We've always done it this way

This is an extract from the book I've just published with a foreword by Philip Kotler: A new path to digital marketing. https://www.anewpathto.digital/

You may be familiar with the following tale:

A donkey went every day from its shelter towards the woods, always following the same route. In the woods it ate the herbs it found growing there, and then took the same route back to its stable. It happily repeated the same routine every single day.

One stormy night, a lightning bolt struck a large tree that fell across the road. The following day, the animal awoke as normal and made its way into the woods. Seeing the road blocked, it thought: “I have a strong neck. Let's see if I can move the tree and carry on as normal."

The donkey took a short run and barged the tree with all its might. And the tree actually moved. Just a few millimeters, but it moved. So, the donkey took a longer run and collided with the obstacle once more. Again, the trunk rolled a few more millimeters.

Now convinced it could clear the road by force, the animal continued to run into the tree.

How do you think this story ends? Does the donkey manage to move the trunk? Or does it wind up breaking its neck?

The donkey insisted on using brute force because the tree truly moved a little. If the trunk did not move, the animal would have looked for an alternative way. As a rule, we also tend to continue as we always have because it has always worked… at least a little bit.

The concept of we’ve always done it this way is an excuse that many entrepreneurs and managers use to avoid seeking a better way and leaving their comfort zone.

Today this better way is digital. And the pandemic has forced us to start moving down it whether we like it or not. The tree has fallen. We can no longer carry on as we always have. We simply need a change of perspective. The alternative ways of reaching the forest existed long before this happened. It’s just that many people didn’t know about them or preferred to avoid them in favor of the well-trodden path.

Too many people continue to treat websites as a cost, social media as a useless tool, and digital as a bitter pill to swallow. They insist on following the paths they have always followed, that they know and trust.

Yet persisting with the same approach to digital will no longer take them where they want to go. Something will inevitably have to break. Maybe not their necks. But very possibly their strategies, their targets, or even their companies.

Or, when they do embark on the digital path, it’s because they feel they have nothing more to lose. But without setting themselves a goal and without defining a precise strategy, they will eventually find the way forwards blocked once more.

You don't need a revolution to digitize your company. Step out of the comfort zone in small steps.

Too many marketeers and entrepreneurs also insist on communicating through channels that don't generate leads or conversions. The latest example is social media, usually because it is in fashion rather than because it necessarily delivers results. In the same way, people continue to attend trade fairs without a specific plan or continue to publish in trade magazines because ‘that’s what everyone else does’ - even though they know there will be no direct (or even indirect) return.Shaping a project is exactly like building a house. Would you ever start by laying bricks? First you need a plan, a goal. Then a blueprint. Then you move on and identify the materials and skills you need to finish the job, the steps you need to take, and the timelines you need to complete them. Only then would start to build.

The tool and process presented in this book will help you break away from the vicious circle in which too many businesses start laying bricks without knowing what they are building.

The Visual Communication Planner allows you to identify what is not working, understand what not to do, highlight what has worked well so far, and create a clear and relevant marketing strategy that delivers concrete results.

“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used to create them.” Albert Einstein

This is an extract from the book I've just published with a foreword by Philip Kotler: A new path to digital marketing. https://www.anewpathto.digital/

? 2021 Kotler Impact – First edition, English language

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The Visual Communication Planner by Gabriele Carboni - Weevo S.r.l. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.