Do you ever wonder who you can turn to for good marketing advice? I think the answer may be lying at your feet. Your dog is probably one of the best examples of what it takes to market effectively. Take our Airedale, Krissy, for example. She and Amber come to the office with us every day. After they have greeted everyone, Krissy begins her marketing campaign to be taken for a walk. What makes her an effective marketer?

1) She knows her target market. She knows who feeds her, takes her for a walk and plays ball with her. She is not going to waste time pursuing anyone who hasn’t scratched her belly or given her a Greenie. She makes a beeline directly to my office and jumps on my lap to get my attention.

2) She has developed her core message. For any given situation, she knows the exact doleful face, the slight whimper or persistent paw that will get the just response she wants and she keeps it up persistently until she gets the desired reaction.

3) She uses a good marketing mix. Krissy doesn’t rely on just one tactic to attract attention. If I don’t respond to the lap jumping, she barks and then gets Amber to bark.

This is the basic premise of social marketing. You tweet; someone retweets.

If that doesn’t work, she takes my hand in her mouth and pulls me toward the door.

This is called direct response marketing.

If that doesn’t work, she runs to my assistant and jumps on her chair.

This is called influencer marketing.

And if her wishes are STILL ignored, she will lay by the window and sigh loudly and forlornly.

A good example of stealth marketing.

In the end, she usually gets the walk she’s been lobbying for which just proves you have to use a variety of tactics to achieve success.

These are just a few of the marketing lessons you can learn from dogs and it is the basis for my presentation, Marketing to the MAX: What My Dogs Taught Me About Marketing My Book. Please join me at my next presentation Wednesday, April 28, 2010, 5:30 pm at the monthly meeting of the Scottsdale Society of Women Writers at the Scottsdale Marriott Suites Old Town, 7325 East Third Avenue, Scottsdale, AZ 85251. You’ll see that much of marketing just takes dogged determination!