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However they have done it, some songs in a string of words have found their way into the minds of the masses and can be recognized without ever singing them correctly. "If I had a hammer" is one of those strings. I'd hammer in the morning. I'd hammer in the evening...all over this land. The only people who do not sing the rest of this tune in their minds are the ones who have never heard it. Everybody else can hear the song playing in their head.
If I had a hammer.......................................................(go ahead, sing some of it in your mind.)
You want your marketing efforts to become that effective. You want your business model to be recognized with this kind of power. You want your trade to become part of what the consumer thinks about when their mind walks near the products or services your business provides. Every time your consumer thinks about doing something in their life that can include using what your business does, you want them to at least think about your business. When a customer starts looking to buy a home and you are a real estate agent, you want that customer to be thinking of your services like they recognize 'if I had a hammer.' Immediately, you want them to be thinking about you. Your business needs to become like that song in their head. The part of that song that helps make this simple marketing point is the line that reads, I'd hammer all over this land.
Marketing your business for success is not as difficult as many are making it to become. Most business owners do not allow their marketing efforts enough time to mature. They hit a good idea once and quit running it as often as they can. The owners seem bent on the idea of trying to discover the next best idea. The owners keep looking for something new, something more creative. If I had a hammer, is consistent. He never grabs a saw. He never runs a drill or a screw driver. He just uses a hammer. He probably owns a screw driver. I am sure he has a saw on the shelf, too. I bet he has duct tape!
No other words, no other phrases nor any other tune can remind you about that song. Only "if I had a hammer" can do that job. I do not even need to sing the melody to make that song come to your mind. Those famous words find their own way to your memory banks. That was some good marketing.
We know good marketing when we see it. We know when we have seen something in marketing that is very effective. The hard part is trying to figure out how we can do that kind of marketing for our own business models. That is usually why we go searching for a good jingle.
A few years ago I was working on improving my furniture store marketing. I decided to study some things, first. I wanted to come up with something that set my store apart from everyone else who sold furniture in my market. I wanted to make sure I was one of the places everyone would shop when they decided to go get some new furniture. All I wanted was a chance to see them before they bought some new furniture.
I tried to envision what the store would look like with people milling about to see the things we had for sale. I tried to find the reasons why people would want to come to my store and check it out. Even though I started this marketing project off with the idea that I wanted to develop a really good jingle, I discovered something else. My store did not look very interesting. My brick and mortar building was looking very tired. My employees were carefree and unprofessional, but hey were family and friends. They liked me. We had fun back then.
My business model was not designed to be the place where people wanted to go. Somehow I thought a good jingle would help bring them in. I apparently thought clever salespeople with good jokes and happy personalities would help create interest for the customers to enjoy. One employee was a farmers wife. Another employee was an auto mechanic prior to coming to work for me. One delivery driver worked previously as a hamburger joint cook. The other delivery truck driver was recently released from a prison cell. He came to my business model on a job training program I used to help me pay for his services. He came with tax credits from a federal program as an incentive for me to hire him. The other employee left his last cement mixing job because he was tired of working for his father. This was the mix of characters I employed for my furniture store employees. All I needed was a good jingle!
If only I could come up with a great line or phrase like the one that got the hammer song so much notoriety. I would be in slick city! My furniture store operation would rise right to the top! Wrong.
So many business owners get caught up trying to do the wrong things at the wrong time with the wrong components in place. Just because we own a business does not mean we know what we are doing. Just because we have good ideas does not mean they truly are good ideas. Just because we think we know what to do and when to do it does not mean we should be doing that stuff. Business owners are their very own worst enemies. Most will never admit it. I was my worst enemy back then. I hired the wrong people for the wrong reasons. I took care of the wrong things at the wrong times. I wasted a ton of time working on getting approval from everybody long before I made healthy, strong and effective decisions. I did come up with a good jingle, however.
That jingle has not played for many years, yet once in awhile I sing it poorly next to someone who I know has been around long enough to recognize it. They usually finish it when I stop midway through the melody. They remember my jingle. It will not save your business. It will help you to become more recognized, however. It may even help those from the past remember how it played.
Your business model will grow strong when you do the right things that help it to grow stronger. When you skip messing around with screw drivers and saws, and beginning using a hammer with all of the things you need to be doing, your business model will begin to grow up. If your business model is not growing well enough, it is because you are doing the wrong things to help it grow up. My furniture store did not struggle all by itself. I helped make it find a tough road to travel. When I decided to grow up and make the right changes in the right ways, that store began to grow. Your business model is mirroring your efforts.
You are the reason for the direction your model is traveling. If you are struggling, look in the mirror. You will likely be seeing one of the biggest villains. Once you accept this truth, you can begin the work on correcting what is truly wrong with how your model is going. Quit worrying about what others may think. Get yourself mentally corrected and start improving how you do the things you do to help your business become very good at what it does. No jingle in the world can save a poorly run business model. All you will be able to do with a good jingle is bring a lot of people into your fold that will be able to witness how poorly your model is designed. None of them will tell you that truth. They just will not come back.
If I had a hammer, not a good jingle, I'd hammer in the morning. I'd hammer in the evening, all over this town. Build a better business model. It can do far more than any jingle could ever produce. Go correct the wrongs you are currently protecting. There are plenty of them waiting for you to change how you address them. Roll your sleeves up and go get to work on them.
Your business model will be glad you did.
Until next time...
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