Take 2 And Call Me in the Morning

This evening, I finally got to reading all the posts by David Wolfe at Ageless Marketing (http://agelessmarketing.typepad.com). It's a good thing I did. I came across the following about marketing prescriptions:

Most articles on marketing are prescriptive. They tell you what you should do and generally avoid theory and principles (although opinions are often presented as principles). Nearly every book on marketing does the same.

People generally are more quickly engaged by descriptions of “what” than by explanations of “why.” But if you know and understand the why’s, the what’s often become self-evident. This leads to action based on principles as compared with action based on prescriptions.

Working by principle opens an infinite array of possibilities for creative solutions to a problem. But it takes time and study to acquire the knowledge and skill to use them. Learning about a prescribed approach to solving a problem is much faster, but of course working by prescription precludes rich exploitation of creativity processes.

The utility of prescriptions is limited by the fact that they are case-specific. They guide you in solving a problem the same way similar problems were solved in the past. However, today’s problem may look like yesterday’s problem, but may have arisen in circumstances so different as to make it immune to yesterday’s solution.

Principles are context-sensitive. They reflect the real world reality that changing conditions can reduce previous prescriptions for problem solving to null value. The trouble with encouraging people to work by principle is that decision makers have far less control over what happens below them.

But these are times when prescriptive approaches to solving marketing problems are especially dangerous. They are dangerous because both the scale and speed of changing conditions demand instant, often intuitive responses that override what worked in the past that became memorialized as prescription for action.

David's post is a very interesting coincidence, because earlier today, before I read his words at Ageless Marketing, I wrote the following as a comment on John Moore's Brand Autopsy blog (http://www.brandautopsy.com):

I happen to like strategic discussions that don't give you a "10 Ways to do Such-and-Such" list. I think those lists are silly, because I think in most cases there isn't one right answer or one right plan to follow. There are different industries, different philosophies, different levels of expertise, different kinds of organizational entities and on and on, so how can there be one coherent, effective takeaway? When I do my speaking engagements, sometimes it bothers me when certain people in the audience just want step-by-step instructions on how to do experiential marketing. I don't think there is a step-by-step list. I think we businesspeople have become lazy and want things easily accomplished, and I think the more interesting companies out there have put in the time, effort and dedication to figure out what's right for their brand, their business and their customers.

I wish I could say that great minds think alike, but David Wolfe is a whole heap smarter than I am. I just hope that those of you who are trying to be Decent Marketers realize that there's no ONE answer. While it's easy to search for the case studies and the marketing books featuring "how-to" guides, I think it leads us to miss the important work of understanding the real world and real people. I don't know about you, but I don't have a doctorate in Marketing Health, so I can't write you a prescription. What I can do is get to know your brand, your company and your consumers as much as possible and work to develop great experiential marketing programs based on strategy and insight. As I've said before, experiential marketing is about creating fresh connections out there in the world where things happen. No prescription required.

Tag: marketing

Comments

[Johnnie Moore]

I share your dislike of lists of 10 ways to do things. For a start, I feel under pressure to learn them. And then I realise I don't want to learn them because they are usually sweeping generalisations, and usually rather bossy ones at that.

People like Tom Peters are good at offering us "do this" prescriptions. His material is stimulating but I notice I am more receptive to people more honestly sharing their experience rather than telling me what to do.

[David Wolfe]

Katherine

You pay me great honor with your words about my thoughts on principles vs. prescriptions. The topic calls to mind the answer that the Roman architect Vitruvius gave a student who asked how to become a great architect:

"First you learn all the rules then you learn how to forget them."

Mastery of principles makes it possible to escape the bondage of rules.

I once read a story about a Japanese master artist who required students to draw a frog in copious detail over and over for days on end until the master was satisfied that a student saw the frog in all the details of its reality. Only then was the student allowed to take pen to silk and with a few bold strokes capture the essence of the frog unsullied by the emptiness of illusory reality.

[Steven Streight aka Vaspers the Grate]

I feel, after reading your article here on principle vs. prescription, that my own Mentally Correct Marketing material is on track, more that I first imagined.

Principles are capable of being adopted to variety of situations.

I think you can have both: general principles with specific application examples in real world situations.

But the principles are far more important than any prescriptions.

Principle: people dislike arrogant, unrepentant celebrities and politicians.

Prescription: why do most celebrities and politicians (no naming of names here) stubbornly refuse to admit "I should have done some things differently. I wish I would have not done that. I have learned from my mistakes, and hope to improve, do better in the future."?????

Almost zero example of remorse and confession of imperfection. Ghastly.

Bloggers: you know exactly what 5 or 6 people I'm refering to. Where are you?