The headline is a big call, competing as it does with some real doozies.
Remember “New Coke” or the Ford ‘Edsel‘ or perhaps Thomas Watsons declaration that there was a world market of no more than 5 for computers?
This one is a general observation on the nature of marketing people generally and their project management skills, at least in my experience.
They tend to spend too little time really defining a problem, but then jump effortlessly to a conclusion, leaving a pile of crap in their wake for others to clean up, and sub optimal outcomes from projects.
The explosion of marketing technology is not just making the shortcomings more obvious, it is delivering the means to measure it.
Holy cow Batman: Accountability!
The smoke and mirrors are being removed, leaving many self declared marketing gurus naked.
Leaving aside the question of individual capability, the root cause of this can usually be pinned down to a failure of project planning.
Specifically the failure to recognise the nature of critical activities that are sequential, building on the one before. For example, only a fool would lock into a creative approach and copy before the persona of the target market was absolutely crystal clear.
This notion is entirely different to the usual ‘critical path’ which can be a moveable feast as timetables move around.
Critical activities are just that, and they do not move around, at all. Project planning should always acknowledge the time necessary to complete each critical activity, and the specific sequence that is necessary.
Marketing project planning is no different to planning any other context, although the questions to be answered are usually less black and white, which simply means that the planning process needs to be rigorous and scientific if it is to be any good.
Marketers have a lot to learn from the manufacturing end of the lean movement.
