3 ms·

I can think of 50 products that won because they out-marketed a better competitor. It's hard to care about something you don't even know exists. Its hard to fee

I can think of 50 products that won because they out-marketed a better competitor. It's hard to care about something you don't even know exists. Its hard to feel loyalty without an emotional hook. Marketing exists to do those things. You cannot argue against the function of marketing in a waterfall framework. Then praise the lean methodology. For this to be apples to apples, you should compare waterfall to lean, and marketing to no marketing (an extreme form of which would be to have no web presence). The way I see marketing is things that need to be done but a hacker might not enjoy doing.

lsc 15y ago
I don't think the article is arguing against marketing. He's arguing against the 'launch' as the focus of marketing, and suggesting instead that building a brand should be the focus of marketing. Building a brand is a long, ongoing process. You need to have a self-consistent set of values, and those values need to show through in your products. (I mean, there is more to having a brand, but without those consistent values, the other stuff doesn't matter.)
- daniellicht 15y ago
  You can have a launch strategy while building a brand, the two are not mutually exclusive. I find it really ironic that this article comes from an "ad man" and a "principle of a strategic marketing firm" because he knows very little about marketing.
- abbasmehdi 15y ago
  My point exactly, launch as a focus of Marketing or any other dept. for that matter is a bad thing and is an example of the Waterfall method. Also, building a brand and marketing sound similar but are very different. In personal terms, you, as a brand would be 'what others to think of you', and marketing is 'what you say about yourself / present yourself'. Sales is how you 'turn an audience into followers'. Since sales = marketing + brand, in the analogy above 'audience to followers' = 'what you say about yoursef' + 'what people think of you').

lsc 15y ago

I don't think the article is arguing against marketing. He's arguing against the 'launch' as the focus of marketing, and suggesting instead that building a brand should be the focus of marketing. Building a brand is a long, ongoing process. You need to have a self-consistent set of values, and those values need to show through in your products. (I mean, there is more to having a brand, but without those consistent values, the other stuff doesn't matter.)

daniellicht 15y ago
You can have a launch strategy while building a brand, the two are not mutually exclusive. I find it really ironic that this article comes from an "ad man" and a "principle of a strategic marketing firm" because he knows very little about marketing.
abbasmehdi 15y ago
My point exactly, launch as a focus of Marketing or any other dept. for that matter is a bad thing and is an example of the Waterfall method. Also, building a brand and marketing sound similar but are very different. In personal terms, you, as a brand would be 'what others to think of you', and marketing is 'what you say about yourself / present yourself'. Sales is how you 'turn an audience into followers'. Since sales = marketing + brand, in the analogy above 'audience to followers' = 'what you say about yoursef' + 'what people think of you').