Have you heard about the OODA loop?
I heard Steve Schmidt, the political strategist from The Lincoln Group, talking about it on The Prof G podcast today.
The Lincoln Group are Republicans who aligned to defeat Trump and Trumpism. They used this OODA loop concept to create and execute a strategy to get in Trump’s head. Their insight was that instead of marketing their message to voters, they marketed it to get inside Trump’s head and disoriented him. Their target audience is just one person.
I believe it worked and has shifted the dynamics in the political world.
The OODA Loop
The OODA Loop is the cycle observe–orient–act developed by military strategist and the United States Air Force Colonel John Boyd. Boyd applied the concept to the combat operations process, often at the operational level during military campaigns. It is now also often applied to understand commercial operations and learning processes. The approach explains how agility can overcome raw power in dealing with human opponents. It is mostly applicable to cybersecurity and cyberwarfare.
The OODA loop has become an essential concept in litigation, business law enforcement,, and military strategy. According to Boyd, decision-making occurs in a recurring cycle of observe–orient–decide–act. An entity (whether an individual or an organization) can process this cycle quickly, observing and reacting to unfolding events more rapidly than an opponent, can thereby “get inside” the opponent’s decision cycle and gain the advantage.
Wikipedia
OODA and Marketing
The OODA loop is a decision-making cycle and can be applied to digital marketing. Think of a circle – Observe/Orient/Decide/Act
Observation is all about data. What are the facts? To gain an advantage, you must be the first to observe and connect the dots. If you can see a pattern that others miss in your marketplace, your observations allow you to hypothesize. Maybe you believe that people who buy your product are much younger than the brand mythology might lead you to believe. Does the data hint at this opportunity?
Orient is about where you are in the process. If you are selling in a marketplace, perhaps your product isn’t available where younger people hang out. Maybe, you are missing an opportunity because your mindset orientation is toward being available in more conventional channels. Orient means yrou are focused on the situation and where your brand is in that orientation.
Decision making means going through all the options based on what you observe and what your orientation is. It means creating an approach based on what you observed and your current location in the marketplace. s Maybe you have decided to start selling through Instagram ads knowing that younger consumers can see those messages. Until you make a decision to act, you are just talking and thinking outloud.
Finally – ACT. This represents testing the hypothesis. Create the ads, test the theory of the case. Collect the data. Be a verb, not a noun. Take action.
And begin the loop again. This cycle continues until you win or lose. Speed and action are critical to use this concept successfully. Marketers can learn from using this simple loop framework to help you work on pressing marketing challenges.
Need help getting in the loop?
I can help. You can set up a time chat with me about your marketing challenges using my calendar. Our initial conver?sation is free. You talk, I listen. Email me jeffslater@themarketingsage.com or call me. 919 720 0995. Visit my website at www.themarketingsage.com. Let’s explore working together today.
Photo by mari lezhava on Unsplash
