and suppliers, but without the ability to access it, put it into useable form, and then take action, this accumulated information is merely potential power. While information is available for every organization, they often don't know how to obtain, organize, or use it.

Questions like: Who are your Customers; why are they your Customers; where did they come from, sound straightforward. However, often when we ask a company (of any size) these questions we either get a shrug of the shoulders or a dont-know-but-thats- a-good-question response. We are often asked by organizations to assist them in their marketing research. The first question we ask is, what is their objective for the research and what is the goal for the use of the gathered information. Without an objective and goal, we are only gathering information for information's sake.

Peter Drucker stated, Business has only two basic functions: Marketing and Innovation. I agree, and the two tasks of marketing are: Discovering Customers Needs (gathering information) and Satisfying Customer Needs (using gathered information). Thus, the First Task of Marketing is the gathering of information or Marketing Research. In March, I had the opportunity to take my oldest daughter Natalie to an event featuring Coach Ken Carter.

The theme was: Average is just not good enough. I thought (being a proud father), since Natalie has both great intellectual and athletic abilities (both from her mother) that she would benefit and understand how to apply those talents to excel. Well, her mother was right, and our eight-year-olds favorite part of the program was the t-shirt and free poster. However, I digress. Coach Carter commented that the difference between average and succeeding to meet your goals is simple, it's Access to Good Information. He understood his goal, and it may not be what you would think.

It wasn't a winning season; it was education. He understood that by knowing the desires of his players (customers) he could package his basketball program (product) in a way to create success in reaching his goals (education for all his players). Simply put, for Coach Carter, if you have the desire to play basketball, you must also agree to achieve in the classroom as well.

Coach Carter understood that the players perceived need was to play basketball, but their true need was receiving an education. As a great marketer, he saw the value of having Access to Good Information and the need for a Plan to use that information to achieve stated goals. Do you have Access to Good Information and a Plan to use it If you have not heard of Coach Carters story, I strongly suggest you take a moment and visit www.coachcarter.com . I guarantee, it's one site you wont need to hide as the boss walks by.

Jim Goodman is the president of Customer Ease, a marketing consulting and research company in Des Moines. Jim founded the CEO Center (Creative Entrepreneur Organization) for assisting in the growth of Iowa businesses. Jim is also an adjunct professor for Drake University teaching Entrepreneurship and Marketing Research. To reach Jim: jimg@customer-ease.com or 515-471-1301.