It's not in advertising (as Tim
Williams says) or digital advertising alone, but with globalization
organizations of all types need to re-look at their business models to deal with the Data+ Execution vs. Knowledge+ Strategy dilemma. Todays'
organizations need to be great at the data+execution piece and call in that
expert knowledge when required. Ideally, they should have a handle on
data+execution as they deploy knowledge as we illustrate from the US healthcare
later in this post.
As mentioned in the previous post about Google AdWords, there are a plethora
of what Williams calls "factories" who will dutifully churn out PPC
ads and generate traffic to the client’s website. However, you find that the
traffic does not result in sales or conversions or at least you cannot tell for
sure. This because software like Google Analytics is not properly set up. Also
the "factory" is not able to say whether the traffic generated or
even the sales generated is the type of target market the client really wants
to attract.
To illustrate the knowledge vs. data+ execution dilemma, consider US
healthcare.In the US
there is a great shortage of primary care physicians apparently because primary
care attracts less pay for doctors. However, most of the preventive action can
happen at the primary care point and reduce healthcare costs drastically. Think
about the last time you met a nurse practitioner or physician's assistant for a
routine ailment…. and you begin to realize how effective they tend to be. If
it might be serious, they'll get you to the MD /specialist otherwise you tend to
get excellent care and advise. The point is, the doctor's assistant does a
great job of data+execution and knows when to refer "up". They know what they do not know, in part
because of the highly structured US medical profession. And the MD personally repeats
measurements herself/himself although the data is available in the charts.
The trouble with advertising agencies and marketing research agencies
at the factory outsourced end is that they tend not to really
understand the client organization and its marketing goals. Not entirely their fault,
because they are treated like the factory, just follow client instructions
without asking too many questions. As a result from the client's point of view
things do tend to be done much cheaper. Whether the client’s marketing is getting
the bang for the marketing buck, is another question. Contact StratoServe.