FEBRUARY FUN : Thinking about the FUNdamentals
Aware that 'principles' or 'fundamentals' can be, to the wrong ears, construed as rigid and laggard; I am here to say it need be anything but that. So many parts of marketing stages can really be fun!
Hello to my supportive, wonderful readers (and a welcome all you fine new subscribers in the past month; in case you wondered, I aim for a monthly post)!
Predictably, despite being surprised by its brevity yet again, February is coming to a close. I have had the busiest time and been deep in the zone of work, planning and other things, and like many, finding myself going from New Year’s Day to the last week of February in the seeming blink of an eye. Life moves, and our world, accompanied by the always-on content stream of thoughts, opinions, videos, hot takes and hacks exacerbates that. But in the coal face of the practicing of real-world work, it got me thinking about day to day, trying to slow (or at least manage) and be a little inspired.
And in the sprit of usually thinking about something different in this strange little month, (not to mention most of us, UK/US based anyway, coming out of what feels like the longest darkest, rainiest, coldest winter ever), I want to talk about joy and fun in the marketing process, particularly in light of certain words (like process too actually, that sound like anything but fun)!
Context - Fundamentals seen as boring but essential, but can be fun too
I wasn’t sure how to talk about about this, let alone position, because the genesis of Front of Mind was to (bar corral my own thinking) help restore common sense amongst the noise, to remind folk of the principles of marketing, and the different areas etc. At the same time though, I never wanted unhelpful, pithy dogma (it depends, right?) but I too am conscious that topics or modules can be seen as overly rigid and boring. Words like fundamentals, principles, and process seldom titillate the mental loins like the trending parlance of AI, fandoms, performance, purpose and the like.
There is so much fun to be had. Fundamentals by definition are about coherent principles and rules around something, and proper marketing has them. Understand the customer, do some research, have a plan. You know the rest if you’re a Front of Mind regular reader. Hell, with my own default personality and ADHD, process isn’t my comfortable default either, and something I have overcompensated for over time to respect and cradle the crazy. But within those, there’s some real freestyling to be had.
They should also not be seen as mutually exclusive from the new funky stuff. I say AND, on the it depends approach. E.g you may be utilising AI and having fun, but you can bet it can aid the important research, or help expand creative assets borne out of a solid strategy, for example. Likewise, Fandoms and communities can be perfect as both a media activation and a pre-launch product testing to gain advocacy and feedback.
Also I am conscious that ‘FUNdamentals’ written like that was something I saw somewhere, so potential plagiarism on my part (sorry I can’t recall, also it is plausible I dreamt it), but so inspired, I wanted to build on it!
Some (potential) ways to have FUN
Just to preface, this should not be seen as comprehensive advice, nor the completion of the process, but more anecdotes of my own joy of the marketing process. You must still do the serious work (Marketing needs to be taken seriously) without being dull in input and output. How can inspiring work and comms derive from morgue like input anyway? The following are more about thinking, disrupting, subverting the requisite areas and keeping them whilst maximising autonomy. The best sports teams in the world have a system, formation with each player knowing what is what, but within that they get the carte blanche to be themselves, thriving in their corner of the field…
Company Culture - if there is a sense of fun, it is encouraged, the playfulness and the ability to have free conversations, social gatherings or just being sociable at work, then that is a win and the business, brand or agency is set up for freedom and diversity of thought.
Product Creation/Market Fit - in prototyping products, offer a control segment of a product with outrageous packaging that almost feels impossible for the boardroom to agree on, let the customer (or control group) be the judge. Again, making the disconnect between convivial output and seriously thought-out output is important.
Pricing/Positioning - If involved in setting the price, you need to be careful as it can set the tone. But think beyond the obvious discounts or sale events, likewise just whacking a big price on something may not be the premium flex you think. Toy with with options. Odd Number endings. Removal of pound signs off menus. Hell, even ask a mate, a nan, a randomer off the street how much they would pay. Do a raffle! There is a trove of testing here. Likewise, when thinking about the competitor set, perhaps you toy with the idea of competing against something else, not the category e.g. Nespresso positioning themselves against the coffee shop rather than other beans.
