Caution: A Poorly Made Marketing Decision is Afoot

Steve Cuno is the founder of the RESPONSE Agency, a direct response advertising firm in Salt Lake City. His articles have been published internationally, he is the author of the book Prove It Before You Promote It: How to Take the Guesswork Out of Marketing, and the as-told-to author of the new book It’s Not About the Sex My A**: Confessions of an Ex-Mormon Ex-Polygamist Ex-Wife. In his spare time, Steve enjoys spending quality time with his grand piano and forcing people to look at photos of his grandchildren. Contact Steve at [email protected].

The sure sign comes when the boss, fingers on chin, draws a portentous breath and says, “I’m going with my gut on this one.” Then, lest anyone doubt the higher authority of the lower extremity, the boss adds, “And my gut” — pause for dramatic effect — “is never wrong.”

Or, equally bad, somebody convenes a focus group and believes what comes out of it. Now instead of one gut leading you astray, you have a chorus of ten.

From 30-plus years of creating and tracking marketing campaigns, Steve Cuno can tell you with assurance that no one’s intuition is never wrong. Sure, stories abound of marketers who followed intuition to fortune and glory. But for every Steve Jobs whose intuition damned the torpedos and built Apple Corporation — twice — there are oodles more marketers who championed and brought to market the likes of Bic brand disposable underwear, Colgate brand frozen dinners, and Cosmopolitan magazine brand yogurt. Ever heard of them? That’s odd. After all, someone’s intuition and a whole bunch of focus groups predicted those products would be overwhelmingly successful.

Join Steve on the Business Fuel Podcast tomorrow and learn why testing rules and focus groups often fail.