Does Marketing Mean Never Having to Say You're Sorry?

Copyright 2010 Dennis S. Vogel All rights reserved.
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I posted a comment in Ad Age (adage.com) about the article below. I'm including a small part of the article.

Does Marketing Mean Never Having to Say You're Sorry? Why Admitting Failure Might Be the Path to Success by Jonathan Salem Baskin
http://adage.com/cmostrategy/article?article_id=143134

We usually don't stop driving until someone peels our fingers off the steering wheel. I'm not so sure this is good for your brand or your career.

There's the fear that finding fault in programs you've approved or sponsored will somehow come back to haunt you, either in reduced budget or the suggestion that you find greener pastures.

Nobody likes screwing up, and I don't care if you're a corporate big cheese or trying to build a ship model out of balsa wood in your basement. We Americans are a hopeful bunch, too, and we hate risking appearing negative.

There's something just a little odd about never being wrong, and even the most junior staffer knows it, if only instinctively. Are we training a generation of marketers who think anything goes and everything has value? Maybe they'd appreciate it if we helped them make some critical distinctions that supported their careers and helped our brands.

According to the conferences and articles I've read so far this year, every CMO is doing a bang-up job and every campaign is firing on one or more cylinders.

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Note: The people I addressed by name below - Dorothy & Damien - contributed comments about what Jonathan Salem Baskin wrote.

Admitting a mistake is a chance to push a reset button. It means preserving dignity instead of losing all credibility.

Warning: This analogy may be interpreted as gross- When there are 2 people in an elevator & 1 passes gas, everybody knows who did it The other person pinches his/her nose, while the guilty gas passer suffers (justifiably so) with the results.
When mistakes are obvious enough for others to notice but are still denied by those who made the mistakes, is anybody really fooled?

Why should anybody be so stubborn, s/he won't pinch his/her nose? Is there really any dignity in smelling it? 8< (

When the doors open, people (who are waiting for the elevator) will know 1) what happened & 2) who did it. (Tip: To preserve dignity, pinch your nose too & leave the others wondering.)

Even The Emperor, who got the innovative (nonexistent) new clothes, eventually put on real clothes. Refusing to admit the foolishness wouldn't have covered anything.
I know there are a lot of "bang-up job(s)". Look at all of the dented careers & sales reports.

I know I'm stepping on some toes:
Clients who want more sales judge failure differently than ad agency people. For clients, failure is a lack of sales increases. For ad agencies, failure is a lack of creativity awards, regardless of sales results.

I confirmed the quotes below with brainyquote.com. (Some quotes may be worded differently, but the meaning is similar.)

"Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently." - Henry Ford.

It seems in the advertising agency world, a failure to increase sales is the opportunity to win creativity awards. (OO! What he said/wrote!)
The dents just become deeper & more plentiful.

This is the opposite of the wisdom DAMIEN added about learning from mistakes. Too many times when I suggest a different approach, people say, "I/We tried that, it didn't work." When I ask which parts of it didn't work, the answer is usually "everything" or just silence.

Scrapping "everything" & not examining results is a mistake.

("The unexamined life is not worth living." - Socrates)

Mistakes are costly, so we might as well learn from them. "The unexamined mistake is not enlightening." - Dennis S. Vogel

We want a certain reputation & identity, so we should consider more wisdom from Socrates: "The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear."

Dorothy, there's a difference between asking to get praise & asking to learn things. You met somebody who advocates asking to get praise, not asking to learn.

"I was really too honest a man to be a politician & live." - Socrates
I make the same "mistake", so I don't try to be a politician or diplomat.

"I never did give anybody hell. I just told the truth & they thought it was hell." - "Give 'Em Hell Harry" S. Truman

Thank you for using my blog. Please let me know if I should clarify anything.

Copyright 2010 Dennis S. Vogel All rights reserved.
When you compete against big businesses with big budgets you need powerful marketing strategies & tactics. You'll find them here-
https://thriving-small-businesses.blogspot.com/
http://www.voy.com/31049/

Subject: BofA Tries to Remind People of Rosier Era.

