A guest blog post by Ted Nelson of Mechanica.

It has been said that marketing is one of the few corporate disciplines that regularly confronts unsolicited opinions from every other department. This can make working on the marketing frontlines, actively bobbing and weaving through regular cycles of technology and consumer disruption, either an incredibly exciting endeavor or a very dangerous one.

To help marketers enjoy more of the excitement and less of the danger, Mechanica recently partnered with Fast Company to create the Branding Forward Project. The heart of this initiative is an in-depth survey of nearly 700 marketers, directed at better understanding the issues, tools, and approaches being confronted and leveraged on today’s marketing frontlines—the idea being to make it easier to learn from those in the trenches, from tools and techniques to methodologies and processes.

One thing we explored were the cycles of technology and consumer-driven disruption that figure so prominently in the broader marketing conversation. Specifically, what new approaches and tools are being embraced? In the areas where we are sticking with the tried and true, is it out of inertia, fear, or common sense?

One surprising revelation is how divided marketing professionals are on these critical issues. For example, 58% believe that we are living in a time of revolutionary change when it comes to how powerful brands are created, yet 42% feel the opposite, believing that the fundamentals have not changed at all. When it comes to high-profile issues like the impact of consumer-generated marketing, 51% believe that consumer-generated marketing is inherently more effective versus 49% who feel that agency-generated ideas are better and consumer-generated marketing is a fad. With respect to choosing ideal partners, 40% believe that the best option is an integrated agency, while 60% prefer best-in-class specialists.

Even seemingly sacred cows, such as the importance of research, generated a polarizing response with 48% believing that research is the only way to make tough decisions versus 52% believing research has serious limitations for marketing decision-making. And when it comes to messaging consistency, 51% feel it should be tightly controlled, while 49% argue that companies must learn to “surrender control.”

Diving more deeply into these issues, we found it hard to believe that tightly connected, conference-attending, and best-practices-worshipping marketing professionals could really be this divided on the fundamentals. In fact, segmentation of the data revealed a far more complex reality. Based on what the data revealed, we propose that instead of a widely understood and accepted set of best practices, the marketing world is, in fact, a collection of overlapping “ecosystems” that are comprised of internally consistent sets of situations, experiences, and convictions.

For example, in the “Start-up” ecosystem, which comprises approximately 13% of the marketing universe, it is all about jettisoning traditional media channels, focusing on inspiration, and surrendering control. This group is enjoying real success with a number of very specific social-media tools. On the other hand, members of the “Consumer Packaged Goods” ecosystem, which comprises 19% of the marketing universe, are much more likely to believe that the fundamentals have not changed and work hard to maximize control over the messaging. While this group certainly experiments with emerging media channels, they are more likely to rely upon traditional media where they have experienced significant success.

Between these obviously polar opposites, we observed a rich set of dynamic segments, each with their own internally consistent beliefs, experiences, and tools. Once we came to understand these worlds and their significant degree of internal consistency, we concluded that there is tremendous value to be realized in marketing teams and their agency partners identifying and agreeing upon their collective “first principles” before embarking on significant new endeavors.

We have started conducting what is essentially an objective self-assessment of marketing philosophies, methodologies, practices, and tools that best fit the project being embarked upon, including proven approaches and those that the team would like to experiment with. This involves listing the critical business, category, and consumer insights known to be true, and hence of real value, in guiding the decision process. We have found this to be a tremendously useful kick-off tool that mitigates the counterproductive impact of teams setting off on a project assuming that everyone is “singing from the same hymnal.” What we have all seen happen when one team member or partner is acting on a different set of instincts, born out of a different set of experiences, is other team members concluding that the outsider simply “doesn’t get it.”

What in fact may be playing out is the simple reality that the marketing world is not comprised of one universal set of best practices.

If you are inspired to take your team through the “first principles” process as we suggest, please do not hesitate to share your experiences with (and be inspired by) the very active community at brandingforwardproject.com.

(Photo courtesy of Bigstock.com: Handsome Black Child in Business Suit)

Ted Nelson is CEO/Strategy Director of  Mechanica.

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