The CEO looked at us with a painful smile. He enjoyed our presentation, but we clearly said something wrong.
He was about to teach me a valuable lesson about marketing.
Our presentation took place in the island nation of Malta. I was 20 years old and had flown from Virginia for a college study abroad program.
The topic of the presentation was an alternative fuel known as biodiesel. You’ve probably seen biodiesel before at gas stations.
My group’s project was to devise a plan to collect used cooking oil from Malta’s residents and transform that cooking oil into finished biodiesel. That biodiesel could then power Malta’s buses and cars.
We had just finished our PowerPoint presentation, which ended on a slide about marketing. That slide is what bothered the CEO.
He was the CEO of the largest food products company in Malta, and as the #1 seller of cooking oil, he was a key person to convince.
“I love everything you said,” he told us. “Right up until that last slide.”
Our last slide displayed a plastic yellow container for cooking oil with our “brilliant” slogan written on it:
Made in Malta.
“I understand why you want to use that phrase,” he said. “But this isn’t The United States, and that phrase doesn’t carry the same meaning here.”
My face was red with embarrassment. Same with my classmates.
He went on…
“While that idea doesn’t carry much meaning with our citizens, there are many things we do care about. Malta has beautiful beaches, stunning views, and 7,000 years of history. Why don’t we focus the marketing on preserving Malta’s beauty? That message will resonate.”
The CEO was right, of course. He knew his people. And we had chosen a marketing angle based on our perspective rather than our customers’.
Our group made the adjustment and the project finished strong, but you can bet I’ll never forget that day with the CEO.
Today, as a marketing professional, this story still makes me wonder:
- How often do we (mistakenly) write our websites and marketing material from our point of view?
- How often do we highlight product benefits that matter to us rather than our customers?
- What might be possible if we really adopted our customers’ perspective?
Good lessons learned from the Mediterranean.
