by Sean Dunn
Senior managers in large organizations often have as many as ten marketing vendors working for them at any one time: Web, print, advertising, video, event, communications, packaging, executive presentations, etc. This means five to ten writers, creative directors, art directors, designers, and other dedicated, bright people doing their own take on your brand. Does this make sense to anyone?
You would never overtly allow your agency to simultaneously produce five different advertising campaigns for your customers, yet we routinely see widely divergent messaging being developed downstream for those same customers. How can this happen? It happens because the “launch checklists” are not aligned to brand promises, customer profiles and a acute understanding of the customer purchase funnel.
There is history, of course: sales teams do not trust marketing; advancement goals entice teams to eat of their own; an over abundance of “not invented here”. But more often than not this misalignment is not subversive in nature. It is a result of too many cooks in the kitchen. Cooks that do not follow brand driven communication recipes. To be clear, these are smart, well meaning, dedicated employees just trying to make a difference. They want to stand out to their superiors. They want to be thought leaders. They believe they know the goals of the organization better than their peers and they execute their beliefs.
And how do they get their visions realized? They hire their own vendors to follow their own directives to produce the story they want to produce. Okay, on one hand that is the kind of self-motivated, self-driven leader you want on your team. On the other hand, think about the confusion it causes customers. A customer gets 10 touches from your brand and any one of them that are misaligned or misaimed can tweak the story enough to change the promise heard or usually lost by the customer. While many companies have developed “brand” teams most of these teams focus on look and feel issues – not the alignment of branded messaging. Companies spend millions launching a campaign but customer are no closer to “getting” their brand promise then if nothing had been spent.
This is how some of my clients have been working with their teams for more than twenty years. The argument was that expertise across delivery channels through one vendor didn’t exist, and dividing the work was the best way to mitigate risk. Well, the expertise story is now moot. Technology has enabled a convergence of communication channels and great storytellers understand all of these channels, as well as the customer purchase funnel and how to create compelling customer psychographic profiles. There is no reason to hire five of them.
As for our well meaning, dedicated mavericks, they have to understand that it takes seven to ten clear, consistent, meaningful touches to reach a customer. Any deviation creates confusion. Some of my clients have started to form internal brand teams to develop customer psychographic and purchase funnel models that become manifestos for all creative vendors. Others are pushing this responsibility onto a single agency. Either way, there needs to be one focused voice, not seven to ten silos filled with mixed messages and minor tweaks that cause major confusion. Demanding alignment of brand driven communications and tactics cannot be underestimated.