Mary Schmidt Marketing Troubleshooter

I love that it’s no longer dark at 5 p.m. (I must be part chicken. In the winter, I’m ready to go to bed at 6:30.) However, the earlier start of Daylight Savings Time illustrates a classic problem with top-down “hey it sounds good!” planning. Congress didn’t (surprise, surprise) consider all the factors. So, people aren’t turning on lights as early in the evening. Um, what about in the morning? Seems that this could actually end up costing us more energy. But, hey, it sounded good!

And so it goes with so many things - from implementing a “customer intimacy” strategy (without making any changes in marketing, operations or sales compensation) to developing a new product without even talking to the salespeople, much less the customers (If they can’t sell it and the customers don’t want it…hmmmm….Me Big Poobah Marketer. Me know! We’ll hire a celebrity spokesperson! We’ll get a new logo! We’ll do a Super Bowl ad! No, wait! We’ll merge with another big clueless company! Yeah, yeah, that’s the ticket! Where’s my bonus?)

Related Posts:
Fast Fades of Management Trends
Innovation Behind the Curtain
Resist Drive-By Management

Tags: business planning, sales, marketing troubleshooting, strategic planning, product planning, Daylight Savings Time

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