The Power of Authority in Marketing
By Denis A. Baldwin

The Philospher Plato once said, "“The wisest have the most authority”

Sounds simple, right? It's actually a simple statement about a complicated idea that plaques marketing. Who should we, as consumers, listen to? Who really knows what they think they know? What authority do those marketing to us really have over our decisions?

I often find myself asking these questions when I'm preparing marketing information for our customers. We're innovators here, and we often find ourselves in a position where we are dealing with new materials or new designs that we haven't dealt with previously. Our creativity and our relationships with out vendors and experts in our fields allows us to become an authority on these processes very quickly, and thus we're able to provide value to our customer through our learned experience. That doesn't mean that we can be so far-reaching in our efforts as to be an environmental marketing company and a trade show display company one day and.. say.. chemical engineers or astronauts the next day, but we've picked a core set of competencies and have grown on them. This allows us to grow from a concentrated seed of authority to a full blown plant of knowledge and capability.

These same questions should be asked of anyone you deal with, and of yourself.

Are your vendors Subject Matter Experts? If something breaks, can they fix it? If something is flawed, are they credible enough to work out the problems? Is there one engineer who started the whole company and is your sole contact or do they have a team of highly educated experts to be the authority on their products? What makes them experts? Are they the best in their perspective fields? Is their product better? If it's not the best, do they have other qualities are authorities that make dealing with them the best option?

Now take a deep look in the mirror of your own business practices. What is your industry? Are you catering to one niche of that industry or do you have your mitts on many different angles and methods that may conflict with each other? Are you too far spread in your endeavors? Are you a jack of all trades or a master of none? If you're a jack, could you be a king if you just focused more? What's stopping you from being THE authority in your field?

Authority goes a long way. I consider it right up there with customer satisfaction, well designed products and exceptional customer service. It is definitely the fourth arm of business muscle that will make you successful.