Spend less to get more — Kelford Labs Daily

There are two ways to think about money in marketing:

One way is, “If I spend enough money and make a big enough splash, I’m guaranteed to succeed.”

The other is, “If I manage my money well enough, I’ll be able to keep trying until I succeed.”

By now I think you know where I land.

The simple fact is that marketing is probabilistic, there are no guarantees.

Even Super Bowl advertisers go out of business all the time, in no small part because they were managed by people who thought spending that much money was guaranteed to work.

There are more Hail Marys attempted during the ad breaks than you’d ever actually see in a game.

As one historian put it, “In the conquest of mind-space it is the inches, consolidated, that count.”

Making an impression and demonstrating credibility isn’t something you can do all at once. And even if it was, you could never be sure that what you’re about to attempt will do it.

That’s why our marketing money should be spent under the assumption that what we try might not work. That’s not pessimism, it’s simple pragmatism. Because it ensures we reserve resources for another attempt.

And it forces us to get creative about how we attempt it.

Money is often the enemy of creativity, so we want to spend enough that it can work but not so much to wipe us out if it doesn’t.

Brands that spend massively on splashy campaigns look impressive in the short-term, but there’s a reason you can’t remember any Super Bowl ads from last year (potentially even from this year).

Circumstances change, and what they were adapted for doesn’t matter anymore.

Better to stick around for the long-term.

Because we managed our money, our energy, and our patience.

Kelford Inc. shows experts the way to always knowing what to say.