I recently ran across this graphic (below) from a marketing person who teaches marketing people how to market themselves more effectively.
This simple graphic hierarchy represents one of the most common misperceptions in marketing. It's a trap that many golf industry marketing directors and CEOs fall into.
If this is how you visualize the marketing landscape, I urge you to read on...
I agree that strategy is critical to your success. It absolutely should be the first thing on your list.
But this model implies that you should pay $500 an hour for a "strategist" to create the marketing plan, and then leave the execution of that plan to unpaid interns and jr. marketing assistants.
That's not a good idea. In fact, there are so many things wrong with that picture, I don’t even know where to begin.
First of all, don't be fooled by the title.
"Brand strategists" are popping up all over the place. It’s a new cottage industry made up mostly of ambitious graphic designers who are looking to increase their billable rates.
They're being told, “Why work as a designer/mechanic when you can change the title on your LinkedIn profile and charge 10 to 20 times more as a "strategist."
So the “strategist” at the very top of the marketing totem pole, in this example, might have no real strategy experience, no formal marketing training, no track record of successful brand leadership, and no golf industry know-how.
More often than not, any “strategies” they deliver will be focused almost entirely on tactics, not strategy. (Here's a tip... there's only one strategy)
If you’re really looking for an effective, big-picture marketing strategy a consultant is a much better choice than a “brand strategist.”
Unfortunately, consultants are famous for charging exorbitant amounts of money to deliver marketing plans that never see the light of day.
Here’s what happens…
For whatever reason, their strategic plans are not always embraced. Therefore, the "quarterback" doesn’t have a game plan, and the "mechanics" are left scurrying around in creative circles, nowhere near the end zone.
Which brings me back to the importance of creative execution.
The ultimate success of any strategy rests entirely in the hands of the people who execute.
When the all-important details of execution are left to those lowly mechanics, five buck foreign laborers, or worse yet, to Ai programs, the strategy goes out the window.
So even if you pay a guru a million bucks for a strategy, it’s going to be practically worthless if you don’t have a top-notch creative team.
I contend that it’s much smarter, and ultimately more cost effective, to flip the script and build your strategy around creative thinking.
Sparks start to fly when we connect the creative and the business world. And amazing things happen when we truly collaborate with media planners and our clients to instill the magic of creativity into the very fabric of the business.
Skip the consultant and the “brand strategist” altogether. That’ll save you some money.
Instead, hire Birdie Ops and you'll get an experienced creative team with golf industry marketing experience and serious strategy chops.
When you team a writer and an art director with a truly gifted account planner/media strategist you’ll get magical results.
Anything else is sub-optimal.
The contribution from each of those individuals is equally valuable, so pay them all the same. There are no tiers. It's the meeting of the minds among creatives, planners and marketing generalists that produces the category-busting, revenue-producing work.
I that's what you want, let's talk.
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