Marketing Success Formulas
Everyone is always looking for THE Marketing Success Formula. But if you take a closer look at the title of this article, you'll notice that is doesn't say FORMULA, but FORMULAS (plural).
I picked up a cool find at my neighborhood Little Free Library yesterday, "The Marketing Imagination" by Theodore Levitt, and I absolutely LOVED the intro sentences (which I clipped for the image for this article). Here they are again summarized for ease of reading...
Nothing in business is so remarkable as the conflicting variety of success formulas offered by it's numerous practitioners and professors. In the case of practitioners, they're not exactly "formulas", but explanations of "how we did it" implying "that's how YOU ought to do it". Practitioners, filled with pride and money, turn themselves into prescriptive philosophers, filled mostly with hot air.
Professors, on the other hand, don't deal merely in explanations, but traffic instead in "analysis", "concepts" and "theories". Filled with self-importance, they turn themselves into (hopefully), wanted advisors; consultants filled mostly with woolly congestion.
This book was published in 1986, and since then, I think there is one more important contribution from our current society and economy; not in a role, but more so as an expectation: EASE. As a consumer, why should we do the thinking when there are Practitioners and Professors out there to do the thinking for us? We'll let THOSE people do the thinking, and tell us what to do.
But is that really what we're looking for? Or is there a magic combination of the three that warrants the best results?
When it comes to Marketing Success Formulas, let's see where each of these can get us.
The Practitioner: THE Marketing Success Formula
I'm going to use Apple as a use case for the Practitioner example, primarily because I think a lot of people would consider them very successful from a marketing perspective (myself included, although I am not a brand advocate).
When prompted, ChatGPT shares what it considers to be the most notable pieces of Apple's Marketing Formula that created success for them:
A focus on simplicity and elegance in both product design & advertising
The ability to generate anticipation and hype around product launches
An emphasis on creating a seamless ecosystem of products and services
Their use of branding and storytelling, i.e. "Think Different"
Now, as you might imagine there are hundreds of marketers who have participated in creating this success over many years. And for it to work, all of them needed to believe in the above 4 things. And likely, everything was run through these filters for approval before distribution. But think about this...
If YOUR business decided to chose these 4 strategies PURELY BECAUSE APPLE DID, guess what you would be doing?
Copying APPLE.
And does "copying Apple" sound like an opportunity to be BETTER, or DIFFERENT than Apple?
You can only ever be second best in a copying scenario. And here's why...
Because those aren't necessarily YOUR values. They're Apples Values. So sure, you can copy them, but LIVING them isn't something you would naturally do.
And let's look at Apple's competitor, Microsoft. According to ChatGPT, their Marketing Formula looks like this:
Widespread distribution and licensing agreements
Focus on compatibility and interoperability across different devices and software platforms
Strategic partnerships and alliances with hardware manufacturers and software developers
Their use of advertising and branding, i.e. "I'm a PC"
When we directly compare these two strategies, there is only ONE thing they have in common; a focus on branding. But even in that, the brand is DIFFERENT, not the same.
Most people would consider both companies extremely successful. Yet, they implement very different Go-To-Market strategies.
One is not right. One is not wrong. But one IS right for Apple. And one is right for Microsoft. Based on who they are as companies.
Which means, that goes for YOUR company too.
There is not ONE Marketing Success Formula. There's YOUR Marketing Success Formula. Which is why, it's plural 💡
But it's also not realistic to learn ALL of the formulas for every single company, so let's keep exploring.
The Professor: Multiple Success Formulas
One of the things The Marketing Imagination outlines is that Professors are paid to THINK. Since, in academia, there is generally less access to real world experience (the book's assumption, not mine), it states that Professors are, "more likely to think up several different ways to get to the same place".
If we take this concept OUT of academia and place it in the real world, I DO believe that there are people who are INTERESTED in thinking in these types of paths. In fact, I would put myself into that category. While I am a practitioner of what works for me, I know there are infinitely MORE ways than my way.
It's like driving a car to a destination. There's almost always more than one way to get there. To decide the "best" way for you, you need to know what's important to you. Are you trying to get there fastest? In the most sustainable way? With the most scenic drive?
Myself, as the Professor, doesn't make these decisions. The BUSINESS has to make the decisions. And not just MAKE the decisions, but ACT on those decisions in an on-going way; which is why it's SO important for the decisions to come from YOU.
The Ease of Use Conundrum
But making decisions can be HARD. We want to know that the decisions we do make are "RIGHT". And if you're NOT a Marketer, it would be much easier to assume that someone who has 20 years of marketing experience (like me), should make the decision. And there are tons of Practitioners out there who will happily make those decisions for you, take your money, and leave you precisely where you started. Not because their way CAN'T work, but because, it's no where close to YOUR way.
We live in a society of immediate gratification. We can look up the answer to any question (seemingly) immediately. I can Google "fast and easy email marketing funnels free" and get 21.9 MILLION results instantaneously. Which might make me think I have an answer, but what I really have is INFORMATION.
And a LOT of it.
So, is that REALLY easy to use?
For most people, it's more overwhelming than easy.
And with the amount of content being created on a daily basis, it's only going to get worse.
So, if a Practitioner is only going to implement ONE way, which may or may not work for me, and a Professor is really good at seeing MULTIPLE ways, but can't CHOOSE a way for me because I'm not them, and I can't just Google / ChatGPT my way out of my marketing efforts, what do I do?
Build The Skill of Finding YOUR Way
While there are some pretty central things you need to decide in Marketing, the answers are all yours.
Who is your audience? Who do you WANT them to be? And what things do they have in common with YOU?
What are your goals? Where are YOU trying to go? And WHY do YOU want to go there?
Who are your competitors? Who are your DIRECT competitors? INDIRECT competitors? What makes you different from them?
What is your Unique Value Proposition? What do you WANT it to be? What do you want to stand for? Why does your industry NEED you?
PLUS...how are you testing and iterating on the above? How are the efforts building (or NOT building) your brand in the direction you want to go? And how are you measuring all of that?
A Practitioner (as in, someone who is only selling you THEIR way), will likely TELL you these things. A Professor (as in, someone who is exploring options), will likely ASK YOU questions about these things.
Sure, it's easier to do what you're told.
Or is it?
Personally, I'm terrible at it. I physically CAN'T just do what I'm told...I need to know WHY it needs to be done. And why I have to be the one to do it.
I don't know if that's all people. But there's definitely a tribe of us out there.
So, if you're still looking for The ONE Formula for Marketing Success, and you've tried a LOT of them already, maybe it's time to change your perspective; stop looking for what can't be found, and instead start building your skills of finding YOUR way.
Trust me; your business will thank you 💖
If you'd like support from a Professor-ish Authentic Marketing Advisor, I'm just ONE CLICK AWAY ✨