I posted another comment/response for another Ad Age article. By the time you read this, it may not be available to nonsubscribers. The article title is BofA Tries to Remind People of Rosier Era. The URL is http://adage.com/madisonandvine/article?article_id=143358

I've included a few quotations from the article to supply some context.

"Like all financial institutions, Bank of America is still licking its wounds from the Great Recession. But a new entertainment-marketing partnership with the History Channel finds the bank turning to a rosy depiction of its past in hopes that consumers can overlook its more recent history."

"...in hopes that consumers can overlook its more recent history." When I look at the BofA picture of men struggling to push a covered wagon, it reminds me of how taxpayers - whether we wanted to or not pushed too many banks out of their self-inflicted mud holes.

In any communication, it's vital to think ahead about how words & images may be interpreted.

My mind naturally extrapolates further - The current rosy era (for banks at least) reminds me of a driver of a 4 wheel drive truck getting help from some kind folks. They push while the driver spins the truck tires & splashes the helpers with mud. The effort is successful & the driver keeps driving away - slinging a bit more mud in the helpers' faces - without acknowledging the help or showing gratitude.

"As the presenting sponsor of History Channel's "America: The Story of Us," a 12-part miniseries premiering April 25, Bank of America is creating 12 mini-documentaries to air during commercial breaks spotlighting the role the Charlotte, N.C.-based bank has played in historical events of the last 400 years."

"When you look at the archives, so many things would not have happened without their funding," Chris Moseley, History's exec VP-marketing said, pointing to the vignette series' segments on the bank's expansion of Ellis Island in 1814, the rebuilding of Chicago after the great fire of 1871 and its financing of early Hollywood epics from Louis B. Mayer and Cecil B. DeMille as examples. "We're so excited to be able to tell their story in a fresh way that's based on facts and very credible. We want to be as accurate as possible to protect the History brand."

Would that level of accuracy also include the interest rates/finance charges? Were the expansion of Ellis Island & the rebuilding of Chicago charitable donations or loans?

Will the explicit or at least implicit message be- BofA had a major part in 400 years of history? BofA's role was so important, the US & its citizens owe BofA a big debt. Being the beneficent bank it is, BofA will forgive the remaining debt & call it even. Or am I being too cynical?

If this effort isn't handled well, it could seem like a kid trying to hide the mess from a party just as the parents get home.

There's been a lot in adage.com about sincere & insincere apologies.
"They're taking the Tiger Woods approach" Not quite because Tiger deeply hurt a smaller number of people.

It seems like an ex-wife saying, "Forget why you divorced me. Let's just remember the fun we had." Implicit message - It wasn't so bad, so get over it!

It's easy for BofA executives to downplay problems & think of the positive. I acknowledge it WAS a great marriage - for her but not for me.

There's a big difference between being sorry for being caught & being sorrowful for causing pain.

I don't expect anybody to apologize forever, but I expect a real apology.

Randy Pausch (Carnegie Mellon Professor) shared a lot of wisdom in his "Last Lecture" while he battled pancreatic cancer. He said a full apology includes 1) I'm sorry. 2) It was my fault. 3) What can I do to make it right?

Asking isn't enough. To make it right, do your best to fulfill the answer to the question in part 3.

A full apology helps people put inflicted pain behind them. Is this miniseries how BofA is trying to make it right with us?

More than a decade ago, people criticized Hollywood for its TV shows which showed a problem & quick, easy "solution" in less than 30 minutes (shorter because of commercial breaks). Real life doesn't work that way.

Consciously, people may forget quickly. Subconsciously, there's a wall in each person's mind. Inflicting pain is like throwing mud on somebody's newly painted wall. The mud will eventually fall off, but there will be marks for a long time.

People who retired or were about to retire may have lost too much money to be retired. Instead of being retired, they'll be among the unemployed. If they haven't retired yet, instead of gladly retiring & vacating a job, they need to keep their jobs. As a result, there'll be fewer job openings.

Thank you for using my blog. Please let me know if I should clarify anything.

Copyright 2010 Dennis S. Vogel All rights reserved.
When you compete against big businesses with big budgets you need powerful marketing strategies & tactics. You'll find them here-
https://thriving-small-businesses.blogspot.com/
http://www.voy.com/31049/