But marketing can't be just about numbers

Blackfriars is a big fan of measurement as a way of refining marketing activities. But we don't believe in using sales targets or metrics as a substitute for strategy. That's why this article in the Wall Street Journal was so refreshing; it says that numeric targets are mostly used counterproductively in today's businesses. We couldn't agree more. We particularly liked the analogy cited near the end of the column:

Others fear companies are suffering from a diet that verges on anorexia or worse. Cecily Franklin, now a piano teacher in Pittsburgh and formerly a manager at Consolidated Natural Gas and a vice president at Mellon Bank, wrote, "It is only possible, or safe, to lose weight slowly. ... There comes a point when the goal is to STOP losing weight and work on maintaining it."

She noted that "it would be possible, though dangerous, to turn weight loss into a pure numbers game. By amputating an arm, one would clearly see numerical results, but one would also suddenly find it more difficult to do almost everything. And if a new 'stretch' goal arises, then another and another body part may need to be removed in order to replicate -- notice I didn't say sustain -- those results. In the end, one would lose the capacity to function altogether."

I don't know about you, but this analogy certainly rings true for us. We've seen companies cutting way past muscle and bone for years in pursuit of quarterly results instead of planning a strategy to succeed and sticking to it. But what about you? Does this sound like any companies you know?