Book review: Management and marketing have opposite ideas
— -- The problem with management, according to marketing consultants Al and Laura Ries, is that managers don't have the brains for marketing.
This reflects a difference in brain dominance. Managers tend to be left-brain dominant, focusing on logical and analytical ways of dealing with the world. Marketers tend to be right-brain dominant, getting their ideas more intuitively and holistically.
This bifurcation leads to divergent ideas of what constitutes a good campaign. The conflict creates a War in the Boardroom, the title of the Rieses' new book.
While the marketing department may have a better grasp of how marketing works, say the Rieses, a father and daughter team, management always makes the final decisions. And that can lead to companies basing marketing strategies on management thinking.
Where the two differ:
•Management deals in reality; marketing, in perception. Most managers believe that producing a better product is the key to success. Yet, time and again, new products with perfect benchmarks fail, such as Volkswagen's Phaeton (a luxury car with top ratings) and beverage Miller Clear. Miller Clear tasted like regular beer, if you closed your eyes. "(But) when you drank Miller Clear with your eyes wide open," the Rieses write, "it tasted like watery beer. Perception always trumps reality."
•Management focuses on the product; marketing, on the brand.
Pepsi-Cola and Coca-Cola are similar soft drinks. Although Pepsi consistently wins blind taste tests, Coke outsells Pepsi by more than 50% in the USA, and even more internationally.
•Management wants a diversified market strategy; marketers prefer to focus in one area. Motorola introduced the first commercially available mobile phone in 1983, while Nokia came later to the cellphone market. However, Nokia began selling off non-cellphone holdings, while Motorola added computers, radio, even satellite communications. By 1998, Nokia could boast cellphone supremacy.
•Management targets the center of the market, while marketing targets the ends. Management sees the market as a bell curve with a large middle; marketers see it as bifurcated between a low end and high end.
Southwest Airlines succeeded by ignoring the first-class market and sticking to discount fares. Kmart failed by attempting to target the middle ground between low prices (Wal-Mart's specialty) and designer goods (Target's specialty).
•Management wants better products, while marketing wants different products. Management's response to a rival is often to try to do the same thing better. The marketing response is to do something different and create a new mental category.
Rather than fight Ivory Soap's pureness campaign, Dove responded with "cleansing cream." Rather than fight the hardware of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, Nintendo released the Wii. It's still a video game system, but it creates its own category — as well as more sales and profits than the other consoles.
•Management wants a single brand; marketing wants many brands. Management wants the big brand name on everything to justify the money spent on brand recognition. Marketing wants to launch new brands, because often the new product isn't a good match for the old brand name.
Xerox was well-known in copiers, but Xerox computers fell flat. Kodak was a leader in film photography, but Kodak digital cameras didn't move. On the other hand, Levi's launched a workplace casual line with Dockers, and Toyota managed a luxury brand called Lexus. No doubt a "Toyota Elite" would have gone the way of VW's Phaeton.
In short, the Rieses believe that management wants good products that appeal to everyone, while marketing wants a powerful brand that dominates a mental category.
Because management makes the decisions, marketing folks should learn to speak in left-brain terminology. The book is a good place to start lessons. Examples are well-explained and down-to-earth. As for managers, even the most logical and analytical types should be able to see the reasoning behind "marketing sense."