Wary of a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy
Mark Potter, Publisher of CANVAS Magazine
I was sitting at a conference full of powerful marketing professionals. The keynote speaker was a big-named CMO who has known nothing but success in building brands and sustainable competitive advantage. He spoke of marketing’s rightful place at the big table and asserted that marketers will be considered more often for the corner office. He talked about a marketer’s mindset and how taking care of a brand started with becoming an intimate part of a specific community.
The audience was predominately new-age marketers who were well versed in the latest tools and were committed to measuring everything from ad spending to the fresh pot of coffee in the cafeteria. Our speaker noted this by saying, “You guys are a whole lot smarter than I am.” He went on to mention that he was kind of “old school” and that he didn’t really understand all the sophisticated stuff that marketers were doing today.
Afterwards, I was sitting with the speaker and he said to me, “Is this the way it is?”
Without needing further clarification, I knew exactly what he was talking about. I replied, “Yes. The short-term pressures to measure everything are enormous.”
He looked at me, sighed and said, “The last decade belonged to the accountants. This decade belongs to the visionaries.”
The moral of the story is that marketing has long fought for its rightful place. However, the short-term pressure and the constant need to measure can quickly become a self-fulfilling prophecy. In other words, if we have a laser-like focus on the ROI of every single thing we do, we most likely aren’t seeing the big picture.
I have a bunch of friends who play golf, and some of them are downright fanatical about the sport. Often I see these guys sporting the latest in club technology. Screw technology, perimeter weighted irons, or some new white-headed driver—it seems like there is a new gimmick every other week. Their relentless pursuit of lower golf scores is almost comical. The clubs may feel good for a round or two and give them a short-term boost in confidence. However, I have yet to witness a significant long-term decrease in their scores.
I have some news for my golfing buddies. “It ain’t the clubs boys! It is the player holding the clubs that matters.” This idea that we can invest in some sort of short-term tool to propel us ahead of the competition simply doesn’t hold water. Granted, there are some amazing tools out there, and my organization subscribes too many of them. However, the tools are worthless without an unwavering commitment to the markets we serve.
Marketing is about building deep-rooted relationships with specific segments of people. To develop real relationships in the world, as it is today, we have to create trust. In turn, when building trust in any relationship, we must be willing to share more of ourselves and invest in the long term. Marriage, business partnerships, friendships, and brands are all forms of relationships. They all take time and cannot be measured in some sort of speed-dating ritual.
The greatest brands of all time are intimately involved in their communities. They started out defined by the markets they served, but, in time, they developed trust and were soon defining the markets they served. That is the power of branding, and it may be difficult to accurately measure that in the moment.
Marketing is everything. Most importantly, marketing is about the relationship you have with the world you serve. Regardless of the vehicles we use to connect with our community, it is critical to be engaged in an honest and trustworthy relationship. Accordingly, all good relationships have solid two-way communication that includes an unparalleled level of understanding and trust. Now, I am not interested in condemning the use of new-age tools and measurements. I am, however, condemning the use of such tools without truly caring about your market. True empathy is not necessarily something you can teach, but you can’t market without it. And we can’t succeed without marketing.
“…If we have a laser-like focus on the ROI of every single thing we do, we most likely aren’t seeing the big picture.”