Being a smart and frugal kind of guy, Michael bought a dozen roses for his sweetheart several days before Valentines Day. He was so efficient in his effort, and he couldn’t wait to tell his girlfriend about his savings. When he gave the flowers to his girlfriend a few days before Valentine’s Day, she said: “today isn’t Valentine’s Day.”
“But I saved 15 dollars buying them early,” said Michael.
Michael may have been efficient, but he wasn’t effective. And his girlfriend was miffed.
Marketing Efficiency Versus Effectiveness
With so much emphasis on scaling marketing efforts, we can quickly lose sight of the difference between being efficient and being effective. Will Lyons at Bartle Bogle Ad Agency defined this as the “efficiency bubble.”
In some areas of business such as operations and logistics, these two words, efficiency and effectiveness are quite similar. But as Rory Sutherland, Vice Chairman from Ogilvy argues,
Marketing is one of those complex fields of human activity, like military strategy or sex, where efficiency and effectiveness are poorly correlated.
Sutherland describes an online travel company whose focus was on maximizing online conversion. They all agreed that it was more efficient to book orders online instead of the telephone. But online customers convert (make a purchase) .03% of the time while people who speak on the phone with a human convert at 33%.
What happens when the most efficient way to market travel isn’t the most effective?
Some marketing automation and online activities can be efficient, but its effectiveness flies out of the window. Don’t confuse these two ideas in building a marketing plan. The goal of marketing activities is to be effective and sometimes, an inefficient approach works best.
Is your marketing highly efficient, but not effective?
Need help separating the efficient from the effective in your marketing? You can set up a time to chat with me about your marketing challenges using my calendar. Email me jeffslater@themarketingsage.com Call me. 919 720 0995. The conversation is free, and we can explore if working together makes sense. Try my new chat feature on my site if you have a quick question.
Photo by Samantha Green on Unsplash
Inspired by an article by an article in a UK publication called Campaign by Rory Sutherland from Olgivy
