We say “Toolbox.” You say “What?” Let us explain.

At Werkshop, we talk about the Marketing Toolbox. To us, it’s as familiar as the alphabet, and what we pull out of it is different from client to client.

Many companies and small businesspeople come to us with tool malfunction. Agencies, experts or ad sales executives, offering a grab-bag of marketing tactics, led the client to choose a marketing tool without knowing what they were getting into. Now, they need guidance to fix the problem they inadvertently caused.

For example: Over lunch recently, a businessman told me about his experience with a traditional marketing tool, direct mail. He then proclaimed that it “no longer works.” You see, he and his partners had designed a postcard touting their business’s strengths, purchased a mailing list pulled the trigger — and were perplexed when they received not a single response. Clearly, the mailing was ineffective. But what I attempted to explain is that the mailing really couldn’t be effective — in fact, no marketing tactic is effective when undertaken without proper planning. Without a blueprint, the tool can’t be held responsible for its results!

The hammer is only as good as the person holding the nail. Without careful holding, the hammer will only beat the heck out of the object underneath of it! So I asked my lunch companion some questions, attempting to figure out why the mailing didn’t work. Was it the message? The art? When did it arrive in mailboxes? Did the mailing list meet targeted criteria? What did the project cost? And, most importantly, was the company’s expectations of the direct mail campaign legitimate?

He couldn’t really answer most of the questions — which is precisely the point! The lack of planning caught up with the company, and thus a potential opportunity was just wasted paper (and wasted money).

Each tool in the marketing toolbox has its place. Public relations, web communication, interactive media, mass advertising — the list is lengthy, but not every campaign requires every tool. Every tool, however, requires a focused, fine-tuned strategy in order to work the way it was intended.