Comments on: the marketing by committee manifesto

By: eSearing

eSearing — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 03:49:11 +0000

I read someplace…
“a Camel is a horse designed by a committee”.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 01:20:57 +0000

So is marketing better done collaboratively or not? Does it matter on who is doing the collaboration? Is it like everything else and it’s a little of both; one guy can come up with a great idea as often as an ok idea is coached up to a great idea?

By: eljefe

eljefe — Sat, 25 Nov 2006 23:53:08 +0000

“None of us is as dumb as all of us.”

By: Reuben Moore

Reuben Moore — Sat, 25 Nov 2006 21:00:26 +0000

Hugh -
Are you sure this is meant to be amusing???
When I was in business school back in the late eighties, the academics spent a tremendous amount of time teaching “the wisdom of teams”. Of course, the word “team” was, and is, just a trendy term for committee. Groups and teams were glorified and the individual was thought of as a terribly old-school idea.
Question: Could a group/team/committee have developed your marketing ideas?
Back then, I believe that much of this nonsense was inspired by the success of the Japanese in the global market and the belief, by many, that we had to emulate all things Japanese if we were going to remain competitive, or even relevant.
I don’t know if they continue to teach this, but it certainly led to uncountable beige enterprises.
And today, those lofty company marketing teams have to compete with some lone marketing guy in, say, ah, Cumbria? Gosh, I wonder who to bet on?!

By: Chris Houchens

Chris Houchens — Sat, 25 Nov 2006 20:45:21 +0000

Thanks for the post, Hugh.

By: Doug Karr

Doug Karr — Sat, 25 Nov 2006 06:02:28 +0000

A favorite quote of mine is from Bill Cosby: “I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is to try to please everyone.“
I could not agree with your manifesto more!