The marketing triangle

Mea culpa for the absence of last week’s dose of enlightenment, wisdom and entertainment. Some questioned whether the criticism received may have resulted in a loss of mojo, whatever that may mean.

Sadly the fault is far more prosaic in that the enlightenment you crave was not given sufficient priority over other commitments. A state of affairs which must not be allowed to re-occur. And it shall not.

Earlier in the week Cicero was engaged in robust dialogue with a pupil seeking, and paying for, marketing wisdom. You will not be bored with the details of the discussion, no doubt to your delight.

In essence Cicero was being upbraided for initiating work in advance of budget authorisation notwithstanding the strangling tightness of looming deadlines. A fact which was of little interest to Cicero’s interlocutor who was only concerned that due process was not being followed. Even although in Cicero’s extensive experience when the marketing genius does get delivered, it will be the quality of the output and the outcomes delivered against which Cicero and his people will be judged, not whether or not due process was followed.

This is a classic case of the Marketing Triangle, an approach and axiom used by Project Managers which even Cicero is willing to stoop to apply when circumstances dictate.

And what exactly is the Marketing Triangle in this context, you are no doubt asking at this point?

Now think triangles. On each angle of the triangle will be a word-Time, Quality or Cost. In this context do you think it possible to deliver great work very quickly and at low cost? If you say yes then you are a marketing genius. Conventional wisdom dictates that at best you can have two out of three angles but not all three.

Consider the dilemma outlined above. Some ads had to be developed and produced for a fixed price as budgets were very tight, eye wateringly so. Now we don’t do OK work, we aim for great work. But if we had waited for all t’s to be crossed and i’s dotted it would have been impossible to produce great work in time available to us. Or at least not without throwing people at the problem which affects cost. In other words the time available to the Luvvie team to produce the work would have dictated the quality of the output and no doubt the outcome.

And that, mei amici, is the Marketing Triangle.

And if you think you can square the circle and oblong the triangle, please do tell and share. We are all eager to learn.

It might only be me........but I do believe that the world is at last coming round to my way of thinking........or has it?

Did you read a week or so back about the call to relax airport security checks? A position with which Cicero wholeheartedly agrees. It was pleasing to see that a Head Honcho in the airline industry had pointed out that many of the checks forced on innocent travellers, and the key word here is ‘innocent’, by the Airport Goons are totally redundant. Hear,hear.

Cicero has long pointed this out both in word and deed, to the point of imminent arrest, to the Gestapo-like figures who man airport security and whose work you dare not challenge or question. Indeed Cicero has been known to point out that there has not yet been one known case of an Eskimo trying to down an airliner or a 90 year old wheelchair bound woman or even a baby in a pram. And yet all who wish to fly are assumed guilty of being a terrorist until proven otherwise, an axiom which flies in the face of Common Law in this country.

It is also interesting to note that from the official HMG response it would seem that many of the checks put in place for UK citizens are determined by the US. Sorry. This is baffling. Surely we are a sovereign nation. Or have I missed something? At what point did we agree as a nation to become Uncle Sam’s poodle?
At least at this point the Two Caesar’s Airport Man looked like he was going tom relax the rules and look for ways to improve ‘the flying experience’. So far so good.

And then just as it looks like the world is yet again coming around to my way of thinking, and not before time on this one, what happens-someone ‘finds’ a bomb made from a printer carriage on a couple of planes flying out of some Stone Age land. Funny that.

Methinks that this is no coincidence. Methinks there are too many vested interests intent on making life difficult for flyers. Methinks that the enviro-mentalists might even a hand in this.

And so, mei amici, we are foiled yet again from our common sense prevailing. But never mind our time will come. Maybe our sense needs to become a little bit more common.

Have a great week.

Sis felix. Et sis fortunatus.