The Marketing ‘Army of One’ and The Team's Hard Truths Made Easy

How many times have you been in a marketing strategy meeting or creative session where one person says “I don't like that idea,” or “I don't think that would work,” or “I think we should do this?”

We don't know how many times we've seen and heard this, maybe a hundred times, and it never ceases to amaze us that individuals think this way, having no basis for their thoughts, other than that they are their own personal thoughts. Often, these are the same folks who want quantifiable everything in every other area of the business.

Most of us aren't born with the type of instinct needed to land a great idea that will strike gold with hundreds of thousands or millions of purchase decisions. In fact, the odds of nailing the correct strategy or even having accurate marketing research are staggeringly high.

That aside, it does depend on who the army of one is. We've been in circumstances where the army of one held the keys to the kingdom and so nobody wanted to do what needed to be done, point out the glaring flaw in the logic.

But we pay for marketing research one way or another. When an army of one is leading the pack and the pack is not appropriately pushing back, that's a form of marketing research. This “team” is simply going to test an idea, although they won't call it a test, by pushing the message, selecting the media channels, selecting the spend and then, when things don't turn out, they won't have a whole lot of helpful data to tell them why it isn’t working.

Marketing can easily be understood only for its subjective nature. It can be seen to be driven by intangibles and psychology and imagination and creativity and ideas that will either work or will not. To avoid creating scenarios where this long-standing interpretation is justified, those who wish to make the strongest cases for successful strategies and conscientious creativity need to take a more front-line approach and a more evidence-driven stance.

All who approach the strategy table have to understand that their personal thoughts do not matter unless they happen to be one with the target audience’s proven unique identification of the company's brand position. That is all that matters. Two opinions are not two thousand or twenty thousand.

So now let’s switch the role of soothsayer to the team and away from the army of one.

We do wonder sometimes whether marketing teams really want to know what the targets are thinking and what they are truly feeling when they choose to buy.

It's sort of like finally getting around to eyeballing the balance in your bank account. For those that sort of float along with their income and expenses, not often taking time to acknowledge their true balance, there can be a hesitancy and a procrastination and a downright fear of seeing the hard truth.

Such can also be the case with regard to the hard truth of a company's actual brand position within the minds and more importantly the emotions of a target market. That’s because when we see the undeniable truth that really great creative isn’t working, we have to make changes and alterations and new decisions and relinquish some of our “priest-class” aura as creatives and admit we’ve got to make sense and contribute to a return on investment.

Now, in fairness, some do get excited about the truth in the form of evidence for its overarching effect. It creates a demand for reaction. Now what we must do is introduce the lens that removes the personal, the opinions, the stronghold on ideas and collaboration, the “priest-class”, and the fear of the actual account balance. Imagine a room full of smart people who no longer have to suffer these ridiculous obstacles to selling more stuff.

Even the most stubborn armies of one or most progressive bands of artists cannot refute quantifiable customer emotive responses that genuinely cite specific causes for purchasing decisions. If 88% of a market likes the red one better, the army of one’s love for going with the green one, or the team’s superb concept around the green one, couldn’t be more irrelevant, and no one in their right mind would argue otherwise. Some band-aids may be necessary, but the wounds will heal. Besides, what if the right question reveals a target market trend that proves the product color is not nearly as important as a missing function or feature?

Everyone must be prepared for reality.

We propose that the next step is to engage, right here and now, in a conversation that demonstrates the concrete value of predictive behavior analysis. The objective truth can be the most exhilarating inspiration for strategy, creativity and the peaceful surrender to greater success. When you know the reason why, even if it is a hard truth that may ruffle some feathers, the objectives, the creative strategic work, and the returns become clearer and a lot easier. And sales happen.

Thanks for any comments.