Lessons Learned are Not Rocket Science

I was reading through the April 15 edition of the American Marketing Association’s magazine Marketing News; sifting through their coverage of the Mplanet marketing conference held in January of this year. Luminaries of all types were present as speakers. I didn’t attend, but the special section listed four key lessons marketers need to learn for 2009 and beyond.

1. In a tough economy, innovation is king.
2. Effective marketing must begin with customer engagement
3. Nurture and build your brand
4. For B:B, engagement and retention are key

I’ll admit, I was surprised that this was the list of key takeaways. I mean, duh! Any marketer who has been paying attention for the last 2-3 years could have pulled these themes out as important. In fact, I would guess that about 50 books have been written on these four subjects in the past five years, so none of these lessons should be a surprise.

However, what strikes me as notable is that these key lessons CONTINUE to be key lessons; which means either marketers are not getting it, or the playing field keeps changing and we are having to reboot back to the basics. Or, it’s a bit of both.

I am reminded of a book title by Harvey McKay, Dig Your Well Before You’re Thirsty. In his book he is primarily referring to building your network prior to needing it, but in many ways that thought is the umbrella lesson for the four noted above. This tough economy is NOT the best time to begin working on these issues. If you’re just now starting on innovation, customer engagement, brand building, or retention strategies, you’ll be pushing rope uphill and against the tide. Those companies and marketers who did this important work before the economy tanked are much better suited to the situation and may just be the ones to knock you out of the game.

You can click here for more Mplanet wrap up coverage.

-- David Kinard, PCM

[photo: screen shot of Mplanet 2009 Web site.]