Please, stop playing devil’s advocate… contribute something!!!!

The multiple exclamations show the frustration… I’ve had it up to here with people whose idea of intelligence is shooting holes in potentially creative solutions. It is amazing: we’ve developed an entire work culture based on playing devil’s advocate… people make a living doing so, mostly on politically-oriented television news shows – and come to think of it, maybe the constant drone of democratic and republican apologists all predicting dire consequences if we say ‘yes’ to expanded healthcare or a balanced budget, whatever, is the impetus behind the idiotic belief that criticism equals intelligence.

First, let’s be clear on how this all works: the devil’s advocate will immediately jump to some worst-case scenario in the attempt to show how logical, how forward thinking, how smart s/he is. Using this spurious tactic, anything… ANYTHING… can be turned into a potential disaster.

“Let’s all go to church on Sunday,” I say.

“No, what if there’s a freak snow storm, who will clean the roads… what if the power goes off in all the churches, we’ll all be in the dark, what about parking, what about parking!!!!!!!”

Now let’s all pat ourselves on the back for being so prescient, so insightful. Aren’t we smart.

My experience: almost 100% of the time, the devil’s advocate is using improbable what-if scenarios to stop change, to stop what’s new, to stop what s/he is afraid of (or just too lazy to embrace).

OK, so what should we do instead? Their preferred answer is “nothing.”

Here’s what I’m doing about it. In any meeting where ideas, new marketing concepts, new ways to improve how a company works are being discussed, I make it clear that we cannot criticize without offering an alternative solution.

“I don’t like the idea of everyone going to church at the same time, perhaps we can stagger participation, or offer online services to keep the buildings from becoming too crowded.” OK, I’ll give you that; at least you’ve shown some intelligence, you’ve moved the ball forward, so to speak. Good on you!

Those who play devil’s advocate should be avoided and, because I am vindictive, they should be shunned.

Don’t ask these people to come to meetings until they have something to offer and never ask their opinion on anything creative… and stop, I repeat, stop trying to convince them that your solution is viable, they don’t want to hear it (and they secretly love being courted, as if their approval is worth something).

Devil’s advocates are fearful, lazy little snipes who fight to maintain the status quo with a constant barrage of no, what if this happens, no, no, no, no, no, no……………

Learn a lesson: criticism from devil’s advocates equals fear, not intelligence! They are anchors not balloons.

Strive To Be the Best? Poppycock!

Sometimes someone says something that is so pithy it concisely encapsulates the essence of a philosophy, an artistic movement and occasionally life itself. ‘Do Unto Others’ is life in a nutshell, isn’t it?

Let’s talk marketing.

How many companies have we all worked with or for (there’s a big difference, in case you didn’t know) that talk about and strive to be ‘the best’? Almost everyone focuses on it… some companies are manically driven by the concept, particularly those run by or started by engineers, PhDs, MDs or techies.

So sad that so many otherwise smart people actually believe that ‘the best’ product wins. And all around them, life shows each day that being the best is no guarantee of anything. Is Selma Hayek married to the best looking man in the world? No. Is Warhol’s soup can anywhere near the best painting in the world (by any definition of ‘best’ you choose)? A big, fat it's worth $20 million no.

Anyway, here’s the pithy statement that sums up marketing in a flash of insight: “Don’t strive to be the best; strive to be unique.”

First, ‘the best’ is indefinable for most markets and products. Marketing isn’t sports… there’s no timer or scoreboard or tape measure to tell me that I’m the ‘best’ sprinter or pole vaulter in the world. And when it comes to advertising, even the courts have ruled that saying you’re ‘the best’ is what they call 'puffery' (worthless advertising hype that consumers don’t believe so you can claim it all you like).

“So, what are you saying? That I shouldn’t strive to be the best?” That’s exactly what I’m saying.

Why fixate on being the ‘best’ if the goal can’t be defined? It’s like striving to be ‘splendiferous’.

And even if you could develop ‘the best’ widget, there’s no guarantee even one consumer will by it.

Strive to be, in Seth Godin’s words, ‘remarkable’ and/or strive to be ‘unique’. Remarkable sells, unique sells, life’s staples sell (like food and water and sex)… nothing else sells.

All you techies out there, you engineers, you scientists… use your intelligence and common sense and life’s experiences to get a grasp on marketing realities 101. In the vast, vast, vast majority of cases, marketing success (which translates into sales and fame and fortune) isn’t bestowed upon the best. Think about it rationally for once, will you?

(Isn’t rationality what you claim to be ‘the best’ way of arriving at a decision?)

Vertical Marketing: Wimborne B2B Agency Does It Right

OK, I’m prejudiced: I like these guys, I’ve worked with them and I know them to be smart and creative… but I love Vertical’s new web site. All I can say is ‘what took you so long’?

But you know the old adage: the drains in a plumber’s home are always clogged; the lights in an electrician’s home never work.

So, while Vertical has been designing a new kind of web presence for its clients – sites that offer information and solutions rather than the usual corporate blah, blah, blah – the VM web was still old school. (‘Vertical Marketing is a full service B2B agency that offers complete services, etc., etc., etc.’ You could take out ‘Vertical’ and add in ‘Mary’s Marketing’ and the message was the same old, same old… like you still see on 90% of B2B agency sites.)

Not anymore.

Read the new site and learn. There’s a minimum of corporate nonsense and a maximum of information to help anyone interested in contemporary B2B marketing. You could learn a lot from this site: about PR, advertising, SEO and the new opportunities that social media offers B2B.

This is how it’s done. No lecturing… nothing stuffy… lots of information… and the sense that Vertical knows its business and is willing to share what it knows. And there’s a passion for B2B marketing and learning new techniques that so many agencies have lost.

As I said – read and learn.