The Philadelphia Experiment - A Marketing Disaster

An interesting thing happened in Philadelphia awhile ago. An apparently successful marketing plan ended up crashing and burning because of one fatal flaw. What's even sadder is that with some simple preparation that failure could have easily been a resounding success.



If you or your company is involved in marketing and you read this short article you can discover how to avoid making your own fatal flaw.



But first, here's what happened...



Awhile ago some folks in Philadelphia wanted to make sure that any gaming establishment construction was at least 1,500 feet away from any home, school, playground, house of worship, library, public pool, or civic center. In order to put the question seeking to exclude gaming establishments from these residential areas on the ballot, the notarized signatures of 20,000 registered voters was needed.



The proponents of the bill hit the streets. Some would even say they went overboard because when the final count was done they had collected 27,254 signatures. But there was a problem - a very big one.



According to The Philadelphia Inquirer less than 7,000 of the signatures were valid. It looks like nobody got a list of the registered voters. Sure, people were signed up by the well intentioned volunteers, but only about twenty five percent of the signatures were valid.



So how could the good citizens of Philadelphia have avoided this dilemma? Simple - they could have hired a direct marketing services company.



A direct marketing services company would have found their true target audience. They would have provided lists that could have included the names, addresses, and phone numbers of as many registered voters as were needed to meet the volunteers' goals.



If you have a product or service you want to successfully market a company like this can help you to identify the exact target market who would most be interested in buying what you're selling. They'll help you to:



1. Determine the demographics of your target market.



2. Help you to establish what their requirements and needs are.



3. Help you to figure out what benefits they're looking for.



4. Aid you in discerning their potential concerns about your service or product.



5. Identify your competition.



Once this information has been ascertained a good direct marketing services company will help you to reach them. They have virtually unlimited lists of potential clients for your company that have now been pre-selected according to the criteria you established.



If you had a list of people that you knew were interested in your service or product, people who perhaps bought similar products or services in the past, do you think it would make your marketing efforts more successful? If you knew what their questions and concerns were before you even spoke to them how easy do you think it would be to formulate a successful marketing campaign?





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You can find numerous direct marketing services on the Internet. One of the most successful is Martin Worldwide. Go to => http://www.martinworldwide.net/index.php to see how they can help you meet your goals.