Abraham Maslow said in 1966, “I suppose it is tempting, if the only tool you have is a hammer, to treat everything as if it were a nail.” This concept of “Maslow’s hammer” means to overly rely on a familiar tool.
This cartoon was inspired from an insight I heard from a CMO at a CPG company. He talked about the knee-jerk approaches that marketers frequently take when they join a new brand: immediately change the packaging, change the advertising, etc. Yet sometimes these tactics are not only inappropriate; they can actually cause harm.
This CMO talked about an example early in his career when his company acquired a brand. The first thing he did was completely change the packaging design, packaging format, and advertising. He discovered that sales dropped off a cliff. He had succeeded in making the brand unfamiliar to its customers.
This is also what Tropicana learned in 2009 when it redesigned it’s packaging so dramatically that sales dropped 20% in two months and they ultimately returned to the previous design.
Marketers are prone to pulling the same familiar tools from their toolkit. This is particularly apparent when there’s turnover in the team. The rise of data-driven marketing is calling into question how many of those tools are used.
I’d love to hear your thoughts on the marketing tools in the toolkit.
Here’s a cartoon from two year’s ago on the CMO revolving door:
Maher Dosoqi says
October 12, 2015 at 7:11 amMost marketing managers want to put their “Touch” upon joining a new company without proper research on the product/service, target market, competition, trends, sales history and not surveying existing customers to identify the weaknesses and work on a solution that would help in driving the sales forward rather than proving they are right in their decision!
BC says
October 12, 2015 at 7:25 amYou touch on this when mentioning turnover but I have seen “newest person is the smartest” syndrome many times over — someone just joining a company, or could be a new agency, somehow figures they know all the right things to do without actually having taken the time to understand what’s going on. Digging into what has and has not worked where they now are, not where they came from.
What I tell people to do when engaging in a new relationship, especially agency folks, is to take the first 10 “great ideas” they have, write them down and park them off to the side. Those are likely to be the exact same great ideas *everyone* would have (= plenty of other equally capable marketers out there), so getting them on paper captures them — of course, some may be right! — but clears the mind to force more serious thinking.
Not saying some or all of those 10 initial ideas are always bad! But can’t stop with those “just ‘cuz” — the best way to make sure is to force #11-20 into consideration…
Jann Mirchandani says
October 12, 2015 at 9:34 amBC; great suggestion! We will have to add that to our toolbox! 😉
But I think Maher is right on the money. The initial impulse is to put your own mark on a new project/product. It takes discipline and confidence to not jump in and “shake things up” before understanding what is or isn’t working.
Ori Pomerantz says
October 12, 2015 at 1:14 pmManagers who say “everything is working about as well as could be expected, so I didn’t change anything” tend to cause higher levels to wonder why they are paying those managers. So managers are motivated to do change for change’s sake.
Rick says
October 12, 2015 at 2:27 pmThe CMO role is strategic. Executing on a strategy and establishing a winning brand takes time, years not quarters. CEO’s who fire marketing leadership when quarterly expectations aren’t met don’t fully comprehend the role of marketing or understand what it takes to be successful. Poor departmental alignment among company leadership is often the cause of performance issues, not of a specific leader. The best companies have leadership teams that work together to ensure the company is aligned top-to-bottom, and works toward identifying and fixing alignment issues quickly.
Replacing an agency because they aren’t performing tactically to meet your expectations is a separate issue from rotating CMO’s. You should replace them if they aren’t executing to plan or delivering the results you expected. Fresh ideas and new motivated team members is always good, but there will be a learning curve and tactical alignment with your strategy is a must.
Allen Roberts says
October 12, 2015 at 3:57 pmHi Tom,
Experience is hard won.
I made exactly the mistake in your cartoon, and reflecting on it, wrote this post a while ago. http://tinyurl.com/pjrageq
It is a lesson I have not forgotten, have not repeated, and have prevented several repeats by those who have come to work for me over the years.
Regards
Allen
jeff says
October 13, 2015 at 6:00 amEverything depicted reflects a similar root cause… No written and approved strategy. (with signatures) I have had many C-level persons tell me they love the results, product growth rate and the ideas…. Until the AOP budget meetings begin.
Seán says
October 25, 2015 at 3:12 amWhile working as the insights manager for a global packaged goods company for around seven years, I the 4Rs of marketing. Re-position, Re-package, Re-launch, Resume, and Resign.
The brands that did the worst had the most change the marketers and as a result the brand. The best performing were ever prevented from changing because there were too many people that needed convincing or there was no marketing manager.