Is Marketing Really Broken?

Yes. This constitutes the list of marketing elements that no longer function well enough in the new marketplace:

- Measurement. When you can’t really tell what is working, or really value the contribution of different elements of your marketing, then you’re operating blind. You’re doing worse than guess-work. You’re operating on bad assumptions. If nothing else were broken, this would be enough to break your marketing system all alone.

- Marketing planning. Just a few weeks ago a friend and leader of a very large and successful agency still tried to argue to me that it is OK if “the big idea” was consistently tied to, and filtered through the medium of TV then expanded to fit the other medium, because TV is still the dominant media. The digital guys are often no better, taking the opposite approach that planning should start with the “digital interaction points” first. As long as marketing planning revolves around any specific medium in the definition of the problem and solution (big idea), it is not going to be as effective as it needs to be in a fractured media environment. Crispin is the best at consistently breaking the big idea/solution from a specific medium, and the results show.

- Research. Success today depends on making deep, meaningful, and highly relevant connections. Yet we continue to rely primarily on research in which “dialog” with people consists of extrapolating insights from watching 10-30 people from behind one-way glass. That level of interaction with the people with which we wish to have relationships, is completely insufficient.Which brings us to...

- People definition. Commonly known as “audiences” or “targets”, I think those terms part of the problem. We continue to define the people we need to communicate with in mass homogeneous blocks that are best used to buy mass media. These definitions tell us little about behaviors and mindsets that are critical to being as relevant as the current market demands.

- Brand definition. If mass audiences are no longer sufficient, then “mass brands” aren’t either. Simply put, the standard brand architecture isn’t sufficient to support the requirements of a fully engaged brand.

Next up… The One Dollar Challenge. Stay tuned.