15 February 2010 ~ 1 Comment

what goes into great marketing?

Better Tools

Do you think there’s a ’standard’ checklist or recipe of the ingredients that are ‘must haves’ to end up with great marketing?  I’ve been keeping a list of what I think constitutes great marketing inputs… see if they make sense, and if you have others!

- true understanding of the target audience, and deep insights about their wants and needs

- a clear, objective, ROI-type structure for the definition of success

- an attractive look & feel (platform, positioning) for the brand

- a message/story that’s appealing

- an offer or call to action that causes your audience to behave the way you want them to

- executional feasibility for the marketing idea

- overall organizational support and alignment

- the right resources to get it done

- enough budget to get it done right

- some strong ‘assets’ to leverage

- a quality product/service to put your marketing behind

- timing – enough lead time to get it all done right, and executing the marketing at the right time

I doubt this is even close to a comprehensive list.  And sometimes, the items on this list have different weights.

Wouldn’t it be helpful to have some sort of equation of these (and other) inputs, with relative weightings, to guarantee a successful output?  Can marketing be turned into a formula, or a recipe?

One Response to “what goes into great marketing?”

  1. Tom Kasperski 17 February 2010 at 4:56 pm Permalink

    Hey Jim, I posted a list similar to yours last summer – but view them as marcom strategy outputs: http://koolaidantidote.wordpress.com/2009/08/05/marcom-strategy-%E2%80%93-the-basics-part-2/

    I see these as necessary inputs to have any chance at success: consumer intelligence, brand immersion, goals, budget, and trend awareness.
    http://koolaidantidote.wordpress.com/2009/08/06/marcom-strategy-%E2%80%93-the-basics-part-3/

    It seems to me good marketing is less about formulas/recipes and more about principles.