Why can’t you do screen-sweeping marketing?

Many marketers have encountered a classic scenario: your boss sees a marketing campaign that is going viral and immediately asks you to create a similar hit. As a result, what you produce is often not even a little bit different from the original screen-sweeping activity.

At this time, some bosses will complain that the marketing staff in the marketing department are not strong enough and lack the ability, but complaining is useless because the real reason may not lie here.

Marketing cannot be viewed in isolation, and the reason for poor marketing may not lie with the marketing department, or even with marketing itself.

I was chatting with a friend a few days ago, and he mentioned something that really resonated with me. Many brands often turn to them for brand consulting and brand planning. In fact, it is not difficult for experienced marketers to propose reliable strategic plans for brands. But the real difficulty lies in the fact that it is difficult for brands to implement these plans. If they are not implemented, there will be no results. If there are no results, it will be difficult for brands to truly recognize you and pay for you willingly.

In fact, the same is true for many advertising companies. It is rare for a proposal to be executed perfectly. In most cases, the draft and implementation plan are changed beyond recognition, and the final product is a mediocre work.

Of course, the ability of the marketer himself is an important influencing factor, but putting this aside, sometimes we can find that there is an "invisible hand" that pushes the plan from "not bad" to mediocrity.

First point: the confusion of the brand itself

It is absolutely true that most brands don’t know what they want when they look for brand consulting or advertising agencies. The real needs of the brand will only be gradually clarified through rounds of communication and proposals. Therefore, what is finally produced is very different from what was first proposed, which is completely normal.

It is through constant communication with agents that brands realize their real needs. One of the roles of agents is to enable brands to better understand themselves and help them sort out their own context.

When the boss asks the marketing department to copy a hot-selling product, the boss himself may not know whether the hot-selling product is suitable for him or not. He may just think that it is "not bad" or "very popular recently". This is completely normal. The marketing department should not be led astray by the boss at this time. They should make the boss realize that such a hot product is meaningful to that brand, but may not be meaningful to our brand. Of course, most of this persuasion ends in failure.

Gorgeous and cool marketing operations may not be suitable for all brands, but every boss may want them. After being distorted, it is not surprising that the final effect is not good.

The above point is about brand demand, but when it comes to the operational level, it is actually more of a communication problem.

Second point: misalignment of organizational structure

When the boss points to a popular article on his phone and asks you to write an article based on it, he may often not realize that the popular article was written by an editor with a monthly salary of 20k+, and the illustrations were drawn by a celebrity with a monthly salary of 30k+; while his company only has a few interns with a monthly salary of 5k.

What’s even worse is that the article that went viral might have been written by a self-media organization, and the content of the article is their ability to make a living, or the article that went viral was posted by Alipay. They might have tens of millions of fans and their brand may have been around for more than ten years, while you might just be a brand selling tractors that has only been established for one year.

Behind every marketing action, resources need to be allocated. However, the difficulty of resource allocation varies in different organizational structures, and the struggles between different departments are also different. In my opinion, this is often the fundamental reason whether a company can do marketing well, and it is related to the company's genes.

The organizational structure of an enterprise is generated in accordance with the business logic and profit model of the enterprise itself. It has its inherent rationality, but the organizational structure often determines the efficiency of marketing. For example: a simple material requires cooperation between a copywriter and a designer. If the copywriter and the designer are in the same department, the communication efficiency will definitely be the highest and the results will be better. If they belong to two departments, the process and efficiency can be imagined.

A brand that is good at marketing must have an organizational structure that is more efficient in marketing production, and this usually comes from the company's boss's own emphasis on the marketing sector. From a fatalistic point of view, a company’s business logic determines whether a brand’s marketing is successful or not. It’s no coincidence that brands that are good at marketing always continue to make recognized marketing moves.

The above point talks about organizational collaboration issues, but ultimately, it is actually a question of brand genes.

Point 3: Marketing Department’s Fear

This is a bit subtle to say, but it is indeed a common situation.

Marketing is actually a gamble. What I mean is that there is always some element of luck involved. It is impossible to say that you will definitely create a hit product by following a certain methodology. If that were the case, marketers would have been replaced by AI long ago.

But methodology does play a role (of course, the methodology itself must be constantly iterated). A good method can increase the probability of marketing success. Therefore, in the long run, the marketing team that masters a good methodology will ultimately win.

For example, we all know that a salesperson asking the owner for a glass of water before entering the door to sell can increase the probability of closing the deal, because the owner will have a psychological compensation effect, but this does not mean that asking for a glass of water before every sale will lead to a successful sale. Probability doesn't mean much in a single event, but its value is revealed in multiple events, and the same is true for marketing.

If a company's culture does not tolerate failure, then its marketing may never be successful, because the marketing department with a large budget can never guarantee that every marketing action will be successful. Once it messes up once, the individual's career and promotion path within the company may be affected.

So what is the safest way for the marketing department? First, even if you have a budget, don’t spend it easily. Don’t seek to achieve results, but avoid mistakes. Second, invest in channels that can brush up data. At least if the marketing effect is really not good, you can still save it through "data maintenance." This is actually a pity and the most meaningless waste, but it is the way of survival for many marketers.

The above point talks about the psychological fear of marketers, but ultimately, it is also a problem of a company's corporate culture.

Conclusion

The three reasons mentioned above actually have little to do with the professional level of marketers, but they do affect the marketing performance of countless brands, so it can be said that marketing is beyond marketing.

For marketers, sometimes the ability to persuade the boss, break down communication barriers, and be brave enough to take risks are very valuable traits. The bad news is that there are not many people who possess all these traits at the same time. The good news is that your chance has come.

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Author: Zheng Zhuoran

Source: Spread Gymnastics (ID: chuanboticao)