In a world where we all grow up with the notion of ‘common sense’ instilled in us from an early age by our parents and other people with the benefit of age and wisdom, it is astonishing to reach working adulthood and realise that common sense actually doesn’t seem that common.
One of the well-knows ‘secrets’ of marketing is that it is 80% logic and 20% imagination, yet how many agencies or consultants have turned those numbers around so that the solution comes nowhere close to meeting the business challenge? Take ROI for example – every single company desires this; we all want to see a good return-on-investment, whether it’s for our time or effort or money spent - but so many people overlook the fundamental and basic concepts of marketing and selling.
To be sure, what I write here isn’t anything particularly groundbreaking, but marketing 101 is being ignored by so many clients and agencies who are in thrall to the quick-fix or the common syndrome of ‘it doesn’t seem to be broken, so why try to fix it’
The problem is that it may not look broken, but neither did transport by horse – and then the car came along. Tried and tested in many cases is fine, but in a world where new media and new channels are appearing frequently and the established media are evolving rapidly, there really is no excuse for resting on your laurels when your job depends entirely on finding more efficient ways to spend the money that is meant to generate more money for your company.
Take the mass media for example: Mass media/Above the Line media (call it what you will) is not a fraction as ‘mass’ as it was 30, 20, 10 or even 5 years ago. Every new TV channel, every new magazine or paper or billboard potentially dilutes the target audience you are trying to reach. And what about that term – ‘Target Audience?’ – it sounds so inactive, inert and passive. An audience watches, they listen to or read what you want to say – but they may not necessarily act on your message. And if they do – how on earth do you know which of your messages they are responding to? Any number of media companies may point to a newspaper campaign with corresponding slight rise in revenue, but where is the preciseness? I have yet (in my limited experience) to meet with one that recommends a more precise method of direct-response measurement for the buys that they justify with a myriad of charts and graphs and all-too generic data. Generic is unacceptable these days. People demand more – and with the digital landscape widening rapidly, they are right in making that demand of companies.
Too many companies are falling in the unfortunate habit of trying to shoot a fly with a musket. That $250k campaign with X number of insertions might very well be noticed by 70% of the people who read that newspaper, but unless there is a direct-response mechanism, any sales data is at best anecdotal, and it still doesn’t say which page in which section on which day in which newspaper is any better than any other. In cruder terms – throw enough shit at the wall and some might indeed stick, but on the ground beneath will be a very expensive mess indeed.
Common sense says to fish where the fishes are – but how many are doing it well – really well? An EDM every week with a new offer doesn’t constitute a CRM system, nor does a name, email address and date-of-birth constitute a data strategy. Surely we ‘Marketers’ are smarter than this (?) – of course we are (and we have to be – our jobs depend on it) and yet….. too many people and companies rely on the tried and tested – the comfort of the familiar without the trouble of going to the bosses and proposing something different, something innovative (for them, at least), something…. Sensible.
Go back to your marketing textbooks, review the seemingly aged principles of Kotler, Porter, Wunderman and co. ,remember that a good campaign is an efficient one, and an efficient one does not involve lining the pockets of other people needlessly. Lay off worrying about the creative execution in near-isolation and go back to the basics of building the right relationship with the right people in the right way.
This seems to have been forgotten by a surprisingly large proportion of so-called marketing professionals, and if more people don’t remember them – they are the ones who will be forgotten.
