Faith Based Marketing Is Under Attack!

"Use lean techniques to streamline repeatable processes, such as collateral development …"

--Overview to Six Sigma for Marketing Processes

First, an apology to anyone who Googled this post expecting something on religion. Sorry, this is actually a response to two books and a number of recent posts by other bloggers on the need to bring more metics based operational discipline to marketing. As a marketing writer, I get it that creative types need freedom to explore their intuitive side. But as an independent business owner, I also get it that without process discipline, things can fall apart hard.

On my very micro level, weak process can cause things like invoices not getting processed, drafts not getting reviewed, and interview appointments not being kept. (If you think writer's block is bad -- try process block!) In the corporate world, weak process can mean not getting your marketing budget approved because you can't base it on real numbers. That's what I call faith based marketing -- and it's under attack.

I got clued into this a few days ago when Eric Kintz, Vice President of Global Marketing Strategy & Excellence for HP, kindly left a comment on my post: "Which Type of CMO Are You?" inviting me to check out his own post: "Marketing as a key driver of business growth."

Both discuss the idea of the marketing growth champion. Eric's point: that growth champions have five characteristics in common, chief among them a proclivity for metrics-driven process discipline.

A little research revealed many other recent posts with a similar message, including one on the Six Sigma blog. There are also a couple of brand new books:

• Six Sigma for Marketing Processes: An Overview for Marketing Executives, Leaders, and Managers, by Clyde M. Creveling, Lynne Hambleton, Burke McCarthy
  
  
• Marketing Metrics: 50+ Metrics Every Executive Should Master, by Paul W. Farris, Neil T. Bendle, Phillip E. Pfeifer, David J. Reibstein

My own view is that high value creative work is naturally opposed to rigorous operational discipline -- and that both are vital to business success. It's the kind of paradox leaders need to manage. It's also the kind of paradox Mercer Management's Stephen Rheinesmith talks about in his article "Learning to Live with Paradox."

Other paradoxes with which leaders need to contend in their business lives are work versus family, stability versus change, and centralization versus decentralization. I think you can add to this list: faith based versus metrics based marketing.

Here are Stephen's five steps for managing paradox, which I would like to introduce into the discussion:

• Identify the competing forces of a paradox.
• Create a grid to map the positive and negative effects of a paradox.
• Optimize, rather than maximize, your primary responsibilities.
• Include contradictions in your thinking.
• Create paradox alarm metrics.

I think these add another dimension to the problem. In fact, it would be very interesting to see how to operationalize these steps in the marketing context.