“A Good Strategy: Our Way Out Of The Industry’s Fixation On Short-Term Results”

Our industry is fixated on short-term results. We crave sales, and we want them now (Solo Stoves, anyone?).

Many factors contribute to this obsession: the overall economic environment, easy access to real-time data informing us about the effectiveness of our actions, and the availability of tools and technology speeding up analysis and the decision-making process (some decisions aren’t even made by humans anymore). Additionally, short Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) tenures have their natural consequences, as most new CMOs prioritize quick wins.

As professionals in the marketing and advertising industry, we are ultimately accountable for generating measurable results, and there’s nothing more tangible than sales. So emphasizing results is healthy, but there’s a caveat.

Consider this scenario: you decide to embark on a road trip, excited about the adventure that awaits. You start driving and feel good that you’re ‘moving forward’ at a great speed, but your focus is solely on the next stop – reaching the next gas (or charging) station at a specific time with enough fuel in the tank. Circumstances change – you’re a few minutes late, the tank is fuller (or emptier) than expected, or you’re tempted by a sexier car, prompting a new driver to take the keys and head to the next gas station. This cycle repeats, creating an endless loop of gas station stops.

The risk of fixating on short-term results is that it blinds companies, brands, and their teams to the bigger picture and the long-term consequences of each decision. It’s akin to driving without a clear destination or roadmap.

Having a well-defined idea of where you’re going and how to get there is crucial to break free from this loop. This is precisely what a solid and clearly articulated strategy provides. It acts as the compass, guiding not only the leg of the journey but also ensuring that each decision contributes meaningfully to the overall direction. Without a good strategy, companies risk veering off course.

What is a ‘good strategy’?

While not all strategies are created equal, we can agree that a ‘good strategy’ has to be a ‘winning strategy’. In my experience, all winning strategies share some common traits:

• Based on high-quality data: Relevant, timely, and accurate.

• Clarity: No ambiguity in what we’re trying to accomplish and how.

• Straightforward and concise: Not a data dump; it gets the point across using the economy of language and space.

• Innovative, yet obviously relevant: Fresh, yet there’s no need to ‘justify’ if it’s clearly articulated.

• Inspiring and biased towards action.

• And, of course, a winning strategy has to yield the expected results (but because this will only be known ‘after the fact,’ a ‘winning strategy’ should include a measuring system, but this is a topic for another post).

How to get to a ‘winning strategy’?

A ‘winning strategy’ requires a deep understanding of:

• The context: Because no business operates in a vacuum.

• The Competition: Who also have their own strategies and want a piece of the same pie.

• Our Brand: Strengths, assets, weaknesses, and vulnerabilities.

• Our Target Audience: What do we know about them, that dictates what we say to them, how and where we say it, to get their attention.

• While we are all intuitively strategic in our personal and professional lives, designing a winning brand, marketing, or media strategy requires a unique set of skills. It demands training, discipline, understanding of frameworks, experience, and a method to be able to ask the right questions, analyze and distill complex data, and convert all the information into something actionable and inspiring.

While we are all intuitively strategic in our personal and professional lives, designing a winning brand, marketing, or media strategy requires a unique set of skills. It demands training, discipline, understanding of frameworks, experience, and a method to be able to ask the right questions, analyze and distill complex data, and convert all the information into something actionable and inspiring.

It’s OK to ask for directions

Yes, it’s OK to ask for direction if we keep the road trip analogy. But when you’re responsible for marketing and advertising budgets and accountable for results, it’s not only OK to ask for directions, it’s imperative to get support from experts.

If you’re struggling to find your strategic road map, feel stuck in a strategic rut, have what you think is a winning strategy but have a hard time articulating it, or simply need an expert set of eyes to co-pilot your journey, check out the amazing Strategy Collaborators that are part of The Collab Hub network.

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About the Author:

Walter Boza is a senior advertising executive with over 20 years of leadership experience in Strategy, Account Management and Operations across the US and International markets. He is the founder and one of the Collaborators at The Collab Hub.

The Collab Hub is a network of independent advertising and marketing professionals ready to connect, collaborate, unlock, and flawlessly execute solutions for our clients’ marketing challenges.