Fake Marketing Dilemmas: The Folly of Making Complex Marketing Issues Simple

By Darren Woolley

Fake Marketing Dilemmas: The Folly of Making Complex Marketing Issues Simple.

Questions answered in the book:
– The 4Ps or no P?
– Brand purpose or corporate purpose?
– Purpose or profit?
– Top-down or bottom-up budgeting?
– Global or local?
– Top or bottom of the funnel?
– In-house or the outhouse?
– Agile or not?
– Best of breed or one throat to choke?
– Bigger or better?
– Is an agency a cost or value?
– Pay more or less for your agency fees?
– Open tender or closed tender?
– Math or Mad Men?
– Personalising or mass marketing?
– Creative or technology?
– WFH or back to the office?
– Net zero emissions or not?
– Pitch your business before Christmas?

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Sep 18, 2023
• ISBN: 9781923078055

Book preview

Introduction

Iwas approached by Damian Francis at Mumbrella, the Australian marketing and media publication, to contribute a regular column back in early 2021. The pandemic had been with us a year, and being grounded from my usual regular business jaunts, I took up the opportunity with relish – right up to the point he asked me what the theme of the column would be.

One of my bugbears is the fact that in the face of complexity, it is human nature to look for the simple. This has led to the proliferation of fake dilemmas (also known as false dichotomies). This is prevalent in marketing, where complex problems are often reduced to a simple choice of A or B. So, in response to Damian’s question, this idea sprang immediately to mind. Before long, we had a decent list of topics that made me confident it had the potential to become a reasonable series addressing the topics facing marketing today.

When Damian suggested ‘Woolley Marketing’ as the name of the column, it seemed natural. During my career as a copywriter in ad land, I had a freelance business as a side hustle (before side hustles were even a thing) called Woolley Words, so this was an obvious extension of growing up with an adjective as a family name.

Talking about the column with Dennis Flad, my colleague and business partner in Zurich, Switzerland, he thought of an idea for a cartoon to accompany the first article. I knew Dennis liked to draw in his spare time, but I had no idea of his talent and style until the drafts of the idea came through on WhatsApp.

And so the column launched in February 2021 with words by Woolley and illustrations by Flad. It is still running today in Mumbrella, and we have drawn together this selection from the first two years. It is not in strict chronological order, or necessarily complete. But it does represent a flow of thinking across 20 of the articles we have completed together.

There are many people we need to thank here. Damian Francis at Mumbrella for the opportunity and the editorial and production team that publishes the articles. Paul Smitz, editor extraordinaire; Sheng Wang for design; and Mike at 17Print for the production.

Beyond the 20 topics here, we hope this gives you pause to think about the dangers of the inherent biases of the human mind. Because while life can be simple, it is never easy.

Thank you.

Darren Woolley

p.s. We continue to work on this series of marketing dilemmas. If you have a favourite we have not covered, email us at [e-mail]

1

The fake dilemmas that plague marketing

¹

Marketing is a challenge. Decisions get made daily. Hundreds, thousands of decisions every week, in every month, every year. And the options feel like they are ever-expanding. Media channels multiply with every new platform – TikTok last week, Clubhouse the next – while marketing budgets and resources feel like they are shrinking against all things that should or could be done. The complexity of it all! If only life could be easier.

It is no wonder the false dilemma, one of the 15 common logical fallacies, is so appealing. Imagine if these complex marketing issues could be reduced into a simple choice of A or B. When you reason from an either/or position and haven’t considered all relevant possibilities, you commit the fallacy of the false or fake dilemma.

To prove the dilemma is fake is easy. All you need to do is show that the two options are not mutually exclusive or that at least one additional, logically valid option is available. One of my favourite fake dilemmas is the choice between immediate tactical results and longer-term brand-building, as if the two are mutually exclusive. On one side, we have the Gary Vees of the world deriding the practice of brand marketing and telling his disciples that the only way forward is getting immediate results today. On the other side of this dilemma are the Mark Ritsons of the world, the brand traditionalists who at least acknowledge the need for tactics, but not too much. And we have Les Binet who, having analysed the entire library of Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) Effectiveness Awards, declares the mix is 60% brand and 40% tactical for product marketing.

Of course, it is not just product marketing that is overwhelmingly complex in our modern world. But marketing is particularly susceptible to this fallacy.

First, there are many salespeople in marketing selling increasingly complex technology solutions. Selling anything new and complex is going to be a challenge, particularly as proof of efficacy is hard to provide immediately. But being able to reframe the sales proposition into a simple dilemma, a choice between A and B, where one is death, makes the whole process much simpler and, sometimes, more effective.

Why do you think headlines