A Blog Post by Tony Quin
First Published on www.imediaconnection.com
I was reminded today that all business has a secret desire to turn everything into a machine. Machines are good because they are predictable. You put steel in one end and out pops a car at the other end.
Money loves machine-like businesses, because it knows how much it’s going to make. Take $1.00 and turn it into $1.50, and investors will happily do it 24/7. Let’s turn every process into a machine they say. The only problem is when people get involved.
We try to pretend people are predictable and that the behavior of one predicts the behavior of another, but we are, of course, not machines and whenever people are in the mix the unexpected invariably happens. So marketing, which is totally about people, should be careful with the illusion of scientific infallibility that it likes to conjure up. It’s a story designed to appeal to business people and with the age of digital accountability upon us, we are weaving quite a tale. We are in advertising after all.
It seems that a new technology appears everyday that can amaze us with some new dimension or capability teased out the data we create with our every click. Of course this tells us a great deal about patterns of behavior that have already occurred, but less about what they might be tomorrow, especially in the context of immensely complex and rapidly changing market conditions. The truth is that the things that light a brand on fire, that separate one product from another, that build a brand’s value over time, are those unpredictable human things; new ideas, new designs and new customers experiences. Yes, you have to get the science right, have really good supply chain logistics, be on the shelves when you’re wanted, be priced right and measure, measure, measure. But what sets one product or service apart is the wonder, and frankly happiness it creates, and last time I looked it was tough to make a wonder and happiness machine.
Tony Quin is Founder and CEO of IQ & Chairman of SoDA (society of digital agencies) www.iqagency.com
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