They shouldn’t, but too many brand managers and strategists do it all the time: trapping themselves in the ivory tower of head office and a limited view (read understanding) of the market and their brand’s interaction with consumers. Management cartoonist Tom Fishburne brings it home nicely in the cartoon above. Below is what Tom had to say.
“It’s easy to think of marketing as what happens in the head office: the PowerPoint presentations, the slick ad boards, the debates in meetings. But brand meaning is created by consumers, not by marketers. Consumers interact with brands in the midst of their busy, chaotic lives, not in the artificial, carefully scripted way we imagine in brand onions and positioning statements.
“It doesn’t matter how our brand resonates in a 30-slide PowerPoint deck with crisp graphics. It matters how it resonates in a crowded shelf of a dimly lit pharmacy to a time-pressed mother of four...
“It’s easy in business to get trapped in the ivory tower, detached from the actual consumers who buy our products. But you’ll learn a lot more away from your desk than at it. No matter how much Nielsen data you have.”
I think brand managers should read Grant mcCracken's The Chief Culture Officer. It's a good guide on how to market according to the cultural trends of the day and your target audience.
Posted by: Siyabonga | March 03, 2010 at 09:14 PM