The Money Is In The Marketing – Not The Doing

I don’t own an XBox or Playstation or Wii, but I’m sure that I’m among the general target market for violent video games, because I see television commercials for them all the time during basically the only live television I watch (in other words, where I can’t fast-forward through the commercials): NFL football games.

I often remark how much commercials for video games look like advertisements for movies; because of the quality of the graphics, I usually don’t even realize that the ads are for games until the very end, when they say so.

One such commercial that caught my eye (again: largely because I didn’t have the choice of fast-forwarding through it), was one for a video game called, “Game Of War.”

Maybe you’ve seen it, too.

In case you haven’t, or if you just want to see it again, here it is:

Sure, my attention was captured by the heaving bosom of the buxom model at the center of the ad, and her invitation to “come play with me,” but what REALLY jolted me was the screenshot of the actual video game itself at the end of the commercial – and in particular the AMAZING and extraordinary difference in quality and appearance between the commercial and the actual game itself (below right).

My immediate thought was one of respect and admiration for the video game company executives who apparently have their priorities straight, evidenced by how much thought, effort, skill and money they obviously put into the marketing of their game, as opposed to concentrating on improving the game itself, which appears to have fairly rudimentary graphics and looks to be completely rinky-dink, compared to its movie-quality commercial.

Am I saying it’s okay to produce a sub-par product or service?

Of course not.

If you’ve been around me for any length of time or paid attention to any of my teachings of how to build and sustain a successful business, you’ve definitely heard me say that I consider an excellent product or service to be “the ante to get into the game” – in other words, the most basic requirement for every single business.

However, you’ve also heard me repeatedly urge small business owners to focus less on the doing of their business and more on the marketing of their business.

For my clients, that means that they keep working IN their business, while I work ON their business to increase and improve their leads, customers, sales, repeat sales, referrals and, of course, PROFITS.

If for some reason you’ve chosen not to have an experienced, accomplished marketer working for you, it means YOU putting the majority of your time, money and effort into the effective marketing of your business instead of just the doing of it.

From the high-quality appearance of their big-budget television commercial as compared to the relatively amateur-looking graphics of their game itself, it looks like the folks at “Game Of War” have gotten this exactly right.

According to Forbes, the budget for these ads was a staggering $40 million, which, as with all effective advertising and marketing, is practically nothing compared to the nearly $1 million per DAY in revenue that the game brings in, according to ThinkGaming.com.

And that brings to mind the second main point to be learned from this Game Of War ad campaign: The power of an Irresistible OFFER (the “O” in my The WOW! Strategy™).

In this case, the Irresistible OFFER is that people can download and play the game completely for free, with “in-app purchases” made by players who wish to enhance their game-playing experience being completely optional.

The question you need to ask yourself is whether YOU have a truly Irresistible OFFER to attract new customers, clients or patients to YOUR small business.

Such purchases by these video game players may be optional, but making the effective marketing of your business your #1 priority is not – not if you want to grow and sustain a successful business that affords you the income and lifestyle you deeply desire and deserve.