Marketing is quite possibly the most powerful tool in the world. A powerful force not limited to the following examples…
Bottled Water
Sells for twice the price of petrol, or you can get it free from a tap…. This stuff falls out of the sky! (Bottled water is often worse quality than the tap version)
Nike Air
Made people believe that $300 running shoes are better than an $80 version. Yes, you will be like Mike!
Hermes Handbags
Start at over $5000 and can sell for over $200,000.
I’m sure you can think of many examples where consumer purchase decisions could never be justified rationally.
Why, are examples of such prowess are becoming rare? Because most big companies have lost their Mojo. They don’t get it anymore.
Corporate leaders must communicate the rationale behind strategy. The numbers have to back it up. You see, upon failure there’s a back up. They can point to all the hard data, research, product superiority and price competitiveness. If plans don’t work out, they can shift the blame and explain how the world changed. It’s too hard to justify an emotional based strategy in a boardroom. Qualitative justifications can’t compete with a rational argument in today’s corporate environment.
This presents a problem for large companies, as only with true emotional influence is the power of marketing unleashed. And the system does not currently allow for emotional decision making. It is much better to control the emotional side of the equation. To influence the intangible is to win.The most powerful forces of the mind are emotion and instinct. Quantitative assessment of risk has only been around a couple of thousand years. This was evidenced in Peter Bernsteins book; Against the Gods – The Amazing Story of Risk.
If marketing can be so emotive and then it can do much good for our world. And we need this.
Few marketers understand the true laws of this art. They are hard to follow in a complex world, impossible to follow in a large corporation. Maybe the power of marketing can be unleashed to solve problems like environmental degradation. If you are a marketer out there who “gets it”, please use your power for good.
Do you think Walt Disney had a rational argument based on historical rational facts when he dreamt up Disney?????
Crazy, a great example and totally agree. Would have put it in if I had thought of it. Makes me think that Walt self fundd his operation, or bootstrapped his first production to get revenue. In fact I will “Wiki it” and do an entry.
Can you imagine him pitching to a VC…. “it’s about this mischevious mouse called micky..!
Thanks for yous input. Steve