The Correct Answer is Almost Always “It Depends”
Scott: Posted on Monday, March 26, 2012 9:32 AM
I see a lot of PR and marketing counselors posting on LinkedIn forums, Facebook pages and Twitter feeds claiming to have answers to a particular person’s marketing quandary. I post in some of these too, but my answers are almost always couched firmly in “it depends.”
You see, I’m a fan of a “quick and easy” solution when it comes to baking a cake, renting a movie or cleaning a toilet bowl, but not so sure I’d base my actual business decisions on a quip from a marketing expert without having them fully understand my situation, my goals, my company’s background/history and the things that make my business unique. It’s the same thing with dieting. If you see someone who has lost weight using a particular technique like say eating cookies instead of actual food, you might think, “hey I can lose weight if I too were to eat cookies instead of food” and then BAM! — it doesn’t work. Why?
It’s because your biochemistry, metabolism and other factors may not be the same as the other person. In business, our outcomes, messages, brands, marketing plans, measurement systems and about a million other variables make every campaign UNIQUE. And that’s why I think the correct answer when counseling someone in a forum before knowing all of the facts is “it depends.” I also learned in school that on a multiple choice test, it’s almost never the letter “D.”
So if you want real answers to YOUR marketing problems, contact me and let me go to work digging into the details. That’s the only way to create a strategy and program that will have a real and measurable impact on your business.