Marketing Research & Strategy - obviously this is the biggest, most important area that is ripe for hundreds of approaches and as a result exponentially more options within it. But in understanding your target market, how are you doing it? There are chances to be lateral! Are you pulling reports, or perhaps taking a target customer out for an unfiltered beer (unfiltered conversation, I’ll take beer filtered thanks). A wide range of approaches are to be considered. The alternative view of insights is exciting. Spend a day walking around a town and observing. Look at the most muddy shortcuts/paths created in parks rather than the assigned paths. Look at the unintended consequence of more folk using staffed tills over self serve as ironically, the queue is now shorter. Behaviour doesn’t lie. Interviews and human conversations are so underrated and more fun than looking at a pivot table too. When you get into more Category Entry points, you can have fun squared, with all the different options!
The Creative and Comms Idea - a really fun bit. An exercise I love doing with clients is, with post-it notes, turning the qual insights and words into customer centric language. About them and the problem and less you and the solution. Humour sells, we have the data. Get folk to write down the most boundary pushing pun/slogan to mirror the USP for example. Also, just be the customer! Whatever your sector, if you enjoy the work and involved in something, it is a hint that something is good about it and inspires something in you. Even if not the target audience, if you can’t get excited by your own creatives with your own brand’s cognitive bias you likely have each day, how can you expect anyone else to?
Promotion and Media Planning - challenge your own boring excel sheet. They are inherently boring looking and important (and of the areas, I wouldn’t mess about with this too much) but think, where’s the spike moments? Are you challenging the always-on culture or content calendar? Are there codes and places to subvert? Where are the line items that excite you? The best activations elevate the creative, and conversely the creative message justifies the medium perfectly. What is the stuff you thought was so cool. Folk love quirky contextual activations (well like them a bit, love is hard to find)!
Measuring success - knowing what works and is growing the business is obviously crucial and for the easily-bored, there will be some jarring rigour needed for this, given the data first approach. However, there is an opportunity to think about WHAT you are measuring, HOW and WHY? A new measurement strategy could be the tonic to bring things away from the norm. Too many companies have been beguiled by ROAS one end or Brand Uplift the other. What about other ones? Share of Voice/Impression/Search? Traffic? And my favourite, experiments. Geo Testing? Creative testing? Can you try a channel in one geo and not in others and test an uplift. Can you serve 2 similar audiences a different creative, one more humourous than the other. Again, have clarity in place but you can learn so much without spending loads and turning fun into high risk.
Finally, enjoy yourself. Take a break - whether a founder, the head of marketing or leader, the agency lead or a consultant, you are keen to be the best you can be and learn, but you have to ensure fuel is in the tank. if always on doing, you are less free for living the non-work life, and suppressing the true self who is inherently creative and keen to subvert. Most of my client specific ideas, whether it be for the process (some examples aforementioned), or one of the parts, (e.g. I got a media outdoor idea for an electronics client last month when sat on a London bus), came from times and places where I least expected (or wanted, sometimes when it is midnight and trying to get to sleep, but that is a whole other story!)
On the above, it is all options, it is all examples, and it all depends, which in itself is a FUN and exciting philosophy.
FINAL WORD - respect the process, but don’t take it too seriously
OK, you were perhaps expecting this to be a lot more hedonic, but I can only do my best to be so damn exciting, and some things I have to keep to myself for my own business (and indeed reputation ;) ). But may it be a reminder that thinking has no limits and does not need a framework, the only challenge is to feed them into some kind of of FUNdamental area, so they can come to life in the way they deserve. I’m keen to reiterate that, despite the importance of the guiding principles to help our brands grow, there really need not be a worry of samey inertia, formulaic output, blanding, and more. Start every day/campaign with a blank piece of paper, you can create all the fun you want, Embrace the old, elevate the new, and remember why you are doing it!
SA
P.S. I really hope you are getting a semblance of value (and FUN) out of this. If so, and you think any other marketer or business owner would, feel free to share/forward this to them. Also, follow me on LinkedIn, personally or on my company page. If you want to discuss anything, you need some marketing advice, or you just want to discuss something I’ve said, drop me a line. Thanks and happy reading/marketing!