education Return to the Basics With Marketing
Jim Ackerman R
ight now, we’re returning to basics. Not just the basics of the mobile electronics business or even the basics of marketing. We’re going back to the basics of business. What it means to be in busi- ness, to own a business.
Let’s start with a question. What business are you in? No, re-
ally. This is a vitally serious question. Ask 100 business owners what business they’re in and 97 of them will tell you what they do. That isn’t the question. Ask 100 mobile electronics store owners what business they’re in and they’ll tell you, “I’m in mobile electronics,” or, “I own a car stereo shop.” Some may say, “I’m an installer.” Nope! If you own the shop, you may think you’re a mobile electron-
ics guru of one sort or another, but the day you took ownership of the business is the day you became something different. That’s the day you became a marketer of mobile electronics and you were no longer a guru. The late, great business leader Peter Drucker, known as the
father of modern management, said in effect, “The only two legitimate functions of business are marketing and innovation. The rest are expense.” When you own the business, your pri- mary function is to “bring in the business.” Other people can be found to do virtually everything else — buying and managing inventory, managing employee schedules, training, accounting, you name it. But if you fail in the function
50 Mobile Electronics December | January 2012
of bringing in the business, you have no business. Dare you abandon this responsibility?
ADOPTING THREE MARKETING GOALS Unfortunately, most mobile electronics retailers never real- ize these important truths and that accounts for their lack of prosperity. For example, one retailer has been in business for two genera- tions and yet is generating less than a million dollars a year in gross revenues. Another retailer opened just three years ago and is al- ready enjoying a multi-million dollar business. How can this be? Some would chalk it up to luck, location, up-front capital, etc. But the truth is, the difference is probably marketing. The store owner who focuses on marketing will be the one who makes the most money, even if his skills, inventory and location are inferior. This is the businessperson who realizes his or her pri- mary function is to bring in the business. John Silva owns four retail stores in Northern California. He is about to leave on his annual, two-month trip to Fiji, where he’ll enjoy the sun and the beach and lots of scuba diving. His multi-million dollar operation allows him to do that. But if he failed to see himself as a marketer, he would never
have been able to build such a business or enjoy such a life- style. He’d be too busy working “in” the business. There are only three ways to grow your mobile electronics
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