MY OPINION: There is no other business activity in which more money is wasted than marketing.

FACT: Far less than 50% of new marketing initiatives are successful.

QUESTION: Why do those who control the marketing purse strings seem to think that doing what everyone else does is often the best investment?

Last month I was invited to speak to a large active chapter of the American Marketing Association. What could I possible say to this group that they haven't heard before? The decision was to share with them my belief that those who are in charge of creating and implementing winning marketing strategies are often in a difficult position.

The difficulty is that the marketing strategies that corporate decision makers want to see, feel most comfortable with, are willing to support financially and heap praise upon those who present them...are too often not the marketing strategies that will generate the results they want and need.

It is not only corporate big-wigs who tend to view projected results of their marketing programs with a combination of tunnel vision, rose colored glasses and wishful thinking. Start-ups and small business owners are just too willing to throw their scarce marketing dollars literally out the window on marketing stuff that has no reasonable chance of generating the revenue they desperately need to survive and grow?

Two examples of marketing campaigns that should have been shot on sight but were instead embraced by those who would later take a bullet for their naivete and lack of foresight.

Example one: Owner of small strip mall in suburbs seeks proposal on marketing plan from a consultant. This business owner relates that she has no money, no time, needs quick results and must see a small stream of marketing investment turn into a river of revenue. The marketing consultant gave her a plan that was grounded in reality. He was rejected. What won? Why the big city radio station that proposed to run two commercials a week (you read it right, two commercials a week) for $1,200.00 per week.

So the marketing professional that spoke the truth the business owner so desperately needed to hear gets rejected. The lying, manipulative, butt-kissing, ego-massaging salesperson with no scruples or conscience (who is all to willing to tell people what they want to hear and not what they need to hear), walks away with an account, tens of thousands of dollars of guaranteed revenue and a nice fat commission check. All pocketed with no responsibility for the results generated by those commercials.

Example two: Fairly new company in industry that didn't exist a short while ago waxes confident about the future while millions of dollars of other people's money sits in it's bank account. After months of strategizing and "driving" the company to new heights, the decision is made to do something that will actually create some customers.

This decision to actually sell something was fueled in part by the fact that the huge bonfire, which was kept roaring by stacks of photographs of Washington, Lincoln, Hamilton, Jackson and Franklin (which were provided by other people), was at risk of dying due to lack of fuel.

Suffice it to say that having burned through millions, it was now time to come up with a marketing initiative that was literally a "save the company" event. So what was presented and approved looked great. Four-color printing, high gloss, fancy pictures, cute headlines, lots of copy about how great the company was. Management loved it and it came complete with fancy charts and graphs that would look great to the Board of Directors.

There were only two problems. It was tremendously expensive and it would not have survived scrutiny by a marketing 101 class in a community college. The elementary and pervasive defects in the marketing program were too numerous to discuss here in detail, but the major faults were as follows:

Assuming and not testing: Show me someone with a marketing program that confidently predicts the future and I will show you someone who is likely to waste a lot of money. Assuming is death in the marketing game. Even the master marketeers tell you point blank that they are only right 50% of the time. If the pro's get it right only half the time, how can mere marketing mortals be so convinced of what will work that they commit huge amounts of resources without a thought about plan B.

Testing, testing and testing is what separates marketeers who can turn a Washington into a Jackson, or a Lincoln into a Franklin. Clairvoyance has nothing to do with it. By launching a full-scale marketing program without adequate testing you are being irresponsible.

Seeking the "right answer" before you start. The desire to do everything "first class" and perfectly and with every question answered in advance actually denies you the very thing you need the most to launch a mega revenue yielding, customer acquiring, high return on investment marketing program: real world information.

This always amazed me. On the radio show I get to interview titans of entrepreneurship. People who have grown ideas into large companies. Who have learned how to make money with literally no money. Those people list with pride all the marketing initiatives and business generating things they tried, which failed or produced mediocre results. They describe these attempts as a natural and normal part of finding the "right answer" that will vault them ahead of their competition. They tried, they failed, no problem.

Yet, many business owners and top executives have come to expect that new marketing programs should produce banner results right out of the gate, or that something is wrong, someone made a mistake. Who wrote that memo?

Now don't get me wrong. Every marketing program you launch should be the best it can be. Based upon everything you know at the time, every effort should be your best effort. But you can't ignore the fact that things don't typically work the way you expect. You have to test, probe, evaluate and make adjustments before you can realistically expect to come up with a winner.

You can make all the fancy projections you want, generate your spreadsheets, show off your graphs and bar charts, and put your best spin on what you think will happen, but there is no substitute for actually touching a suspect, prospect or customer and seeing how they respond.

The real goal should be discovering that combination of marketing activities that generates the results you need, in the shortest amount of time and with the least expense. Once you discover that combination it's off to the races. You know, really know, with a high degree of confidence, what is likely to work.

In this discovery phase things may not be pretty. The printing might not be four color. Quantities will be smaller than a full rollout so production quality may not be what you want to use long term. So what. It may not make the prettiest presentation at the next board meeting but it will be sound marketing.

The point is to avoid wasting limited marketing resources on programs that don't deliver; to avoid seeing days, weeks and months dribble by without creating enough new customers; to avoid seeing investment money burn with nothing to show for it.

So what's a knowledgeable ethical marketing professional to do. There is often a great variance between what business owners and management want to hear and what they need to hear. Hooray for the marketing consultant who put together a realistic plan for that strip mall owner. Hooray for those who valiantly tried to point out the defects in that "save the company" marketing program.

Boos and hisses to those who propose marketing programs knowing they cannot possible deliver the results intended, yet will be welcomed and supported by management.

Marketing professionals, who cater to what people want to hear rather than what they need to hear, will never rise to truly respected status. The short-term applause fades quickly when things don't work out as planned and people grow tired of the rationalizations and excuses.

True marketing success is a process and not an event. Respected marketing professionals are constantly educating business owners about effective marketing strategies, challenging their thinking, discussing the pro's and con's of various options and being willing to discuss the possibility that something will not work and how to avoid losing the corporate shirt. They are respected because, over a period of time, they have built a track record of success and avoided marketing disasters with sound testing and evaluation strategies. They are respected because they have delivered successes and consistently avoid catastrophe. Strive to be that person.

A final question to business owners. If you keep writing checks to those who tell you exactly what you want to hear, who never challenge your thinking and never discuss the downside, who is most to blame?

Copyright 2004 Scott Channell