Last night I was sitting down to a movie with a friend of mine, when an all too familiar sound emanated from outside. It starts at the same time every night, just after dark. We have never been able to make out the words, but we know it is his neighbor saying something over and over again. He does this for about 45 minutes every night and has done so from the day my friend moved into his place over 6 months ago, probably longer. So, last night I decided to be a little nosy and find out what he is doing. I walked out to my car and sat in it, pretending to look for something, and I looked up to see what the neighbor was doing.

He is standing at his kitchen door, about 15 feet from his car. He has one hand on the door handle and the other motioning toward the 20 pound cat sitting on top of his car. At this precise moment, I finally realized what he was saying. He was repeating the words "come on kitty, supper" over and over again.

The cat, completely disinterested in the elderly gentleman, is staring at me and slowly swigging his tail back and forth over the top of the car as if he has no idea the gentleman is even there.

Right then it struck me; this man has been standing there for 45 minutes every single night calling a cat to supper. It boggles the mind. Not just the fact that every cat owner KNOWS that a cat will come when it darn good and ready. Not just the fact that he has done this UNSUCESSFULLY for at least 44 of those minutes every single night, but that he STILL stands out there calling this cat.

If the cat hasn't moved the last 30 times you stood at the door calling him, he's not going to move the next time you do it.

Right message, wrong medium. Has he even tried starting up the can opener and then seeing if the cat moves?

So how does this apply to marketing? I pose the question to you:  Are you standing at the door calling for new customers to no avail? Are your ads getting any response at all? Your flyers? Are you using the right media to reach your customers? Do you even know?

Maybe it's time for YOU to look for a can opener. Find the message & media combination that gets heard and gets results. If you are not getting results from your current marketing, it is not ‘just' going to suddenly change.

Repeating marketing that fails the first time is not going to change the end result. You have to change up your approach and test new ideas constantly. Even when you DO find the right message & media combination, the process doesn't stop.

Test, measure, test, measure, test, measure, change & adjust, test, measure, change & adjust, etc. etc.

Anything else is just throwing money out the window. So, the next time your non ROI (Return on Investment) producing ad comes up for renewal, I invite you to remember the little old man that lives next to my friend and pose the question to yourself: 

"Am I going to spend another 45 minutes standing at the door or is it time to look for the can opener?"