THINK ABOUT IT: Marketing Training – Essential or Nice to Have?

I recently conducted a training workshop with a long-standing client. However, this workshop was quite different than previous ones.

What was the difference? Subject matter? Number of participants? Participants’ experience? Timing?

No. None of the above.

Instead, only some of the participants treated it as essential.

Managers came and went from the workshop to deal with their daily activities.

They attended to those urgent, non-critical tasks that all marketers are subject to.

How could this happen? After all, the workshop date was set several weeks prior to its undertaking.

Yet, more than a few left their brand team to duck out for hours at a time to take care of other matters.

You may be thinking that training is nice to have but not essential. The marketing managers had real work to do.

Au contraire.

Mine is not training in the traditional sense.

This workshop is about getting real work done. Work that is essential to creating brand loyalty.

Namely, we tackled the most important “P” in marketing. The development of a Competitive Brand Positioning Strategy (BPS) for their brands.

The BPS is the blueprint for transforming a product into a brand to create brand loyalty. It is the alpha and omega of marketing.

It’s the most important work we do. The remainder is branding to bring the BPS to life and manifest it in the market.

Accordingly, marketing managers were not asked to attend two days of training that may or may not be applicable or immediately transferable to their work.

They were called to undertake and focus on the critical mission of creating a brand positioning strategy with their team.

“Investing in training and development leads to the most significant return on investment a company can have.” J.P. George

My workshops provide the participants with onsite training and coaching to help make their marketing matter more. The workshops are more like directed studies.

They’re not about “what” to think, but “how” to think.

It’s essential training to lift individual, team, and organizational capabilities.

The ancient Greek poet Archilochusis is credited with saying, "We don't rise to the level of our expectations; we fall to the level of our training."

Professionals train to win.

They do more than practice.

They practice with a purpose under the supervision of a coach.

Professional basketball teams and players train—before, during, and even out of season.

All professional athletes do! It doesn't matter their level of experience or skill.

All-time NBA greats Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, and Larry Bird were often the first and last to leave practice. Purposeful practice. Training to win!

Practices with Michael Jordan were more intense than game time.

Military personnel train for their mission.

If you don't train, you sit—that is, you don't play. It's not episodic. It's a way of life. It's crucial to success.

“Training is not an expense, but an investment in human capital.” Roy H. Williams

Yet, marketers either don’t train or train properly in critical elements—such as creating the BPS, developing high-impact messaging, or evidence-based marketing planning, among other essential functions.

There’s another troubling aspect to the situation I encountered. Think about it: if marketers can’t take two days out of their daily schedule to get real, critically important work done with their team, then when will it get done?

It won’t. Some urgent, non-critical activity will push out that which is a critical, non-urgent task.

If it does, it's unlikely to be the quality of work that drives customer preference in creating brand loyalty.

THINK ABOUT IT

• Is marketing training essential or nice to have?
• When was the last time you attended training? How have you applied what you learned?
• What (else) do you do outside your daily labors to sharpen your and your organization’s capabilities?

MAKE YOUR MARKETING MATTER (EVEN) MORE

• Train for the mission. What mission? Creating a Competitive Brand Positioning Strategy. Developing High Impact Messaging. Building an Evidence-Based Marketing Plan—among others.
• Get real work done on your brand. Focus on using the training to create mission outputs.
• Use the training to develop an organizational culture of marketing excellence. It’s not just about you. It’s about contributing to team and organization development.
• Make participation in training non-negotiable. Make it mandatory—not a nice-to-have event.

“The capacity to learn is a gift; the ability to learn is a skill; the willingness to learn is a choice.” Brian Herbert

If you found this article helpful, please follow me on LinkedIn https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/richarddczerniawski/ , where I share my perspectives from 51 years of successful worldwide “brand” marketing experience across many business sectors.

Make your marketing matter even more! Avoid critical marketing errors. Eliminate them. Marketing errors can prevent you from realizing the full potential of your brand. Please read my most recent book, AVOIDING CRITICAL MARKETING ERRORS. Order here: https://www.amazon.com/AVOIDING-CRITICAL-MARKETING-ERRORS-Marketing-ebook/dp/B084YXVWFY/ref=sr_1_1?crid=3GK7L6C5ZFK2J&keywords=Avoiding+Critical+Marketing+Errors&qid=1704215761&s=digital-text&sprefix=avoiding+critical+marketing+errors%2Cdigital-text%2C118&sr=1-1 . I share many learnings to help you avoid critical marketing errors and suggest specific actions to help you make your marketing matter (even) more.

Peace and best wishes in making your marketing and advertising matter more,

Richard D. Czerniawski