I've had this wild advertising theory for some time. It's so crazy it just might work. I target it towards retailers who sell generally the same products as their competitors. Are you sitting? Here it goes: NO ADVERTISING!

Whoa, you say? Well before you reach for the straitjacket just hear me out. Every year the big guns shell out millions of dollars on advertising campaigns while retailers provide shelf space to ply their brands. From toothpaste to tank tops, televisions to toilet paper, retailers become generic outlets where customers can easily obtain the same products from any of them. Advertising campaigns are then launched in all media to carve out a niche and create some distinction.

I have observed all too often, that even with the most meticulously designed campaigns, many businesses fail to retain new customers by having the quality of the customer experience let them down. Whether its poor store layout, poorly trained employees, poor customer service, all the way down the "poor list", the best advertising in the world makes no impact. What's worse is that management continues to scratch their heads in wonder.

My theory is premised on the fact that customers are not easily fooled by flashy marketing gimmicks, but may give the business the benefit of the doubt and then make it prove itself. If it doesn't, then the jig is up and they take their business elsewhere. This means that advertising money is better spent on improving the customer experience from top to bottom.

I propose that the business eliminate all media advertising altogether, and spend a maximum of half of their annual advertising budget on the customer experience exclusively. These areas would include:

Improving store design and layout, using experts if necessary
Training staff to improve product knowledge and how to treat customers
Paying sales staff well over the industry average
Ramping up customer service; paying them well
Identifying the other areas of the business that customers are frequently complaining about and fixing them fully
Going all out to truly treat the customer as king, even the difficult ones

A business would normally throw a penny on the above and a pound on advertising at the same time. So for a business adopting this for the first time I would suggest combining the full advertising budget together with the pittance it usually flings at the customer experience, for the first year. From the second year onwards, it can use half the advertising, then sit back and let the customers do the marketing for you.

Marketing 101 teaches that a customer tells more people about a bad experience than a good one. The stigma of a bad experience can be felt long after you lose the customer because that story keeps circulating. But if nine customers out of ten have a great experience (and ten out of ten is not farfetched) can you imagine the mileage that would give? In this internet age of My Space and Facebook, can you spell "viral"?

Since this is so radical, many retailers may not do it, which leaves them with many disgruntled customers eager to defect. In the past, there was nothing to defect to, except more of the same at another store. Now they have radical you.

That's it, good old word of mouth. The more things change, the more they remain the same. It's like building a better mousetrap- the world beats a path to your door. Forget advertising campaigns and spend a fraction of that money on all the aspects that touch the customer. Do it like your business life depended on it, because it does.

Learn more about this author, Zaf R..
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