A gorilla, a cow, a camel and an elephant walk into a bar…
“Rough day!” says the elephant as they find a table in the corner. “Spent the whole day in a marketing meeting. I was in the room the whole time and no one even acknowledged me. What am I, invisible?”
“Yeah,” says the gorilla, who happened to weigh 800 pounds. “Try being me for a while. I have to act like a big shot, category-leader all the time. Just once, I wish I could be spontaneous and take some risks, but noooo…it’s all about predictability and domination.”
“No kidding man,” says the camel, as he stares down into a large glass of water. “I was really supposed to be a horse, but then I got designed by a committee! The marketing people, the sales team…even the CEO’s wife—they all got what they wanted, but just look at me! I’m a lumpy, humpy, confused mash-up of a creature. I think I’m having an identity crisis!”
They all cast a jealous glance at the cow, who just happened to be sacred. “Everyone leaves you alone Cow, said the camel. You’re untouchable.”
But the cow had heard enough. (Or is it herd enough?) “Sure, you guys envy me now. But just wait. If you end up like me, you’re destined to remain the same forever…unchanged, unquestioned, un-evolved. Why won’t anyone ever challenge me? I’m surrounded by yes-men. I have this sneaking suspicion that I’m becoming irrelevant, but no one wants to question the sacred cow. Trust me, this is no graze in the meadow.”
“I can relate,” says the gorilla. “Just once I’d love to collaborate with some competitors to build up our industry, but they all seem intent on attacking me every time they get a chance. ‘He’s big and bloated and arrogant, they say.’”
“Well, no offense dude, but you have put on a few pounds since you became the dominant brand,” says the elephant. “As you know, I never forget anything, and I can remember when you were a lean, mean challenger brand. You were pretty “ripped” but you’ve kinda let yourself go, man.”
“You’re right,” says the gorilla as he motions to the bartender for another banana daiquiri.
“So, any of you guys launched a Twitter page yet?” asks the Camel.
“Well, I started tweeting,” the gorilla replies, “but then the lawyers wouldn’t let me say anything interesting. The PR department screened everything I said, too. Something about needing to defend our carefully managed reputation.”
Quietly, the camel nudges the elephant, and tilts his head toward the other end of the bar. There sits a hedgehog, regaling a large group of adoring patrons who seemed to hang on his every word.
“Now that’s who I’d like to be,” whispers the camel under his breath. “That hedgehog’s life is so…so….simple. He knows who he is. He’s so focused and centered. Not like me, Mister Designed-by-a-Committee. If I don’t even know who I am, how can anyone else?”
“Yeah, ever since Jim Collins’ book Good to Great came out,” says the elephant, “that hedgehog’s been livin’ like a rock star.”
“No kidding. There’s just something about a guy who stays focused on one thing but is nimble enough to adapt to new market realities,” says the gorilla.
“Well, I gotta go,” says the cow as he tips back the last swig of his milk and tonic. “You guys wanna come over and watch the Super Bowl at my place?”
“Sounds good,” says the camel, “I really like the commercials.”
Like Aesop’s fables, this little story of talking animals has a lesson—several of them actually.
The Gorilla
Most companies are not the proverbial 800-pound gorilla, and thus find themselves in the role of a challenger brand. But as your organization begins to take on growing market share, it is vital to maintain an energetic balance between market leadership and market innovation. The big issue for gorillas of all weights is to become more nimble, responsive and willing to take a few well-calculated risks with marketing. Play it too safe with your marketing, and sure, you’ll seem stable and steady, but someone more interesting will steal the spotlight.
The Cow
Sacred cows have a way of keeping companies from evolving to the next level of success. It’s a good exercise to periodically ask your employees “What are the sacred cows here?” “What are the unquestioned assumptions that keep us from being more relevant to our customers?” It’s often hard for senior management to ask these kinds of questions; but visionary CEOs will question assumptions and ask the tough questions about what’s holding their organization back from being the category leader. This applies to all areas of operating a business, and especially to marketing. Refusing to change an old, tired brand is the path to old, tired irrelevance.
The Camel
Someone once said that a Camel is a horse designed by a committee. Well, the same is true of marketing. Whether its writing a tagline, designing a logo or developing an ad campaign, if it makes everyone in your organization happy because they all got what they wanted, it’s probably either confusing, complicated or boring. Marketing-by-committee is almost always a recipe for disaster.
It’s good to remember that your audience of prospects and customers will hear or see 2,500 marketing messages every day. The only way to cut through the fog is to have a crisp, clear and occasionally counterintuitive marketing message. Design-by-committee almost always fails here; but bold, salient, innovative marketing always moves to the top of your audience’s awareness.
The Elephant
Is there an elephant in the room at your company? That unspoken but pervasive issue that keeps your organization from breaking free of its confines? As a close cousin of the Sacred Cow, the Elephant in the Room does more than just hinder innovation. It creates doubts about the leadership’s willingness to admit to mistakes, to objectively evaluate traditions that aren’t working and to humbly seek new solutions.
Elephants are big, and that means that an elephant in the room could be squashing marketing innovation. Perhaps it’s the irrational refusal to embrace new communication technology. Perhaps it’s the inability to admit that one’s brand is lethargic and out of date. Maybe it’s a naive belief that the same things that got us here will keep us here.
Beyond the Marketing Menagerie
It has been my frequent privilege to work with business innovators over many years. The one thing that distinguishes them from their competitors—besides simply outworking them—is their willingness to question assumptions and to embrace smart, new ideas while focusing on a courageously differentiated brand. They understand that the days of putting marketing on autopilot are over. Intentionality with a willingness to evolve is the only path to continuous relevance.
Being the 800-pound gorilla, the design-by-committee camel, the sacred cow and the elephant in the room is hard enough. How much worse to become a dinosaur? While innovation possesses a certain amount of risk, we live in an era where failing to change and try new ideas is far riskier than playing it safe.
Given the unprecedented changes in communications technology, economic forces and 24/7/365 response-times, standing still and doing nothing is the greatest risk of all.