According to the Wiktionary, logic is “A method of human thought that involves thinking in a linear, step-by-step manner about how a problem can be solved.” This is the context in which I would like to present what I refer to as Venmark Marketing Logic. Put simply, you want your products and/or services in front of a prospective customer when the need for such a product or service exists. The need might be precipitated by new product development, vendor price increases or failures, or some other event. Most importantly, you want your company to be perceived as a problem-solver when the opportunity arises: a simple and logical approach.

Contrary to what many industrial and technical entrepreneurs think, marketing is more than Google Searching and getting high rankings in search engines. According to the American Marketing Association, “Marketing is an organizational function and a set of processes for creating, communicating and delivering value to customers and for managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders.” For our purposes, we won’t discuss CRM (customer relationship management). Let’s focus on the idea of creating, communicating, and delivering value to customers.

Many engineers, especially, assume that if somebody needs a widget, they’ll “Google” it and, therefore, all you have to do is have a strong internet presence with SEO (search engine optimization). Partially true. But, it presumes “awareness by the customer that a problem exists.” That is a costly assumption because it excludes all those potential sales situations in which customers weren’t aware that they had a problem. Effective marketing stimulates and preconditions prospective customers to recognize that your company offers solutions to their problems. Even problems they never knew they had! In the early 1980’s, for example, people didn’t know they had a “typing problem” until word processors arrived on the scene and made it clear that typing speed, faster corrections, type selection options, and storage were all easier using a word processor.

Peter Nielsen of Sail Magazine wrote about a product he chose to publicize for one of our clients, “This is one of those handy little gizmos you never knew you needed before you saw it.” That says it all! What caught Mr. Nielsen’s attention in Sail Magazine is that we illustrated how a mounting shaft collar, typically used in an industrial setting, can also solve a problem on a yacht. He recognized the value and chose to present it to his readers.

Let’s revisit the concept of “Venmark Marketing Logic.” It combines science and art to [1.] Put your products in front of prospective customers when they perceive a need for your products or services. [2.] Illustrate how your products can solve specific problems in order to attract prospective customers who have an identified need. [3.] Precondition prospective clients to think about your company’s problem-solving expertise through the repetitive and collective illustration of same. [4.] Increase organic search engine positioning, because Google’s page rank technology is based on the idea that the best way to find relevant information is to prioritize search results not by the characteristics of a document, but by the number of websites that are linking to it. (Source: Wikinomics, Don Tapscott and Anthony D. Williams, Penguin Group, ©2008).

Only one marketing tool can achieve all four elements above: product publicity. The challenge with product publicity today is to be recognized through all the noise and clutter on the web and in our mailboxes; both electronic and postal. The reason why product publicity is so valuable is because editors select the information which they believe will interest their readers and present it to them as news like Mr. Nielson did in the above example. As such, there is an implied “third party endorsement.” Publicity is “news and information” selected by editors, web hosts and blogger and it is published to inform their readers. Consequently it has more value than a sponsored message. News always has! Executed properly, an effective product publicity campaign generates high quality sales leads, puts you in front of prospective customers consistently, and does this cost-effectively.