Canadian Marketing Blog

Risk taking or benchmarking?

A recent post, in reference to marketing ideas, posed the question, “Where are the risk takers?” This really got me thinking – I mean really thinking – why do clients/marketers fear moving outside of their comfort zone? What does risk really mean in terms of marketing, and why, and this is the honest truth, is DIGITAL still outside of the comfort zone for many clients?

Accountability has a lot to do with the “risk aversion” that many marketers experience. Any brand manager who is coming off a reasonable year of growth is going to ask – why should I depart from what I know works? But here in lies the paradox. The alternate scenario of the brand manager who is coming off a poor year, may likely exist because new learning, trying something new, taking a risk, wasn’t done when the going was good.

Too often we wait until we are forced to react to market conditions such as a poor sales quarter before we attempt to move outside of our comfort zone and embrace new ideas. This more often than not leads to poor results because we are reacting to a situation that has been defined for us, rather than one that was proactively sought.

The solution to the risk challenge has to start with honestly defining the risk. What is it that you are really putting on the line with this new out of the box initiative?

The end game for marketing, the sole reason why we ultimately exist, is to sell. If what you are about to do will definitively impact the number of units you move, or customers you acquire, (in other words if you are a direct marketer with solid data), then yes you are taking a marketing risk. But if the initiative you are about to undertake is one that is a result of proper due diligence and has a clearly defined objective, your probably not taking a risk, it’s more likely that you’re setting benchmarks.

I have a couple small, home-based businesses (one is a recently-launched e-commerce site), but I find your articles extremely valuable and some, like this one today, are affirmations, echoing my feelings on risk-taking and benchmarking. As an artist (possibly the riskiest profession of all) with a business background, I find it is also essential that my team be able to share in the vision of possibilities, the intangibles of the dream, the excitement at having a part in co-creation. This takes extra planning and research on my part but it is a way to teach that if one just stays with what they know or what has worked in the past, they give up an opportunity to create a new social and business network that will ultimately propel them into new ideas and areas of exploration. Thanks for the affirmation!

Azim, i am glad that the "risk-taking" post got you thinking. Yours got me thinking too. A perfect example of a marketer who took a risk, Dove, with its Campaign for Real Beauty. I believe it's the brands that have nothing to lose who take the biggest risks. I saw the woman responsible for the Dove campaign in Canada speak at a one-day CMA Conference. She said the brand needed revitalization. But she said that getting people at all levels within the organization to buy off on using real women in their underwear was an uphill battle. She also said, after it became a career-making campaign, everyone revised history and jumped on the gravy train. Interesting how risk becomes insight in the rear view mirror.