Abraham Lincoln on chopping down a tree

"If I had six hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend the first four hours sharpening the axe".

Instead, what do most marketers do? They take a whack at the tree, put down the axe, measure the cut, pick up the axe, whack the tree in a different spot, and repeat ad nauseum. Exhausting, to say the least.

But it looks like a few marketers may be catching on. This just in from BtoB Online:

Marketers say intellectual capital key in ’06

Feb 8, 2006 New York—A renewed investment in intellectual capital and less of an obsession with return on investment are among the major themes that will dominate the marketing landscape this year, according to panelists who spoke at the Business Marketing Association’s What to Expect in 2006 event Wednesday in New York.

“We need to refocus our attention on creativity to create big ideas,” said panelist Jim Speros, CMO of Ernst & Young.

“What I see is a preoccupation with ROI; but the role of marketing is to stimulate activity, while ROI is more of a rear-view mirror. We have to get back to thinking about ideas that drive new business.”

Carl Anderson, CEO of Doremus Advertising, said: “I’m only beginning to see an investment in intellectual capital. Not enough time, energy and money have been put into [developing intellectual capital in] the b-to-b space. Knowledge and insight are now king.”

Spencer Spinnell, head of business and industrial markets at Google, echoed the others, saying, “We've ROI'd ourselves into a corner, but that doesn't mean we can't measure and adjust our strategy day to day.”

Other major trends that came up in the discussion included marketing with wireless portable technology, finding ways to measure online and offline elements of a campaign in tandem, as well as the continued importance of live events to maintain the high-touch contact necessary in marketing to b-to-b customers. —Carol Krol

That being said, this just strikes me as overkill as well as a little comical (from AdAge.com):

FIVE YEARS IN THE MAKING, TIDE GETS A NEW AD CAMPAIGN
P&G Spends a Week With Consumers to Help Break Creative, Strategic Logjam

CINCINNATI (AdAge.com) -- After five sometimes grueling years -- at one point punctuated by departure of key agency account executives -- Procter & Gamble Co.’s iconic Tide finally has a new umbrella ad campaign. And the process to get there was quite literally a gamble for the brand's associate marketing director and her crew.

As is customary at the company where “the consumer is boss,” P&G talked to consumers before it came up with the Tide push that broke the creative and strategic logjam. This time, however, they didn't spend a day focused on laundry rooms or basements. Executives from P&G and its longtime agency, Saatchi & Saatchi, spent a week with consumers in Kansas City, Mo., and Charlotte, N.C., going to work, movies, dinner, manicurists -- even gambling together.

Laundry's role in life
“We got to an incredibly deep and personal level,” said Julie Woffington, Tide's North American associate marketing director. “We wanted to understand the role of laundry in their life. And it’s really not a huge role like it was in the 1950s.”

Duh?  Read the rest.  Unless, that is, you're up to your elbows in laundry.

Posted February 9, 2006
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Comments

Tim Whelan

Well so much for soap. I gusess if we reinvent the wheel with another similar wheel it should roll better, rigth?

As for the rest who sat the pannel? I hear what your saying, but your still doing the same stupid things. Maybe they will change, but I wont hold my breath.

Posted by: Tim Whelan | February 12, 2006 at 10:48 AM

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