Tom Asacker

Tom Peters on marketing

"Of course I think marketing is incredibly important, but I think it intellectually comes second after sales." (Click here for Tom's entire rant).

William Gibson once remarked that the future is here. It's just not evenly distributed. My guess is that Tom Peter's has yet to receive his share of the future. Or perhaps he simply doesn't understand the discipline of marketing. And his "incorrect bias" can not be linked to the fact that he's an older, white guy.  Here's what an even older Peter Drucker wrote:

"The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself."

I have a deep respect and appreciation for the discipline of sales.  After all, I was raised by a consummate salesman. But unlike the other Tom, I do not see sales as being intellectually superior to the discipline of marketing.

In my view, sales is a lot like package design.  Its purpose is to make those who are exposed to the company's offering believe in the effectiveness of that offering to provide value.  Like a product in a box, there are many valuable aspects of a brand that are not visible to a prospect.  A great salesperson brings those aspects clearly into view - and to life!

Unlike a package, however, a salesperson is also a wonderful source of strategic information: competitive maneuverings, customer feelings, channel issues, and other marketplace insights. But here's the rub: what discipline is responsible for making sense of and leveraging those insights? Exactly. Marketing.

Marketing is ultimately responsible for the customer and channel experience, which includes design, pricing, audience selection, messaging, etc.  Things that the sales people ultimately utilize in their jobs. I think the question of which discipline requires the greater IQ (vs. EQ) is pretty clear.

One last thing. We love your rants Tom Peters. We really do.  But sometimes we'd like a little more intellectual rigor. Also, not all of us are interested in where you're speaking next.  Perhaps you should simply post a sign on your site like McDonald's:

Tom Peters: Over 3 Million Served        ;-)

Einstein on information

"Information is not knowledge."

So it has finally come to this. We've created so many books and so many magazines, blogs, podcasts, vlogs, etc. that we now have to choose between "What Customers Want" and "What Customers Really Want." How 'bout "What Customers Absolutely Positively Want?"

Here's what they didn't tell you about The Long Tail, that exponential increase in information brought about by recent technological advancements: it can create confusion, frustration, and analysis paralysis.

Riddle me this: how can company executives read thousands of business books, hundreds of business blogs, dozens of business magazines, ad infinitum and still have time to meet with clients, work with designers, inspire employees, answer shareholder questions, etc. They can't. So who's reading this blog post? And who's reading yours? Think about it.

Debbi Fields on good enough

"Good enough never is."

Debbi is wrong. For most people, good enough usually is.

McKinsey has just released a web exclusive, An executive take on the top business trends: A McKinsey Global Survey, in which "executives report an accelerating pace of change in an increasingly competitive business environment, driven by knowledge and information trends and the forces of globalization." Enlightening, huh?  When asked what single factor contributes most to the increase in competitive intensity, the number one response given was: "innovation in products, services and business models." How could one argue with that? The respondents also cited "greater ease of obtaining information, developing knowledge" and "plentiful, cheap, mobile capital." I hope they didn't spend much on that survey.

So, by all accounts, we should be witnessing a buzz of innovative business activities during our daily marketplace interactions. Right? But what do we typically find? More of the same. The same wasteful marketing activities, the same inept service, the same boring products and services. Why is that? Why, when I was recently asked to highlight atypical brands that are doing it right (you know, other than the Starbucks, JetBlues, Harley's, Build-A-Bear's, etc.), did I have to rack my brain to think of one? I'll tell you why. Because most of the time, "good enough" simply is!

I'm not just referring to consumer choice of "good enough."  Good enough is also modus operandi in the world of work.  Here's what the departing President of the Radio Advertising Bureau, Gary Fries, had to say during last week's National Association of Broadcasters conference:

"I am disappointed in radio. When I go out and talk to various people in the radio industry, they’re just plodding down the same road they plodded down five years ago. They’re hiring the same type of people and they’re training them the same way instead of looking into the future and where things are going."

Trust me: it's not just radio. It's pervasive. So if you're an entrepreneur; if you're trying to create something new, valuable and noteworthy, keep singing your unique song and take heart in the knowledge that Thoreau - not Debbie Fields - was right:

"Most men lead lives of quiet desperation and go to the grave with the song still in them."

I leave you with "If" by Rudyard Kipling:

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings—nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And—which is more—you'll be a Man, my son!

Happy Monday.  Stay passionate!

And Happy Birthday Dad.  I miss you very much.