Five chefs make a meal together.
Each one is on his or her own, with his or her own ideas about what makes a good meal. And his or her own particular strengths, specialties and abilities. Naturally, each of them wants to be the Big Dog in the Kitchen.
This is kind of like hotel marketing today. There's an ad agency for the ads, a graphic designer or firm for the collateral, a digital firm (or maybe just a "web guy") for the website and PPC. There’s someone doing the public relations – maybe a firm and maybe just somebody internally who isn't too busy. And e-mails and social media in there somewhere.
That's a lot of people. And it's easy to see how each of them could sincerely believe that their particular channel is the best for the client. (Just look how often you read some digital agency executive proclaim that print is dead or television is dead or social media is the only thing that matters anymore.)
It's a lot to manage. Especially for a DOSM who already has a full plate.
Doubling up may seem to simplify things, but it usually doesn’t work so well. A web firm can’t do collateral or advertising as well as a design studio or an ad agency. Nor can a PR firm do a website as well as a digital firm. And an ad agency usually can’t do PR nearly as well as a PR professional. Design studios are rarely built to handle social media. And on and on.
Point is, almost nobody does everything best, but everybody does something best. But how do you to make sure those everybodys are all rowing in the same direction while they do what they do best?
Have a clear Brand position and an equally clear strategy for delivering it, that’s how. A Brand your whole team understands and a strategy they all know how to deliver.
Almost nothing can make your marketing as effective and cost-efficient as a clearly defined Brand. With a clear Brand – and a clear strategy for delivering it – all of the players on your marketing team can more easily work together. And what one does will enhance and reinforce what the others are doing. Not fight with it.
Investing in Brand development or Brand clarification is what's known in the biz as a "Good Investment." Read more about Brand here.
Remember, a moose is a horse designed by a committee. Or a bunch of chefs. Or a thousand monkeys with typewriters. Or something like that.
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