|
Marketers speak a language that is neither consistent nor relevant to other managers....
So it's no wonder that marketing is misunderstood and underappreciated in most organizations. Let's address consistency now; relevancy is for another time.
Consider the most overused word in business: "strategy." When marketers use the word in your organization, what do they mean?
Would they refer to "strategy" as any communications approach or method...as apparently McKinsey (the highly regarded management consulting organization) does, as we read in a recent article about call centers .
Or would strategy be used to refer to who you are targeting or how you can beat the competition?
When the editorial team at MarketingProfs surveys its readers to learn about topics of greatest interest, marketing strategy always comes out on top. Problem is... the editors don't know what the readers mean, exactly.
If marketers use the word "strategy" in your organization, do they always mean the same thing? If not, you want to clean that up.
As Allen Weiss has written, and, as he and I write in Marketing Champions, our forthcoming book from John Wiley, inconsistent language is the surest way to kill your marketing strategy.
|
Comments
I will be looking forward to your book. I think marketing babble is one of the most dangerous and debilitating things that afflicts our work today.
What is the hierarchy? Is it: Goal/Objective/Strategy/Tactic? Or do we interchange Objective and Goal? Or are they the same? And if different, how precisely are they different?
Most people I meet cannot successfully differentiate between a strategy and a tactic.
Same thing with features, advantages, benefits. You will get an education if you go over – with a client – which statements they've made are which. Usually, they're dead wrong.
Alas, you may get the same education if you go over some similar statements with a marketing "strategist."
One of the most useful things I was ever taught is to look for words ending in "-er" ("better," "faster," "cheaper") as being indicators of advantages.
And, using the "So what?" test to determine whether you're really talking about a benefit or not.
I still am amused by some words: to this day, I do not know what the difference is between "software" and "enterprise software," and I am stunned to hear the word "architect" used as a verb.
I hope your book clarifies – or at least defines – all.
Best regards!
Tim Orr
Posted by: Tim Orr | 05.23.06
You're absolutely correct, Roy. Sometimes the marketing babble is nearly Orwellian.
I've often believed that clear communication reflects clear thinking.
Given your observation, Roy, what does that say about we marketers? Then it should be of no surprise to us that we are, at best, misunderstood and, at worst, ignored in the C-suite.
But even more damaging is considering what this unclear thinking does not do for our clients.
So, for now, let's forget the metrics, forget the confluence of technologies, forget the unique selling propositions and get back to basics by: 1) Thinking clearly; 2) Articulately clearly; and 3) Writing clearly.
Perhaps all of us should, on a regular basis, challenge and stimulate our cognitive abilities by taking university courses in: 1) Critical thinking and argument; 2)Rhetoric; 3)Debate; 4) Geometry; 5)Other suggestions?
Posted by: Sandra Eggers | 05.24.06