Clarity

CLARITY

Greetings Golfers,

Don’t you love clarity? It’s great to read or hear someone who makes sense. Or go to a restaurant that makes sense. Simple doesn’t mean simpleminded. And confusing doesn’t represent some deep mystery … it usually represents confusion.

The other night, I was reading about beer marketing - especially in the 1980s and 90s. Miller hit a home run with light beer. Light beer soon became half of all beer sales … and Miller Lite was the star. 

But, Miller High Life started slipping … and Miller started panicking. In their panic … they lost their vision of Miller Lite and Miller High Life.

Around that same time … Coca-Cola was losing ground to Pepsi. So they decided to make Coke sweeter - more like a Pepsi. Boom! They crashed and had to recover by bringing back the normal Coke and calling it “Coke Classic”.

Marketing - especially Branding - should be about clarity. Who are you? That saying “All publicity is good publicity” … is ridiculous. Could it be any stupider? 

Your image and reputation need to be good … and need to be true. People can usually see through BS.

Marketing can’t always be about a deal … or then you’re not of real value. And marketing has to know its market … you can’t be everything to everyone. I think you have to be special. I don’t mean that in an arrogant way … I mean it more uniquely.

Miller beer has to be different from Budweiser. Coke has to be different from Pepsi. Making choices is the gift of a free society. We need different things to express our individuality. Otherwise, we’re just slaves and robots.

Businesses need to understand that. Too often, they get obsessed with growth instead of getting better and really nailing their market.

They lose clarity. 

You can see it in their marketing … and it reflects their confusion as to who they are.

Marketing is not a silly game or a scam. It’s a definition of who you are.

Years ago at a Board meeting … a guy couldn’t understand our marketing expense because we were full. My response was, “Don’t you think there’s a correlation between the two?”

A business needs to constantly look in the mirror and know who they are. And why? And is it working? And … are we making it clear to our customer who we are?

Well … that takes a lot of introspection and understanding. The numbers are just a reflection of if you know what you’re doing.

So that famous saying “A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!”

How about “Clarity, clarity, my kingdom for clarity!”

Or “To be clear or not to be clear … that is the question.” 

Same thing. Give me clarity.

Cheers,

Tom Abts
GM/Head PGA Professional
tabts@deerrungolf.com