The Five Biggest Mistakes in Marketing
By Barbara A. Alba, President
WellStar Marketing, Inc.Why do some marketing programs crash and burn, while others grab the proverbial brass ring? That is a question that has rung in the ears of every marketing executive or business owner since the beginning of time. Even the great retail tycoon John Wanamaker was famously quoted as saying, “I know that half of my advertising efforts don’t work; the problem is, I don’t know which half.”
The truth is that there is no clear answer to that question because success in marketing is dependent on a myriad of factors, some of which can be controlled, most of which can’t. It is no surprise to learn that the average tenure of a marketing director in a major corporation is 18 months. When the stakes are high, and there is an implicit expectation to consistently deliver results in such an unpredictable game, heads roll pretty fast.
In other words, marketing success lies somewhere between in the vast divide between a crap shoot and a sure best.
Having said that, however, there are conventional wisdoms that those of us who have been around this crazy business for a few decades (or more) are happy to share. More than happy, in fact. Because these are the factors that are typically out of our control (as the marketer or agency) but often in the client’s control.
We’ll call them our Five Biggest “Forehead Slapping” Mistakes in Marketing.
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