Many years ago I had a Unilever-trained boss who was passionate about marketing. He always argued that any successful business was, by definition, well marketed and that, if you checked such businesses , the classic 4 Ps of marketing (Product, Price, Place and Promotion) would all be working together to create an effective mix.

A few years later I used to rent an office in the same building as a guy who ran a cleaning company. His name was John. 

John was extremely successful at what he did and had built up and sold several companies making several million pounds with each sale. As with most successful business owners, he had a very simple and effective business model. He knew what he was good at, he knew what worked and that's what he did - worked in a business he understood and only used proven techniques. 

You couldn't help but like John, he was large, affable and very generous. When he got bored he sought out lunch or drinking companions and I was always happy to oblige. 

After a few drinks, the topic of conversation would usually get round to 'marketing' at which point my role would be to shut up and listen. He loathed the term marketing and had nothing but scorn for marketers, or as he used refer to them in his own inimitable way '****ers in shiny suits'. We've all heard the expression 'those who can do and those who can't teach'. John replaced 'teach' with 'do marketing'.

 His vitriol was based on a bad experience with a marketing consultant he hired after he made his first million. Not only did the consultant wear a dreaded shiny suit he also made the mistake of continually telling John where he was going wrong. John was always happy to accept that things could be improved, but the way he saw it, he'd built up a very successful business which he'd just sold for a lot of money, so he wasn't too pleased to be criticized by someone who'd achieved nothing by comparison. 

During these rants I was always reminded of my ex-boss's claim that successful businesses are always well-marketed.

So, as John continued his anti-marketing rant, I would respond by quoting the above. I did this partly for sport (it sent him into an even greater rage) but mainly because I believed it.

The irony was that John was (without realising it) superb at marketing and had developed an ingenious and highly effective marketing plan.

 His business was office cleaning and he focussed on the Soho area of London where there was a high concentration of prestigious businesses who would be more likely to require a premium service (and pay premium rates). He knew that with most companies, once they appoint a cleaning contractor, inertia takes over and they will only change supplier if something goes wrong.

For this reason he focussed on customer acquisition rather than retention (having said that he provided a top class service). His acquisition strategy was based on only targeting companies who definitely needed to appoint a cleaning contractor and for this reason he didn't use conventional advertising as he believed it was wasteful. 

So why was he so successful at getting new clients?

 Experience had shown John that: 

- The companies most likely to be in the market for a cleaning contractor were those moving into new offices

-  Appointment of a cleaning contractor (in those days) was unlikely to be carefully researched and in many cases wouldn't even involve a competitive tender

With this in mind, John employed someone to patrol the Soho area and make a note of any 'To Let' or 'Let By'  signs. The relevant lettings agents would then be contacted and encouraged to participate in a generous incentive scheme which rewarded them for referring John's company to prospective tenants.  

John's extensive experience also told him that companies tend to move into new offices over a weekend, so again someone was specifically tasked with monitoring removals activity in the West End on Saturdays and Sundays. Many contracts were obtained in this way from grateful facilities managers happy to tick off a job from their to-do list.  

John was a natural marketer. He wasn't marketing anything as dull as office cleaning, he was selling 'peace of mind' that came from appointing a high quality and totally reliable cleaning contractor.   

If we take the classic 4 Ps of marketing John had them covered: 

- Product – his 'product' was a high quality reliable service that delivered  peace of mind to stressed and overworked clients

- Price – he operated at the premium end of the market, but his prices were carefully positioned to give him a good return but not high enough to be challenged

- Place – he operated a unique system whereby he took the 'place' where his pr could be purchased direct to clients

- Promotion – as we've seen, he had a highly effective way of promoting his business to predominantly 'hot' prospects 

To his amazement (and I suspect, annoyance) no-one ever copied his approach and he was able to repeat the very profitable process of building up and selling his business several times.  

I often wonder what John would think about being about cited as a paragon of good marketing. His response would probably be unprintable.