Are You Taxing Yourself Building Your Brand?

Pity today’s chief marketing officer–– given the task of promoting a company or brand to the public. A public with a shrinking attention span who are overworked and over-hyped, and overwrought with fear mongering news stories played 24/7.
 
The CMO has his/her work cut out. But many marketers complicate matters more by doling out assignments and responsibilities to a cavalcade of vendors: the traditional ad agency, digital agency, social agency, design agency, minorities agencies, CRM agency, direct agency, media planning agency, media buying agency, P.R. agency, choose-whatever-flavor-specialty-you-like consultants and so on…
 
These unfortunate marketing souls are trying to build a strong brand by spinning plates with a variety of resources.
 
Every agency/partner/vendor is scrumming for more marketing dollars from the CMO; each vying for more responsibilities and revenue. It’s especially amusing when global network agencies battle each other to beef-up their P&Ls (there’s no “i,” “p” or “l” in “team”).
 
It’s like a brood of children trying to get the attention of their parent. With this eclectic crew of players, the CMO must act as the conductor striving to get the various notes blending beautifully together for harmonious brand messaging.
 
In short, it’s a nightmare.
 
As a creative director, I can attest to the difficulty of keeping brand messages ‘on brand’ within just one office, let alone many offices scattered across times zones. 
 
It’s human nature for every person involved to think and believe that he/she has the answer to every marketing challenge. People come with egos as standard equipment. 
 
And creative people? Creative people create. And they will re-create just to create.
 
All these factors make it a herculean task for the CMO to herd, cultivate and curate a consistent brand message.

So, where to begin? With a small team of brainiacs, ones you trust and like. A group with relevant expertise and proven empathy and understanding of people.

A team with deep digital expertise, not content to rest on the laurels of current analytics, but always pushing to improve scores. And beat those.
 
Working together with your team, map out a game plan. The marketing landscape is cluttered, there are many ways to reach consumers, but not all of them make sense–– and none of them are going to work with crappy messaging.
 
To bastardize a famous quote, “It’s the content, stupid!” Work to make sure the soil is prepared and plant the seeds of success. Then, be ready to improvise because things change.
 
Marketing would be so much easier if only humans were predictable.