We’ve seen a lot lately how poor message discipline can be the end to a political campaign, so it seems like a nice topic to address with some poliarc-ness.
As you know, we address both political and business marketing at poliARC, so I figured why not once again mush the two together and reason the importance of message and marketing discipline in all aspects of your campaigns, regardless if you’re a small business, non-profit, or trying to win an election contest.
First ask yourself the old tortoise vs. the hare question. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good, fast marketing blitz, but time and time again it’s been proven that a well-thought out, steadfast, solid marketing message will win the war. No one wants to me the person or company that hits big, then burns out a year later because people thought they were getting something other than what they were sold.
Too much change, or too many intonations of a marketing message can dilute the message itself. Moreover, the hare approach looks frantic, unstable, and indecisive. Depending on your image or product, maybe that’s a good thing, but most of the time, you want to be able to demonstrate some sense of concrete, “I’m going to be around for a long time because I’m dependable” sort of image.
It takes a lot of discipline to be a tortoise. Marketing management is NOT always the fun, creative, “let’s make pretty things with neat slogans” sort of process – it’s management – balancing creative, resources, goals, and message discipline. Most people probably think tortoises are boring (unless, maybe, you’re a Terry Pratchett fan). Sometimes it’s not the sexiest marketing approach, but it is much more stable and gives you a better long-term plan. This does NOT mean slow marketing or slow campaigns. I’m talking about the character of the tortoise insofar as putting his head down, always moving forward, not being distracted, and keeping his eye on the finish line.
Some marketing messages are instantly successful. We all love these. Some take more time. Let’s break this down more, however. Variations on slogans, designs, and different ways to communicate your core values can change so that you can test which works best. But when you test you must hold true to the system. I’ve seen many overreact to positive or negative initial reaction, which doesn’t give enough data to actually make an educated decision. One might look great the first week, then totally die, while another starts more slowly, but has a much greater impact in the long run.
Testing takes discipline (and a deliberate plan to test results without bias).
Don’t let flash overrule substance. It takes discipline to not get sucked into short-living trends. Lots of marketers want to exploit these, which for short promotions can work, but one must be careful about intertwining your core messages and branding in this environment. Cater too much to a wide range of trends and once again your message starts to get diluted and your branding somewhat confused; as if all your campaigns are solders running in different directions wearing different uniforms.
A good marketing team always has a drill sergeant (along with a team of creative and wacky people). Again, I’m not talking about speed or campaign diversity: you can have a very well disciplined message with a thousand different targeted campaigns. The key is: when the message and core branding are well disciplined, then all those individual campaigns work together and become an army, in sync with one another, and move forward with purpose and a lot force.
