22 Immutable Laws of Marketing (Blog 5 of 22) Law of Focus
Categories: high tech marketing,b2b,Marketing,marketing book recommendations,CASE STUDIES
Their books are great, quick reads. Their first book: Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind", written in the 80's, is still appropriate today. A later book, "The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing" is a nice refresher and does something many marketers like, creates a list. Over a decade ago, I created a PowerPoint slide listing these 22 laws and they hang proudly on my bulletin board.
The Law of Focus: Doing one thing well is better than many things poorly
I'm focusing on the consumer market, I'm focusing on Wireless, I'm focusing on Aerospace...
Statements like these are comments of people who do not know what the term focus means. Focusing on a broad reaching market is not focusing. Those companies that state they are focusing on iPod accessories, focusing on Private Land Mobile radio systems or focusing on military space spy satellite are those who are focusing. They are focusing on the application or end product which is one of the best ways of focusing.
Focusing on a singular achievement is the means towards success. When an organization knows what the key goal is, they can execute towards this path. There is a risk however. It is the risk of not being diversified. If you fail, everyone fails.
Many marketers want to diversify. They chase the opportunity of the day. They are aloof, non-committal. The organization swings from opportunity to opportunity without closing in, without developing a core competency that can be leveraged for future engagements. These organizations never get anywhere and burn out quickly.
A good manager will manage several well resourced teams whose goal is to win at a target application. That team will, over the long term, build a core competency within that focused application space. In doing so, there is a higher percentage of winning than those managers who never build a basis of competency and continues to chase the winds of opportunity.
See Al Ries' book for many more views on this subject.
Hi Rob,
I've enjoyed reading your blogs on the Immutable Laws. This one in particular rings true to me, because I've worked with clients before who did not really stay focused in the way that you advocate -- either from a product development standpoint or from a marketing one. Staying true to a core message is key, and I appreciate the focus that you bring to what we're doing together on BF. Staying with the "BF is Where?" idea and evolving it for the online environment is but one example. How we forge ahead and tackle other marketing opportunities, whether they be in China or the world of online communities like MySpace, will be a good test of our ability to focus on our core product and brand messages while at the same time adapting them to new communications vehicles and audiences. I'm looking forward to going down these roads, and others, with you in the weeks and months to come.
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Dave:
Thanks for your comments. I was about to post a blog "does anyone care", since the number of comments I've seen to this blog has been lacking and I was wondering if my thoughts were of value to the marketing community. I do spend about $2 a month (smile) on google adwords and see some traffic from around the world, but sometimes I wonder of my blogs come off as rantings of a lunatic!
Anyway, I think focus is critical. It is hard to do in an ever hanging environment. It takes perseverance and a bit of strong-headedness (is this a word?). I try not to comment on work that is done as part of my day job. But I do have to say I am proud of the results of what we have done and how we've looked at keeping focused in the critical message while broadening the scope. Not sure of MySpace, but Linkedin seems to be an interesting B-to-B community. And then their is China, the biggest opportunity...
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Rob -- where would the world be without lunatics and their rantings? It would be a far less interesting place!
Cheers,
David D.
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