Lessons on applying lipstick to swine, and other business bedtime stories
The infallible CEO “I have just the right touch”
We‘ve all been here: one more ad, one more campaign, one more tweak, a different group of sales people, and still…no success. We’ve all tried this just before one of the team is asked to resign (and it’s usually the CEO). For me, that one last touch….was. We all learned this season on Silicon Valley: the best sales people only work on the absolute easiest products to sell. The CEO is gone, and the product isn’t selling, it must be signaling a need for a product pivot. Now, if only the product team can figure out what the market wants.
The defiant product developer “We need more lipstick”
A few more features, a slightly bigger audience, more bells and whistles, an enterprise/white label/portal version of what didn’t sell last time must be the answer. "I know exactly what we need!" cries the product teams everywhere. Founders, senior executives, and even the investors are out selling the hyperbole of future-presented-as-present. Yet even with free trials, nothing gets sold. How could it be the product teams past, present or future lack of a vision? The clients wouldn’t even take it for free!
The optimistic communications team “Doesn't Bessie look pretty?"
Perhaps it’s the fatigue of being too close to it for too long and perhaps we should bring in new people to give us an assessment of what we have devised. PR, Social Media and Advertising must be the answer to our woes. They can really make us look the best and it is always better to “look marvelous than feel marvelous.” Have you noticed that many new market unicorns start using these techniques when some behemoth has entered the market and stopped their previously unbridled market gains? Just ask the folks at RetailMeNot and Spotify how they felt after Google changed the rules and Apple entered the streaming music space.
The angry CFO “Does anyone want Bessie?"
The CEO is gone, we have retread that tire countless times, missed every budget and revenue forecast, we have pumped out press releases, paid for countless sponsorships and we have laid off staff. And still, we are hemorrhaging money. How much longer can this go on?! Has anyone done any research outside of the company, in the actual marketplace to see what the customer actually wants? Has anyone asked the question we are all afraid to utter out loud? Does anyone want our Bessie?
Today, the 3 bears wouldn't waste their time on the first 2 beds
No more building product and creating the market simultaneously. Isn’t one at a time enough of a challenge? Personally, after 20 years of multi-directional heavy lifting, I think it’s time to remind ourselves that categories always outweigh companies. The sequencing of the chicken and the egg has always baffled me into believing the answer was neither, but simultaneous. Right or wrong—chick or egg—the sequencing must be close and built on real knowledge if we want to have any chance of success. With all of the technology and data available to market, shouldn’t there be a new breed of executives populating the market? They already know the end of the story, its bed number 3 that’s just right.
The post "refinition" executive, “Perhaps it’s not Bessie”
As marketers, product developers, communications experts, executives, and investors, we have all the necessary information at our fingertips. We can predict, pivot and change to focus on what the market wants, not what we want. Perhaps it really is "just a jump to the left, and then a step to the right”" The best marketers always know they aren’t marketing to themselves (and if they are, it’s often accidental or anecdotal). The answer to what we can market comes from outside the walls of our companies, not inside. As hard as it is to throw in the towel and admit defeat, nobody markets things the market doesn’t want. Sometimes you need to move your skills to a growth category and apply what we have all learned. As for me, I’ll report back after I wake up…this new bed is juuuuust right.