This article is the first in a 4 part series which may enrage those amongst you who don’t see a need for change.
Our experiences give us unique insights into worlds that from the inside look the same or “as they should be” to all those that inhabit them, except for those that are fortunate to be able to look from the outside in.
My own experiences have caused me to encompass a huge field of experience as I’ve transitioned through different worlds, firstly as a qualified engineer, secondly as a sales person and lastly as a marketer and businessman, not only in the UK but across the globe including regions such as Asia, Europe the United States and the Middle East.
As a result I’ve seen many ways of tackling similar situations and had countless discussions about the differences and frustrations that each region had with the over and more specifically the UK where I was born and have spent most of my time.
It was evident that those discussions which displayed the most passion and frustration happened to come from the same region that had a truly justifiable reason to do so and that was the US.
Marketing beliefs don’t generate results; strategy and insight does
Before I explain why, I’d like to describe my experiences of US companies because many in the UK seem to have a fixed opinion about how business gets done by US companies.
It’s true that I’ve met some pretty aggressive and ignorant people from the US but likewise I’ve met their counterparts in the UK and elsewhere. However, when it comes to business and sales and more specifically marketing my experience has consistently proven to me that the majority are good natured, experienced, confident and knowledgeable individuals that know where their going and what they need to do in order to get there.
Sure, there’s lots of bad press about the big corporate giants in the States, but its no different from the ridiculous antics displayed by our own large institutions like the government, supermarkets, banks, tobacco and utilities companies here in the UK, even if some of them might be on a slightly smaller scale than those founded in the US.
These people know how they’re going to make things happen on the whole and it doesn’t come from a set of “beliefs”, which many would argue perpetuate the religious dominance in the US, no, I’m talking about evidence based action that uses science to test, measure and build marketing systems that are results orientated and predictable in nature, yet are humanistic in outcome. This is in direct contrast to what I call the “berserker” mentality displayed by most UK companies.
All too often I’ve heard US execs describe their difficulty with getting congruent marketing programmes setup and executed here in the UK, which they’ve proven to work just about everywhere else. I’ve seen it first hand myself throughout my travels.