I'm always amazed and inspired by a large orchestra's ability to play a symphony? So many instruments of different kinds telling a story through music. I then reflect on the few years I played instruments in elementary school. My "speciality" was the clarinet. When our music teacher could actually get us all to play at the same time, the sound was at best uncoordinated. There were a few talented kids but their talent was lost in the din.
As a marketer I feel like the metaphor applies quite nicely. The pressure for marketing to be effectiveness and efficiency optimized has never been heavier. Yet the effort is often largely uncoordinated and yields questionable results that are hardly ever wrapped up into a solid post mortem. Not uncommon to hear are things like "Our viral video traveled the world 3 times during the timeframe and picked up some awards but our sales remain down". Or, "our sales were way up thanks to the sales team but once the promotion period ended, we sunk to below pre-promotion levels".
Within marketing departments, why are functions still separated between people who deal in advertising, media, activation, shopper and dare I say digital? Worse, often the budgets are all broken up between these micro teams. Why, on the agency side, why do we still see RFPs and briefs that call out Above The Line (ATL) and Below The Line (BTL)?
Why don't more marketers think about consumers holistically? In a recent conversation I heard: "that's really a shopper issue. We're focusing on consumers with this brief". Is it not the entire marketing team's mission to sell a product or service to an intended audience? What prevents this? Is it organizational design? Bonus structures?
The old adage 'measure twice, cut once' seems appropriate here and the ability to mine for and make use of information/data has never been more present. Let's spend the time/effort/money on the front end to truly understand the your consumers (who on occasion also buy stuff). Understand what works, what doesn't, and where your product or service can better their lives. Consider the following examples:
- Why don't party hosts put the same thought and energy into cocktails as they do for meal planning?
- Why is family trip planning actually more painful now that we don't use travel agents?
- Why doesn't grocery home delivery scale?
- What are the steps between realizing you want/need a new car and actually buying one?
We can gain keen insight into the consumer/shopper journey, the steps consumers go through and the potential points of influence along the way to purchase. This allows us to really focus on what matters most to people (defined as consumers and shoppers) and how to best connect with them.
Then it falls upon marketing departments to coalesce around the MOST important opportunities and make their ideas brilliant and coordinated. Hard to do when the wind instruments are doing their thing while strings are playing something else.
Is your marketing team playing like an orchestra or a 1st grade music class?