Why I Use An Orange to Illustrate Marketing Strategy
When you look at this luscious and juicy fruit, the act of simply seeing it doesn’t lead to the orange magically unpeeling. You have to work at removing the peel, and if you are anything like us, any excess pith is too chewy to eat leading to additional work removing the strings from each individual slice. Through this process, you might get peel under your fingernails, sometimes the peel comes off in one large piece, or a million small pieces. The point being, if you want to eat the orange, there is a process of getting to the delicious, juicy, and sweet treat that hydrates, energizes, and nourishes your body.
So, what does an orange have to do with marketing? Now let’s think of this juicy, tasty and succulent orange as your marketing strategy. Marketing is layered and complex just like the orange’s peel, slices and dreaded pith. As a whole fruit, each piece plays its rule and is tied to the health and overall product of the fruit.
Now, think of the peel as your company’s mission, vision and goals. It’s the all-encompassing structure that holds everything together. Within that structure, each orange slice is then a component of your marketing strategy. One slice represents your social media, another your email marketing, another your website, etc. The pith is the glue that holds it all together and represents the strategy that is rooted in your brand values connecting everything you do within your business and externally facing.
When your company has a holistic approach to marketing each area of your business is plugged in and connected. The messaging is consistent, cohesive, clear, and refreshing.
While an orange may be the perfect metaphor for building your marketing foundation, it’s also worth noting that an orange doesn’t grow overnight. It takes time to build a foundation that is long-lasting and rooted in your mission, vision and values. But, once it’s hanging on the tree, there is a cohesive whole product that has endless potential. It could become orange juice, it could become marmalade, it could become an essential oil, it could become a cleaning product, it could become a creamsicle, you name it. The possibilities are endless when the foundation is solid. But, an orange can be bitter if it is peeled and consumed at the wrong time. Without this foundation of knowing who you are, where you want to go and a way of communicating that, you run the risk of ending up on the orchard floor becoming compost. Nobody wants their business to become compost.
That’s why having the awareness for where you are right now in your business and hold the vision for where you want to go will ultimately help your company come together and mature to an ideal ripeness to nourish the market at the right time to the right people. That’s holistic marketing. It’s a whole and complete process providing the direction for where your company wants to go in an intentional, proactive and sustainable path to success that saves time, money and resources.
Turns out, an orange has everything to do with building a sustainable marketing framework that nourishes your company. When it comes to your company’s marketing, are you a cohesive whole or heading towards the compost?
