Before I begin, I must confess. I'm
not one of those people who be
lieve marketing should be compared with war. I know it makes
marketers feel more empowered, lets them believe their jobs are more
dramatic, and of course, it sells a lot of books.
We're all familiar with titles like Leadership Secrets of Attila the
Hun and Guerilla Marketing. But as the American Civil War General
William Tecumseh Sherman said, "War is hell" – and then proved it by
burning down the city of Atlanta. Fortunately, marketing is a lot less painful.
The only way marketing can be compared with war is that we often face
difficult barriers to success, and we must engage our competition in creative
and innovative ways. And the most significant barrier right now is
the economy.
Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-Mart, was interviewed during the
last recession in the 1980's. He was asked "What are you going to do about
the recession?" He said, "We don't plan
to participate." And they didn't! Wal-Mart has grown from strength
to strength in the past 20 years. Which is why that's just the kind of
thinking I would like to recommend to you. The results can be far-reaching.
In a recent article in The New Yorker, James Surowiecki wrote
about the real recession. "In the late 1920s, two companies – Kellogg and Post
– dominated the market for packaged cereal. When the Depression hit,
no one knew what would happen to consumer demand. |
