May the Best Strategy Win

Today’s message was sparked by an article in the Wall Street Journal (“A Patent Fight Over iPod Shows Merits of Buzz”, Chris Prystay, B1, Thursday, June 8, 2006). It goes something like this: small, relatively unknown company makes cool MP3 hard-drive technology; big dog Apple approaches them with a variety of options; small company politely declines; Apple launches iPod and proceeds with world domination; small company is bitter and slaps Apple with patent infringement lawsuit.

This story highlights the importance of Strategy and Execution. It is unclear wheither Creative Technology Ltd. had a good Strategy and failed to Execute, or simply had an flawed Strategy from the start. All too often, when times get tough, companies cut the marketing budget and still expect the same results – this is bad Execution. And, sometimes, companies start with an incomplete Strategy by neglecting the importance of marketing and sales.

When will all of those geeky inventors out there get the message that it’s not always about having the BEST product? Other factors are just as important, and sometimes more so. The best technology in the world is a waste of money if your target audience doesn’t care. Or worse, if they don’t even know your product exists or how they can get it for themselves. No matter how good a product it, it will not sell itself. This bears repeating. No matter how good a product is, it will not sell itself.

It’s up to your marketing people to define the product requirements based on target customers needs and to validate those requirements with research. It’s also up to marketing to define the brand strategy, the channel strategy & the message, medium & timing of the marketing campaign. It’s about the combination of a good Strategy – who are our target customers and why do they care about our product – and disciplined Execution.

And, for all of you B2B naysayers out there, these truths hold whether you’re selling to individual consumers or big corporations. Know thy audience. That means know what’s important to them, know how to communicate in their terms and know where and how to sell your product so that they can easily access it.