Marketing-Fix: 100-Words-On

“So who saw Parade of the Art-imals?
None of you?  Why not?
What was missing?”

- Disney Institute Cast Member/Guide

There’s no denying the enduring legacy of Walt Disney’s creativity, Roy
Disney’s financial acumen and Michael Eisner’s “Disney Decade” of extraordinary
expansion.  They’re all visionaries.

While visiting Walt Disney World recently, the company’s devotion to execution
impressed us equally.

Three factors stood out – and seem universal to marketing success:

Perseverance – after choosing a direction, the team, or “the cast”, focuses
relentlessly on getting to market with extraordinary products.  Say, building
an amusement park in a swamp.

Evaluation – when projects launch, they review results immediately with a cool,
detached eye.  When attendance isn’t on par – they ask guests what’s missing,
like Disney characters in the Art-imals parade.

Adaption – little gets jettisoned.  Concepts get tweaked, winning ideas
re-purposed and hard assets recycled to get better results.
Why not release “The Lion King” in 3-D?

They take basic business tenets and execute superbly decade after decade.

OK Walt, we believe!

It’s a natural reaction.  We’ve all had it.  And it suggests a myopic tendency.

Before engaging an expert – who’s very possibly someone ‘just like’ you – consider two things:

Your customers probably aren’t you. How could they be?  You’re immersed in the details of telecommunications, apparel, insurance…whatever.  They’re seeking solutions not minutae.

Your customers expect you to be them. Ask questions, chat ‘em up, think like them.  Deliver what they want – concisely and fast.  They’ll be loyal customers and become fans.

With these in mind, how about finding experts at “wide-eyed innocence”? They can peer in, ask questions, focus, distill and deliver clarity.

As Roy Williams (the wizard of ads) suggests: we’re all uniquely unqualified to market ourselves.