Marketing’s flight to quality: Now’s our chance to Marie Kondo marcom
There’s an overdue conversation in the marketingverse these days about flight to quality — replacing spray-and-pray marcom with fewer, more thoughtful communications. It’s the natural outgrowth of leaner teams, especially in tech, trying to meet the same demands.
This idea isn’t motivated by the meta-problem in marketing — a marketplace deluged in clutter — but it is a chance to remedy it, at least a bit. Meaning the blog post that took a week to write, but is devoid of insight; the swarms of blinky mobile ads that undermine both the brand and the publisher; and the $200,000 corporate video that gets 500 views. Too often marcom doesn’t break through, doesn’t help the consumer, and doesn’t benefit the brand.
Deluge marketing is a lazy habit fueled by ready-fire-aim thinking that somehow keeps getting budget. It’s this way of working, in part, that brought us sub-1% display ad click rates and a years-long decline in average web page engagement. But just like we can dispense with an old beer coaster collection that doesn’t bring joy, we can stop cranking out marketing communications that don’t spark at least a small sense of professional pride.
Just like offloading that beer coaster collection, swapping out quick tactics for thoughtful strategy requires a more disciplined approach.
I recently worked under a CMO who would tell her teams, “I don’t want strategy — I want you to do things.” And people would do things.
Here’s how it would go: creative and content teams would be given an off-the-cuff brief. They’d spill blood producing a quick draft that a committee of stakeholders would then explain is wrong for X, Y, and Z reasons. The writers and designers would try again, work weekends and evenings, slog through demoralizing reviews, and finally crank out a committee-approved object that meant little to the audience. Next step: a three-martini lunch.
In another recent project, money was secured for a co-marketing video, but the market evolved before work on the video started. Nobody felt empowered to question whether the project still made sense, so the product marketer wrote a vague brief. The creatives responded with a script that lacked punch. The media team, who learned of the video late in the game, said it wasn’t right for the intended channel. After months of work, the project was canceled and the co-marketing funds were returned.
Working tactically may start fast, but ultimately it wastes time and money. In both of these cases, the temptation to “do things” trumped the idea of taking a beat and developing a clear creative and channel strategy tied to an overarching marketing plan. Sometimes there’s hope that creative people will fill the gap, or product marketers, or the team as a whole, but that’s an unrealistic ask.
A product marketer won’t necessarily know how product truths translate into creative that’s optimized for a certain channel. It’s not creatives’ job to immerse themselves in research and dig for the insight needed to make creative really sing, and then figure out how it should work within their company’s marketing ecosystem.
The person who should be doing all of that is the integrated marketing strategist (Well, hello there!), who brings together expertise in business strategy, brand meaning, creative expression, consumer insight and behavior, the competitive landscape, cultural headwinds and tailwinds, business and tech trends, and the channel ecosystem.
All of these dots need to be connected into coherent brand, creative, content, digital, and channel strategies so messages and media are synchronized to work towards goals.
That’s the way marketers can do more with less.
Maybe in this more considered marketplace, consumers will become more receptive. Engagement rates and marketing ROI will grow. And the beer coaster collection will become metaphorical compost for the sort of impactful storytelling we’ve always wanted to create.
