The 10 Commandments of Marketing Part 1

You remember the story. Moses went up to Mt. Sinai. God gave him the Ten Commandments. The Israelites made a golden calf. Moses saw it and broke the stones that the Ten Commandments were written on. He went back up to get a new copy. God gave it to him. He read it to the Israelites. It became the most famous set of rules the world has ever known.

I was thinking about this story found in Exodus 20 and thought “What if there were a ‘Ten Commandments of Marketing?’”

So here’s what I think are the first four most important things about ethical marketing:

1. Setup no other god before the one true God.

OK, I borrowed that from the original. But I think it's important for business people to remember. As wonderful as your product or service is, it can't really perform miracles, so don't claim that it can. Don't set up your product or service as the savior.

2. Know your customers and solve their problems.

You've got to know your customers, and understand the problems they face. Your product or service must solve their problems to be valuable. Product demonstrations, samples, and testimonials are critical to your success. Psalm 34:8 says, "Taste and see that the Lord your God is good." So if your customer can experience firsthand how your product or service solves their problems, they will buy from you.

3. Have an excellent product or service.

An excellent product or service not only solves problems, it provides superior value. It leaves the customer feeling glad they bought it, and ready to buy from you again and again. If you're selling, but not developing a product, choose to sell products that are excellent. If you offer a service, then you are in the driver’s seat. You have the opportunity to define excellence and provide it to your clients.

4. Use no hyperbole (hype) in your marketing.

Excellent products or services need no hype. If your product must be 'built up' with pages and pages of copy to sell, it might not be ready market. Spend some more time in development. Make it excellent, and you won't need the hype.

How do you recognize hype? Hype is short for hyperbole which means to exaggerate. The ancient Greek literally meant to 'overshoot.' So if your marketing materials make any kind of exaggerated or unproven claims, you've got hype. Get rid of it. Look for the real selling points of you product and talk about those.

That’s it for now. I’ll continue this discussion in the next few issues.

Brett