Al and Laura Ries new book War in the boardroom is an intuitive and enjoyable look at why management and marketers don’t see eye-to-eye.

Chapter by chapter Al and Laura use thought provoking observations to highlight the clear difference that exists between left-brain management and right-brain thinking marketers. Management are highly verbal (bullies), logical (anal) and analytical (bean counters), marketers are highly visual, intuitive and holistic. The results are different mindsets which lead to conflicting approaches to branding.

Al and Laura draw from their wealth of knowledge of working with some the world’s biggest brands to illustrate their point.

Reading this book was like exercising daemons from the past, reliving my own personal battles with management.

It’s a must read for both marketers and management.

Jesus! vs Darwin!
Originally uploaded by The Searcher

Reading one of my favourite blogger’s, Julian Cole prompted me to run to my mini library (A Shelf) and reread a chapter in one of my favourite books ‘Focus’ by Al Ries. The chapter is titled ‘The Driving Force of Division’.

In his Julian’s blog, my good blogging buddy, all round great guy and brilliant talent recently mentioned the big ‘C’ word in a post – Convergence.

Julian said “at the moment we are going through a phase of a converging of traditional marketing journalism meeting the marketing blogging community.”

Call me pedantic, but I slightly disagree with Julian’s assessment. Rather than a convergence, I see what’s happening within the blogging world as more of a Darwinist evolutionary divergence. Have I lost you yet?

As a species, Journalists are really going through a massive evolutionary crisis with their traditional source of revenue, the printed newspaper, struggling to compete with cheaper and quicker online new sources.

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As senior executives across the globe scramble to find answers to the current global crisis, I would highly recommend they find a few minutes to listen to Al Ries' latest video Whither GM. 

sexy
Originally uploaded by Big-heaD

As a huge follower of Al Ries and Jack Trout’s position on brand positioning, I had to read Mark Ritson’s latest article in the ‘Professional Marketing’ magazine, attacking Australian marketer’s.

To tell you the truth, I usually dump the Australian Marketing Institute’s ‘Professional Marketing’ journal in the bin or donate it to my doctors waiting room, but this time, I got passed the usual suspects Chairman and CEO intro and read on.

Good old Mark, lays into Australian marketers by writing that we are hopelessly inept when it comes to brand positioning.

At first, I felt outraged…but then again, I was born in Warrington, UK – so he wasn’t talking about me, thats okay then.

Marketers are fully aware of the extraordinary growth in communication clutter, its how marketers have to deal with it…thats the problem. Too many of todays marketers are not educated and groomed in the importance of branding, differentiation and positioning.

Most importantly, the typical Aussie business whether its small, medium or large hasn’t fully bought into the marketing and branding thing.

In addition, Marketers are increasingly being marginalised as brand champions, key decision-makers or influencer’s, replaced by Director’s with huge ego’s, senior managers that have never heard of the term branding and my favourite…the senior executives mate or wife, who’s done a bit of marketing.

The size of the business doesn’t matter, I’ve seen and heard it all.

Mark Ritson is perfectly right in pointing out the endemic problem with brand positioning, Australian corporates do have a tendency to follow rather than differentiate. This leads to what Mark calls the ‘usual suspects’ in positioning statements.

The usual suspects in Australian positioning statements:

• Quality: 70% prevalence
• Innovative: 60% prevalence
• Value: 60%
• Integrity: 50%
• Trust: 50%
• Sustainable: 20% (but gaining fast)

My favourite has to be quality.

Go and visit Mark Ritson site, he’s written some great articles…and they make you think!

Marketers should be seen as brand custodians or high brand priests, venerated by those above and below…is that too much to ask?

How can this problem be solved…shoot all the lawyers and accountants on boards? Too risky! Then, it must be education and for more marketers to climb the corporate ladder and attain board positions.

I wish I could give you a link to Mark Ritson’s full article, but ‘Professional Marketing’ and the AMI seem to struggle with modern marketing and communication technologies and strategies.

That’s my dig at the AMI for the month.

According to Al Ries the shape of the logotype should fit the eyes. Hmmm…what do you think creatives? Is he correct? Watch The Ries Report and see if you agree with him.

As a big fan of Al Ries and Jack Trout, I normally measure firm’s against the 22 immutable laws of marketing.

So, in this final week of the 2008 Australian Federal Election, I’ve been thinking…What if, the next Australian Federal Government wrote the 22 immutable laws of marketing into law.

How would this effect Australian businesses and the economy? Would Australia become the marketing world’s own Utopia? Would this attract the finest marketing brains from round the World?

I think I best wake-up!

Here is Al Ries and Jack Trout’s 22 immutable laws of marketing:

1.   Leadership – It’s better to be the first than it is to be better.

2.   The Category – If you can’t be first in a category, change the nature of the category or set up a new category you can be first in.

3.   The Ladder – The strategy to use depends on which rung you occupy on the ladder.

4.   Duality – In the long run, every market becomes a two-horse race.

5.   The Mind and Perception – Marketing is not a battle of products, it’s a battle of perceptions; and sometimes it’s better to be first in the mind than to be first in the marketplace.

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