Even when I was young, people said I asked “why?” too much. I always wanted to know what was happening and asked too many questions. I still read the ending of a book early on (my book group stared in amazement at this revelation), but I strongly believe my curious, inquisitive nature has stood me in very good stead as a marketeer – without this characteristic I don’t think I could truly help businesses in the way that I do.
Over the years, I have worked with lots of businesses that want to do everything now: they want to see immediate results, they want to do what everyone else is doing, because – “Well, hey, everyone is on social media right, so we need to be” (wrong, by the way) – and they all just want to get on with it.
What very often happens is everyone runs around in different directions, doing things that are not joined-up, and no one is sure what they are trying to achieve. Why are we doing this? What’s the end game we are all working towards? As an agency you can often be briefed to produce campaigns out of thin air that were needed yesterday, for events which are happening tomorrow. When brand positioning hasn’t been agreed and nailed down, there are no consumer insights to work from (and very often not even an agreed target audience), and as a result creative is then produced that is not at its sharpest or finest. After all that, we only have a vague idea of whether it worked because proper metrics weren’t set, and team motivation and enthusiasm drop as the business takes another change in direction. Some of this probably sounds familiar?
Simon Sinek (I’m a huge fan) has successfully and eloquently made us understand and appreciate that all businesses need to understand what is at their core – it all starts with why? Why are we getting up in the morning? This is so fundamental to the success of any business, but how does this work with marketing?
Simple. Spend the time up front working out your marketing why.
- What are your business objectives and what are your marketing goals?
- What do you want to achieve?
- What is the end game?
- What does success look like?
- What do you want your consumers to think / behave / do?
- Why is your brand / product better than your competitors?
- What sets you apart?
Once you have the why – the who, the when, the what, the where and the how will all easily follow. Knowing why you are doing things isn’t tactical, it’s strategic. And it needs to be thought through and complemented with time, insight, collaboration and structure to ultimately succeed at providing long-term brand/marketing clarity and direction. It needs to be joined-up holistic thinking across the business, with all relevant parties aligned.
The lack of success in lots of marketing programmes and campaigns is often because they didn’t have any clarity of purpose or success to start with. Always focus on fewer, bigger, better – set objectives and set success metrics.
Ensure you set time aside to focus your energy on getting your ‘marketing why’ right, and then produce an insightful customer-focused, benefit-led marketing strategy and plan; this is the best route to long-term growth and success. It will empower your internal teams and provide them with a clear and focused path that they can follow.
For strategic counsel or advice on starting your marketing why journey with F&J please get in touch.
