All I know is that I know nothing (Socrates)

The reality is that in marketing, there are no rules.

All I know is that I know nothing (Socrates).

There’s a tendency in marketing to look for ‘rules’ to follow.

How much budget should we commit to marketing?

How should we split activity between long term brand building and short-term brand activation?

How often should I post on social media?

The reality is that in marketing, there are no rules. There can’t be rules when we’re not dealing with an exact science.

Every brand is different. Every brand occupies a different market position. Every brand is delivering to different business objectives.

Every brand has its own attributes and associations, different strengths and weaknesses.

Different emotional and rational connections. Different competitors.

Every brand is unique.

So any rules that work for one brand are unlikely to work (at least in the same way) for another.

And that’s why you need experience on your side. The expertise to be able to analyse a situation and take an educated stab at a plan, execute it and learn from the results.

According to Malcom Gladwell, it takes 10,000 hours of ‘doing’ to become an expert. So by my rudimentary maths, by that definition I’m an expert at least 5 times over.

And the only rule I know, is that in marketing there are no rules.