Your Marketing Strategy - Will It Fly?

Apply Marketing "Aerodynamics"

By David Miranda

How many times have you heard the term "this thing won't fly" at a business meeting?

Imagine you and others have boarded a new airliner for its inaugural flight. As you enter the plane from the jetway, you are impressed with the modern look and feel. As you get settled in your seat, you are shown a video touting the features of the new plane - leather seats with ample legroom, a state-of-the-art in-flight entertainment system, and large overhead storage bins. After the video, the pilot comes on to inform you of the plane's dimensions and cruising speed capabilities. The plane, the video, and the pilot's commentary prepare you for a great flight experience. As the plane pulls away from the gate, however, you look outside and, low and behold, you notice the plane has no wings. Critical omission to everyone on board. Makes everything else a little irrelevant, don't you think. Chances are everyone wants off the plane.

A similar situation occurs every day in the world of business, except it's a marketing strategy everyone's getting on board rather than a plane. Countless times, marketers pose a new marketing strategy touting the "sizzle" to those who they want "on board". More often than not, the strategy has "no wings". The "wings" are the substance of the plan - substance based on solid research and marketing science. Marketers are the aeronautical engineers of the business world. They are charged, first and foremost, that a strategy will fly, otherwise everything else, the bells and whistles, is irrelevant.

If you are asked to come on board one of these ill-conceived strategies, head for the nearest exit as fast as possible. If you are, on the other hand, asking people to get on board a strategy make sure its "air-worthy".

Have a go in the research "wind tunnel" and check the strategic "aerodynamics".