Marketing Is A Maze
Posted Jan. 15, 2010 by Casey Flanagan
Filed under: How To, Ideas, Marketing, Planning / Research
image courtesy of coloring-page.net
Marketers benefit when they use the same simple wisdom a six-year-old does when using a shortcut to solve a maze: Begin at the end. When marketing begins with the consumer – and where the consumer needs to end up – shortcuts are revealed.
If you trace your way backwards (instead of forwards) along any maze, the path to Point B is more likely to pop. Dead ends are taken out of the consideration set. Distractions are eliminated. Unnecessary choices vanish. And the answers to the many questions – left vs. right, up vs. down – are more easily defined. Choices that seem viable from one perspective seem irrelevant from “the end.” Marketing is the same way.
We are faced with an avalanche of decisions. And paralysis by analysis can quickly progress to death by 1,000 initiatives. But when you begin at the end those choices get easier. When you clearly define goals and objectives, the excess gets stripped away. The roadmap to success becomes clearer. So, think like a six-year-old. And begin at the end.
