During innovation, remember, a marketing plan is not a substitute for a business plan.
A FEW DAYS AGO, I came across an advertisement for an organization’s new and improved website. I must admit, I thought the new website look good. After reading through the site, I thought about the many times over my career that I too went through the website improvement process. My next thought was, why, was the old site static? Did something change in our deliverables, or was the marketing company just good at closing the deal?
Sometimes I think all business leaders find themselves leading their organizations more from the marketing department than the board room. When things are not going in the direction we believe they should be going, are we engaging marketing when maybe we should be engaging our team of leaders?
[bctt tweet=”Marketing should enhance the business plan. Marketing is not a substitute for the business plan.” via=”no”]
In today’s business climate, all industries are going through many changes, most forced by technology innovations. Businesses today are being introduced to competition from places they never expected. The lifecycle of consistent deliverables is shorter than ever. Who would have believed that things that were once science fiction are now realities?
[bctt tweet=”Today’s business plan is more about how an organization will merge what they know today with what they will learn tomorrow.” via=”no”]
All business organizations are witnessing challenging times. Today’s leaders must also include fortune-telling in their bag of talents. Business today demands leaders who are more creative. Leaders must do more than just think outside of the box; they have to function outside of the box. There are no more borders; commonality amongst competitors is yesterday’s model. Today’s business plan is more about how an organization will merge what they know today with what they will learn tomorrow. The days of standing by and sticking to your roots have vanished. Those organizations who believe what they do is more important than how they do it, they will not survive.
Robert Stephens, Geek Squad founder, said “Marketing is a tax you pay for being unremarkable.” That statement has a lot of merit. I do not believe Mr. Stephens thinks that marketing has no place in our business models. However, marketing should never be a replacement for leadership. No marketing strategy can be a substitute for the intuition of leadership.
I believe the marketing plan should always come after the business plan.[bctt tweet=”When organizations think that they just need better marketing, they are unremarkable” via=”no”].
Being remarkable is a bi-product of service; being remarkable is what happens after you get a customer.
Very few customers will say they do business with a company because the company has remarkable advertising, or wow, what a website – I bet their service is good too. Customers want to be engaged, they want to feel wanted, to be serviced above their expectations. Customers want their service providers to possess the understanding of what it takes to accomplish these things.
So before any organization decides that marketing is the answer to increasing business, they first should ask what the business needs to fix, before they market it. Growth in competitive businesses only comes from the ability to serve above expectations.
Your budget for being remarkable is more important than your marketing budget.
–RJS
Thanks for a great article and sound advice. I think the mystery surrounding marketing stops many leaders from asking questions about their assumptions and track record. Clo
Thank you Carol, The way to react during a market decline or transformation. Is more about management then Marketing. Marketing represents the horses, management builds the carriage for the horses to pull. rjs
This is an excellent article and something every business exec should read and reflect upon. Too often I’ve been in organizations where the “strategy” is the aspirational brand that marketing creates, but the organization has no idea what it takes to make that brand honest. Thanks for a good read, Ray.