Creating and Communicating Value
Applying principles you’ve learned up to this point in the course, list and explain four (4) ways that even a well-executed marketing program might fail.
List and explain four ways that even a well-executed marketing program might fail
In my research, I have established the numerous reasons why most well-executed marketing programs could fail. However, the paper will provide the main four reasons for such failure. The first reason is that such marketing strategies have not identified their audience. Before creating an effective marketing program, the firm should identify its marking audience. Further, this implies that the market research must be the initial phase in the planning procedure. The organizations that often skip this significant step risk creating content that is not aligned with their potential clients’ interests and could be focusing on the wrong audiences. Further, this implies that even though another component of the plan is perceived as perfect, the probability of the strategy being ineffective is exceptionally high. Therefore, to guarantee that this does not occur, the firm should invest its time in creating marketing personas for various market segments of its target audience. This should consider the targeted clients’ demographics, requirements, preferences, and values.
Another important reason that could make well-executed marketing programs fail is if such programs lack concrete objectives. Most marketers fail because they are unaware of what they are working towards. This can be prevented by formulating concrete objectives and goals. When every member of the marketers’ team is aware of precisely what they need to accomplish, they are highly likely to achieve it (Seroka, n.d.). Therefore, having explicit, big-picture goals in mind can also aid the team in comprehending the significance of smaller tasks in the operations. The key to formulating prompt objectives is ensuring such purposes remain clear and attainable. Thus, the marketing programs should be SMART, that is, specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely. These attributes of setting objectives are equally essential in creating objectives and ensuring that all these goals fit those tenants.
The next reason for the failure can be a lack of client understanding. Various marketing campaigns often target a prospect within a specific sales funnel stage. In most cases, this happens at the top of the funnel or within the awareness phase. Nevertheless, most marketers do not define their funnel, implying that they lack the comprehension of the client journey. Thus, the marketing team must promptly identify the client journey and how they move down the sales funnel to properly comprehend their intent, which aids the marketers in creating a more innovative and successful campaign (Ferrell, Hartline & Hochstein, 2021).
Moreover, by having knowledge regarding the consumer in the awareness phase, the marketers could make more targeted campaigns, which direct them through the client journey. Essentially, the marketers should spend more time profoundly comprehending the requirements, challenges, and intentions that would motivate clients. Finally, the marketing program can fail due to no testing and learning. Marketers are always expected to test, optimize, adapt, and learn continuously. Without promptly executing this, the marketers will lack the knowledge required for improving the current campaigns, implying that the campaign has an increased probability of failing. Also, the marketers with the procedure for learning, iteration, adaptation, and optimization could adjust the weak points in real-time to increase their success rate (Akbar et al., 2021). Moreover, the marketers should implement a testing process and the period to ensure that they are aware of the successful campaign approaches and the ones that are perceived as ineffective before they are launched. Overall, the markers that continuously test and learn strategies would likely run successful marketing programs since such people constantly remain on top of what techniques are operative and the ones that are falling out of trend.
References
Akbar, M. B., Foote, L., Soraghan, C., Millard, R., & Spotswood, F. (2021). What Causes Social Marketing Programs to Fail? A Qualitative Study. Social Marketing Quarterly, 27(2), 99-116.
Ferrell, O. C., Hartline, M., & Hochstein, B. W. (2021). Marketing strategy. Cengage Learning.
Seroka, J. (n.d.). 8 Reasons Why Many Marketing Strategies Fail. Seroka brand development. Retrieved from: https://seroka.com/8-reasons-why-many-marketing-strategies-fail/
