Lessons from "What Sticks"

I'm taking a day-long trip to the advertising festival in Cannes today, which means I have a little time to catch up on my reading.  On the first leg of the trip I got several pages through What Sticks.  It's a marketing book that addresses the inefficiency of most marketing that is done today, and offers ways to use better research and scenario planning to improve results.  It is a must-read for anyone in marketing and advertising, but I bring it up in this blog to share two interesting stores of how challenge drives improvement.

The first example comes from a chapter that addresses the challenges within the culture of most marketing organizations.  As an industry, we fear failure because we know that failure often leads to getting fired.  Instead, the authors urge marketers to take a chapter from Japanese manufacturers:

"When the Japanese find a defect in the manufacturing process, they call it a treasure.  Finding it, dissecting it, and figuring out how to eliminate it is the path to improved productivity (translation: higher profits)."

This Japanese trait of embracing failure is interesting.  I doubt it pervades the entire culture, but makes sense in the manufacturing process.  While I'd love this to follow through to marketing, I think it is more difficult than manufacturing because marketing is a discipline of creativity and subjective decisions.  Manufacturing is a mechanical process that is far easier to judge as it is not really "yours."  Also note that Japanese advertising is not more efficient or effective than that of any other country or culture.

The second example comes from a story of the world of mountain climbing.  According to the authors:

"Each year, the American Alpine Journal delivers a thick volume chronicling the failures of mountaineers.  The point is to help others learn from those failures and to take specific action to avoid failure in the future."

Again, a great example of a sub-culture that recognizes how challenge drives improvement, and demands that lessons of failures be remembered long after successes are forgotten. 

From a marketing perspective, I remember being an Assistant Brand Manager on Tide and pushing my brand and agency team to test a value message in advertising.  Tide was at a 50% premium versus the category and I wanted to try and communicate a message such as: "3 times the stain-fighting power for 25-cents per load."  This idea of value re-framing was gaining traction in the market and we had this very good claim to share.  The way I sold this into my manager was to say, "Hey, let's test market this.  Several other brands are succeeding with this approach, and if it fails, at least we know what doesn't work and move on."  My manager and agency bought the idea, and it actually succeeded in test market.

Thanks to authors Rex Briggs and Greg Stuart for doing their share to remind marketers, and every other person, that failure is a challenged that should be embraced - if improvement is to be reached.