What is the biggest bottleneck in marketing? The courage to be who you are
Posted: Sun Dec 22, 2024 6:17 am
Doing a lot of half-assed things or doing a few things well? For managers, the decision is not always easy. But for those who want results, it is mandatory.
You may not have heard of Visakan Veerasamy , one of the most creative and interesting marketers I know.
The other day, in an informal conversation, Visa (the only possible nickname) was asked what the main bottleneck in marketing is, the factor that most limits the chances of success in a project that depends on marketing to achieve its objectives.
He responded with a single word: courage.
I was also in the conversation, and asked him to elaborate. Visa elaborated as follows:
“Good marketing depends on a clear and bold positioning, which france companies email list courage. Because adopting a clear and bold positioning means that you will, by definition, be different from everyone else. And that you will be ignored, criticized or even misunderstood by everyone who is not the one you want to serve. So your job as a marketer is to understand what is truly unique, special and non-transferable about you, your product or your company, and execute on that.”
Well, in my experience, this is not always the main bottleneck in marketing. But we like Visa's provocation, because it touches on a point that is very, very dear to me: the illusion of unlimited resources .
The problem with wanting to be everything to everyone
No marketing team, in any company, has the autonomy, time, budget, focus, and other resources to do everything they would like (or should) at this exact moment.
On the contrary: the marketing team is almost always overloaded with tasks, working with little autonomy and a budget that is being squeezed out, under pressure to perform miracles in the short term.
One of the symptoms of this is the difficulty in prioritizing channels and customer profiles, for example. Whether it's doing too many half-hearted things or too few good things, we know that for many managers, the decision isn't always easy. But for those who expect results, it's mandatory.
Another symptom, even more serious, is the desire to be everything to everyone. I have asked companies that clearly have a niche (such as an auto parts company, a hospital supplies company, and another that created accounting software, for example) who the ideal customer was for each of them. The answer goes something like this: "We want to reach everyone, any customer will do, the important thing is to sell."
At this point I am no longer surprised, but the realization (and frustration) always hits me: my ability to help these and other clients, as a marketing professional, is limited by the lack of clarity of purpose regarding who the company is, which clients it serves and what business objectives it wants to achieve, among other basic definitions.
The trap of mediocrity
Want an example of marketing work done well, in the terms that Visa has outlined? Just think about the last time you saw a service, a product or a piece of software and had that powerful and immediate reaction: “This was made for me, for people like me, it’s just my style. I want to know more. Where do I sign?”
It is only possible to provoke this type of reaction through exclusion, that is, when we, marketing professionals, faced with always limited resources, make the conscious decision to serve this or that audience, a niche, a specific client.
The more specific, the greater the impact. Because then it is no longer just the service, product or software that matters, but what it does for the customer, the problem it solves, the identification it creates in those who buy and use it.
This now classic (by Internet standards) comic strip illustrates the point well:
You may not have heard of Visakan Veerasamy , one of the most creative and interesting marketers I know.
The other day, in an informal conversation, Visa (the only possible nickname) was asked what the main bottleneck in marketing is, the factor that most limits the chances of success in a project that depends on marketing to achieve its objectives.
He responded with a single word: courage.
I was also in the conversation, and asked him to elaborate. Visa elaborated as follows:
“Good marketing depends on a clear and bold positioning, which france companies email list courage. Because adopting a clear and bold positioning means that you will, by definition, be different from everyone else. And that you will be ignored, criticized or even misunderstood by everyone who is not the one you want to serve. So your job as a marketer is to understand what is truly unique, special and non-transferable about you, your product or your company, and execute on that.”
Well, in my experience, this is not always the main bottleneck in marketing. But we like Visa's provocation, because it touches on a point that is very, very dear to me: the illusion of unlimited resources .
The problem with wanting to be everything to everyone
No marketing team, in any company, has the autonomy, time, budget, focus, and other resources to do everything they would like (or should) at this exact moment.
On the contrary: the marketing team is almost always overloaded with tasks, working with little autonomy and a budget that is being squeezed out, under pressure to perform miracles in the short term.
One of the symptoms of this is the difficulty in prioritizing channels and customer profiles, for example. Whether it's doing too many half-hearted things or too few good things, we know that for many managers, the decision isn't always easy. But for those who expect results, it's mandatory.
Another symptom, even more serious, is the desire to be everything to everyone. I have asked companies that clearly have a niche (such as an auto parts company, a hospital supplies company, and another that created accounting software, for example) who the ideal customer was for each of them. The answer goes something like this: "We want to reach everyone, any customer will do, the important thing is to sell."
At this point I am no longer surprised, but the realization (and frustration) always hits me: my ability to help these and other clients, as a marketing professional, is limited by the lack of clarity of purpose regarding who the company is, which clients it serves and what business objectives it wants to achieve, among other basic definitions.
The trap of mediocrity
Want an example of marketing work done well, in the terms that Visa has outlined? Just think about the last time you saw a service, a product or a piece of software and had that powerful and immediate reaction: “This was made for me, for people like me, it’s just my style. I want to know more. Where do I sign?”
It is only possible to provoke this type of reaction through exclusion, that is, when we, marketing professionals, faced with always limited resources, make the conscious decision to serve this or that audience, a niche, a specific client.
The more specific, the greater the impact. Because then it is no longer just the service, product or software that matters, but what it does for the customer, the problem it solves, the identification it creates in those who buy and use it.
This now classic (by Internet standards) comic strip illustrates the point well: