Do as I do, not as I say

One of the things I find interesting about marketing is the way in which businesses and organisations are so obsessed with making everything perfect. It’s a sharp contrast with the new breed of companies that, like Facebook, aim to “move fast and break things”.

I’m a firm believer in results speaking for themselves, and I’ve never quite understood why big brands are so scared of making a mistake that they don’t want to risk going outside their comfort zones. When everything has to be perfect, you miss deadlines and even fluff opportunities altogether, and I’ve lost count of the number of times that I’ve developed full campaign plans for clients who were then too scared to simply hit the ‘go’ button.

For myself, with my books and my writing, I have no such qualms. I put out weekly videos that are shot and edited in my home studio (i.e. my living room), and I push out posters and other images that I’ve bodged together myself using Photoshop. Sure, it might not look as good as it would if I hired someone to do it, but it’s also much better than nothing.

As the old adage goes, nothing is perfect. And yet so many marketers and brand managers are obsessed with chasing perfection, setting up lengthy approval processes and protocols which cripple them and stop them from moving at all. This might have worked in the good old days, but it’s simply no longer relevant in our modern age, when the speed of communications is equally – if not more – important than the quality of the message.

When it comes to clients, then, I usually find myself adopting a ‘do as I say, not as I do’ approach. It’s a shame, because it limits the efficacy of their campaigns, but it’s also sorely needed. And here’s why.

When you’re working on behalf of a company, you don’t just have yourself to worry about. You have bosses, employees, customers and shareholders, especially if it’s a company with a long, long legacy. People are so worried about covering their backsides that they’re afraid to take a risk – after all, why would they? It could put their job – and their salary – at risk.

But when it comes to smaller businesses – and for creatives, like authors and artists who manage their own marketing and, thus, their own reputations – there’s plenty of space to have a play. And this is what gives smaller entities an advantage over their larger, more established competitors.

Big companies need to think and act more like entrepreneurs. If they don’t, it won’t take long for them to be left behind.