How to Get to Marketing at Light Speed
Rules of engagement and the building blocks needed to make the jump
Yesterday I described how transformative it can be to remove the friction from marketing experimentation. I expect push back to this idea and it usually sounds like this:
We will create brand confusion/dilution if we introduce too many new messages
We are already running campaign x, y, and z so you will have to wait your turn
We have to get [fill in the blank] to approve and that takes [fill in the blank]
Graphics take four days
We can’t do anything right now because [somebody] is working on a big new plan for [something]
And so on…
There are usually good reasons for each objection. An empowered, flat organization is a good thing, but discipline and planning are also valuable. The pursuit of nimbleness and desire for modern thinking can create a confusing and jumbled environment where talented people with good ideas decide to wait and watch. This calcification is amplified if there is an ongoing technology initiative that is supposed to change everything. “ As soon as [so and so] picks the new [such and such platform] we will be able to get going on [the plan].”
Technology will not solve organizational problems.
Whew. So glad I got that rant out of the way!
Let’s get back to those objections
It may be helpful to put them into two buckets: Internal and External. Internal is everything relating to approvals and dependencies associated with the process of marketing experimentation. External is everything related to how the world interacts with the brand.
Manage the Internal with Rules of Engagement
Military commanders of all levels operate under rules of engagement that enable them to do things without having to wait for someone else to make a decision. “Don’t fire until fired upon” is a typical example. At the beginning of world war two, Germany made gigantic gains with a small number of U boats by empowering the commanders with very liberal rules of engagement.
When applying this concept to marketing experimentation, think of rules of engagement as pre-approvals. Every business already does this with budgets. A budget gives a department the ability to make spending decisions with very little friction.
Establishing rules of engagement for marketing activities is the same concept as a budget. A department is getting approval for a range of activities in advance. Start by making a list of fifty things you may want to get approval for and get them all approved in advance. After that, assemble a library of pre-built images and graphics and templates.
Properly architected, these pre-approvals and libraries are the building materials your team needs to deploy marketing experiments with very little friction. It’s a LEGO set of marketing building blocks – ready to go.
Now, with the internal bucket managed by rules of engagement, we can turn our attention to the external bucket.
Manage External with Brand Values and Segmentation
Brands take forever to build and an instant to destroy. For this reason, spraying new messaging ideas all over the market can be a bad idea. The recipe for dealing with this has two parts: a strong brand values document and segmentation. Developing brand values is an art to itself, but for the purpose of this discussion, let’s agree it is already done and done well. A well-constructed brand values document is essentially the rules of engagement for the brand.
Segmentation further protects your brand by limiting the size (and therefore the risk) of your experiments. If you run an experiment on a single persona, or on a small geographic area, (or both) miscalculations will have a limited impact on your brand.
Investing the Time to get to Light Speed
All of this sure sounds like it takes a lot of time and effort. It is true. Developing the strategy, establishing the brand values, imagining the potential building blocks, selling the entire organization on the vision, communicating everything all of the time, getting the right people on the team, and picking the right technology all takes a lot of time indeed. But the first time you hit the light speed button — it will be worth it!
Curious About Marketing Payment Policy
Curious About Marketing is a FREE newsletter. It would seem like a bit of a waste for you to pay someone for this FREE newsletter. So I don’t recommend it.
At some time in the future, I may change my mind and offer a paid version, or some additional features that would cost money. If so, I will change this statement at the bottom of each newsletter and clearly present the options.
You should feel comfortable forwarding this newsletter to anyone you think would like it.
Thank you very much for reading!
Sincerely yours, Jay