Everyday, wherever we turn, there are more and more rules about what we should do, how we should do it, and when doing it is appropriate. The government makes rules. Corporations make rules. Professions create standards (rules).
We are told there is a right way and a wrong way to do things. And, since most of us are law-abiding types, we live our lives trying to play by the rules, follow the standards, accept the generally accepted norms.
So I’m curious. Who are the “they” who set the standards? And what makes them the repository for what is “right”?
It is the rule-breakers who change paradigms, which alter our entire way of viewing the world. It is the rule-breakers who create revolutionary products, changing the way we live. It is the rule-breakers who find faster, more efficient ways of doing things.
It is the rule-breakers who are the creators. It is the play-by-the-rules enforcers who guard and maintain the status quo.
And this is as true for marketing as it is for anything else.
So the next time someone tells you there is a “right” way to create a strategy, design a message, brand a product, organize a campaign, implement tactics, or anything else, ask them how they know.
Certainly there are wrong ways to do things. Experience has shown that time and time again. But a “right” way?
The mission of marketing is to make our products and services stand above the crowd. You can’t do that by doing what everyone else is doing. That is the crowd. Perhaps the key rule for marketing should be: Break the rules.
