Time. It is a fundamental aspect which differentiates marketing from sales.
Sales are typically transactional. That is, the product, service or app are available, accessible and, often, consumerable now.
The strategic nature of marketing requires investment in, and the allocation of multiple resources – people, branding, positioning, supply chain, service delivery and support, as well as follow-up and follow-through. Those all take time.
Sales performances can readily be tracked, monitored, qualified and monitored. Charts, regardless of format – pie, bar and trend – are graphically descriptive.
Unanswered in many instances is the question, why? Price alone provides limited, possibly two-dimensional responses. If only life, and commerce (in the digital era) were so simple.
Determining, analysing and quantifying the returns from a strategic marketing investment into branding are more complex, and usually evolve over varying extended periods of time.
The clock is ticking. Stopwatches are typically restricted to specific time-constrained events – sales, promotions and new product releases.
Time horizons tend to be contracting. Sustaining momentum and presence on the way to achieving critical mass is difficult. It is a genuine challenge.
WHAT TREND LINES?
The art of forecasting, projecting and budgeting is becoming increasingly questionable.
Demand, foot traffic, revenue, profits and costs oscillate, often in pronounced manners.
Maximising margins and profits seems to be a forlorn hope. Even optimising, upon reflection and projection, appears to be beyond reasonable reach.
The “dark art” of economics is increasingly under review. An allocation of scarce resources is very subjective.
An evolving consensus is developing about economics and economists. Both are typically wrong. The only point to ponder and to seek concurrence is, to what degree or measure.
The common attribute to most trends today is that there is no trend. So much for maximising, optimising and achieving ultimate productivity. And then there is the question of...
SUSTAINABILITY
Hold on. What are we writing and talking about? Maintenance, survivability and sustainability.
Common among those who have, and will, endure is that they will do so in a very changed state – physically, psychologically and operationally.
Hence sustainability differs from resilience, which, essentially is to “snap-back” to an original form.
That very reference conjures up images for “politician-speak”, about a hoped for undetermined post-pandemic period in which the economy, society, commerce and health will, “majestically”, snap-back to a resilient state. Hope springs eternal.
A NEW DAY
Existence and persistence in a new day will require a new form, in its many dimensions to “best-fit” the new environment and circumstances.
All measures, time horizons included, will need to be recalibrated. In all probability the new reality will have limited sustainability. Alas, that is the nature of the prevailing and rapidly evolving marketplace, economy, society and set global forces.
HOLD ON
Little value will be assigned to an attitude of “hold on”... on several counts.
In the first instance, decisive thinking, decision making and implementation require a sense of immediacy. Don’t hold on, or procrastinate. Act now.
“Holding on”, physically and metaphorically, will have little credence in periods of quantum change.
An answer lies in cutting ties with the present and the past. Adaptability is the key and the pathway to sustainability.
The implications for branding, supply chains, communication channels, marketing, sales, strategic and tactical initiatives are profound.
Adjectives, like “contemporary” will take on different and important meanings. For example, the customer experience of today will, in all likelihood, be different to the customer experience of tomorrow. Such adaptability, malleability and fluidity will be the initial stepping stone to sustainability.
CONCLUSION
Lineal thought has been, is, and will be, redundant in pursuit of sustainability. Lifetime learning will take on refreshing new perspectives. Embrace both principles, and sustainability could well be within reach.
Chorus line please, Elton John:
“I’m Still Standing”
Barry Urquhart
Marketing Strategist
Marketing Focus
M: 041 983 5555
E: Urquhart@marketingfocus.net.au