It’s tempting to try to research your way into a strategy. But, as Andrea Fishman points out in a ClickZ article, research can be misleading. Unlike Andrea, I don’t think this is a problem with poor research. I think it’s a problem with all research. And the solution is not to get better at research. Instead, I suggest we try something else.
Website overhauls often cause a rousing and lively discussion leading to long meetings, lists of lists to be collected, strategic decision-maker input, and sometimes even talking to the end users about the site. And it seems inevitable that all of these goals and ideas need to be wrapped in a cleaner and newer interface design with a dash of the latest marketing trends. And it has to be better than your competitors (or other departments). Then the technology questions hit.
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Strategy and tactics are two of the most common terms in the marketing world. Yet, perhaps because they are so common, it’s hard to know what they really mean. The trouble with this is two major challenges. If we don’t know what these things really are, then how can we evaluate them? That is, without an understanding of these tools, how can we recognize, manage, or buy good strategy and good tactics?
In addition, without a full understanding of these two things, it’s hard to connect them. As we all know, strategies are all too often shelved or ineffective. And tactics are all too often directionless. That is, strategies are often empty and tactics are often blind.
In the end, not fully understanding what these things are and aren’t can easily result in wasted time and money as well as in frustration and indecision.
In this presentation, I will offer definitions of strategy and tactics. Based on this, I will discuss the features of good strategy and good tactics. And I will add to this a crucial missing element, often overlooked: measurement.
Both missions and revivals try to attract converts, but they work in different ways. The “downtown mission” of movie lore attracts people by offering food and shelter. And, usually in unspoken exchange, they seek to convert these people. A revival directly caters only to those people who want to be converted. Which one is more like selling today?
It’s a common phrase: “strategic project”. It’s used a lot, but what does it mean? All too often, it’s used to mean that a company’s strategy is coincident with a project. But, this is exactly the wrong way of thinking.
It’s a common goal of marketers to start projects with research. (Well, most people want to, but they seldom do it. That’s a topic for another time). The idea is that, armed with some measurements of the audience’s attitudes, needs, and so on, we will have a better chance at structuring a successful solution. It’s assumed that the hard work will be in interpreting and using this data, and almost no one thinks about the data itself. You need to be sure to ask is the data is even accurate.
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Last time, we covered 2 main reasons that communications fails in execution. This time, we will wrap up the series with discussion of 2 more reasons.
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Last time, we considered that it’s hard to execute a communications strategy. This time, we’ll examine 4 detailed reasons that this execution fails.
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With most of our clients, we see a considerable gap between their communications goals and communications results. And, almost all of these clients immediately identify the primary solution to be a new strategy. The question is, however, whether this is the right choice.
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It occurred to me, after I posted my last remarks, that I never even mentioned why consultants and agencies would want to work together in the first place. This time, I’d like to offer 6 reasons that this relationship is worth pursuing.
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