Marketing Plan

I will never forget. I lived in one room log cabin outside Fairbanks, Alaska. My cabin had no running water, which is common in the area in which I lived. That meant hauling water, cutting wood for heat, and using an upgrade for my bathroom.

It's not easy living in the least.

Winter is a particularly difficult in Fairbanks. Winters are long and cold. Snow gets deep and it feels like to live in a virtual deep freeze.

One winter day in particular is etched in my memory. Or perhaps I should say, frozen in my memory.

One morning I woke up, threw some wood into the furnace, and walked over to the window to check the temperature. As I scratched the frost from the inside of the window to get a look at the thermometer, I could hardly believe his eyes.

Fifty-five down!

I looked again just to make sure I've seen the numbers right. Of course. 55 below!

This is more than just cold. 55 below the actual bones of cooling.

But as cold as it was, I knew I had to go to work. I worked at the university, and I knew it was open, despite the weather. This meant that I had to do was work. Or so I thought.

So, I went to my little Subaru ready to go. At this time, it is no small feat. I had a garage for my car, so that meant I had to join, if I had any chance of getting started. I actually had two plug-ins for an oil pan and a battery warmer.

After putting on my warmest clothes, I headed out to start Subaru. I tried to turn the engine, but for the first few minutes, all I managed to get a grinding sound from the starter. Finally, the engine delivered and started running.

Every moving part on the car seemed to be protesting. The windows were iced over, as well as outside. But I was successful in getting to work. In fact, I was feeling like I had won some elements.

Finally, the car was running well enough to try to put it in gear. After all, I have places to go and things to do. Gearing barely moving, but I managed to get into neutral.

Then I was on the next phase of stepping on the gas. I knew that he was making real progress when I felt the tires moving, even though everything looked like it was in slow motion. Tires were moving, but the car was not. So I pressed a little harder on the accelerator.

This cycle went on for some time, but I realized I was not really going anywhere, although the car was in reverse, and I give him gas.

I got out of the car to check to see what the problem was. As soon as I look at my tires, I knew. It was so cold that the bottom of the tire as flat as a board. Of course, there is air in the tires, but just not the right place.

All I could do is dig a deep hole in the snow under each tire. Tires just can not muster any momentum to move.

At this point I knew, despite my valiant efforts, I'm not anywhere. It is time to rethink your plans for the day.

...............
It may very well be wondering exactly what this story has to do with marketing. Good question.

For some reason, this experience reminds me of a marketing campaign I did. A lot of time, energy and money spent with not much to show but a hole.

Sometimes, in the marketing world, we have all the pieces in place for what we think will work. This ad may look good, it is set to your target audience and your message is clear.

But then the campaign would simply not the answer you thought it would. You have invested a lot and it's hard to let it go. But chances are, if you keep doing the same thing, you're probably going to just dig a deeper hole.

It is time to rethink your marketing plan. Just like the day in Fairbanks to fifty-five below.