Why Marketers Fail: It's Marketing, Not Magic
Some time ago I was discussing marketing strategy with the CEO of a client company. When I asked for his opinion, he said, "I depend on your expertise for that sort of thing."
Imagine that, a CEO who actually trusts a marketing guy to provide marketing advice. Refreshing, isn't it? Well, what on the surface appears to be every marketer's dream, can, and often does, turn into a nightmare.
You see, when marketers are pushed to "have all the answers," their odds of failure go up dramatically. Yes, I know this line of thinking is counterintuitive. As I said in Marketing is Like Sex: Everybody Thinks They're Good at It:
Have you ever noticed that half the people in your company think they're marketing experts? Everyone's got an opinion that is somehow more relevant than what customers think. It's especially true of dysfunctional [executives] ...That said, when David Packard, the legendary chairman and founder of Hewlett Packard said, "Marketing is too important to be left to the marketing department," he was onto something. Let me explain what I think Packard meant.
In a real sense, product marketing is at the hub of a wheel. It's marketing's job to synthesize the right product strategy, positioning, and features based on numerous factors and often-conflicting data. Threading that needle comes down to the intersection of 1) external market and customer needs, and 2) internal capabilities and operations. And that can only come from a deep understanding of both.
That's why marketing in a vacuum always leads to failure. That's what I think Packard meant. And that's why, when your CEO says, "That's what I hired you to do," don't take the bait.
After you're done feeling good about yourself, that you've got the authority you've always wanted, think about the risk inherent in your CEO's statement. Forget the personal gratification of putting your butt on the line, no guts - no glory, and all that. Instead, remember that "taking responsibility" is not the same as "going it alone."
You know, some think I was a pretty good marketing executive, and I attribute that in no small part to three things:
- Being a techy. Sure, I was also an engineer, but that's really beside the point. You see, I love technology and truly see the benefit of deep-diving with the technical people to understand their DNA, their mindset, and of course, what the technology can and can't deliver.
- Being a salesperson. Before I was a marketer I carried a bag. That's where I learned that fulfilling a market need begins and ends with solving a customer problem. That's also where I learned that the most important goal for any company is to win and keep customers.
- Knowing full well where big ideas come from. They come from being at the hub of that wheel. Indeed, a good marketer is adept at synthesizing a winning strategy out of too much data and too many stakeholders. But without that data, those stakeholders, and a process to effectively bring it all together, there are no big ideas and there's no winning strategy.
Image CC 2.0 via Flickr user Bohman