Bad Marketing Means Never Having To Say You're Wrong

My definition of marketing has always been, "The targeted application of common sense." It seemed logical. In 25 years of marketing, I haven't been confronted with a sales or marketing conundrum that couldn't be solved with the tactical application of common sense.

Not the tactical application of dollars or resources or project management or outside agencies or metrics or consultants or social media or flow charts. Common sense.

But today, as I was lying ill in bed, I realized that the definition I held dear all these years was wrong.

Marketers don't like to be wrong – or more to the point, marketers don't like to be put in a position where they have no choice but to admit they're wrong. That's why poor marketers surround themselves with dollars and resources and project managers and outside agencies and metrics and consultants and flow charts. (Social media we'll leave out of this.) The more that surrounds them, the easier it is to find something to blame other than themselves.

This very act is more wrong than being wrong.

Being wrong in marketing is a contextual thing. If doing the absolute most logical thing in the world forces you to fall on your sword, so be it. It beats repeatedly getting hammered for illogical acts, or hiding behind stuff and pointing fingers.

To return to the definition. The problem with calling marketing the targeted application of common sense is that there are a myriad of targeted applications of common sense that are obviously not marketing.

For instance, shortly after I got married I tried to change a windshield wiper with a hammer, and put a piece of newspaper under the wiper as cushioning. Naturally, I broke the windshield.

The targeted application of common sense in this case would be to not change a windshield wiper with a hammer, but there's nothing marketing-related about that.

Let's look at today's headlines. The targeted application of common sense would have been for BP not to keep drilling an offshore oil well at a precipitous angle into a pocket of oil and gas that had been nothing but trouble.

There's nothing marketing-related about not drilling an oil well. It's an engineering thing – and what are engineers if not appliers of targeted common sense?

Since my definition is wrong, perhaps I should modify it, soften the language, add some caveats. You know, something like, "Marketing is the targeted application of common sense as it relates to the functions involved in selling a product, brand, organization, or service."

There you go. Soft as grandma's featherbed.

Nice, but before I give in to the quilted downy bounty, let's think about this for a minute. I tried to change a windshield wiper with a hammer because I had sold myself on the idea that I could change a windshield wiper with a hammer.

BP tried to drill an impossible well because it had sold itself on the idea that it could – and furthermore, it had sold itself on the idea that the world was clamoring for the oil and gas in the pocket it was drilling into.

This was marketing all right – a very personal, very internal sort of marketing. Me selling to me. BP selling to BP. Engineer selling to engineer.

Upon further review, I think I'll stick with my definition. I was wrong; the targeted application of common sense is not exclusively reserved for marketing situations. But it is a very fine definition of marketing nonetheless.

I'll examine many common-sense marketing situations and theories over the ensuing months. Share yours if you'd like. It'll be fun.