Fail to Plan, Plan to Fail. Right?

Many times as business owners and marketers we work in a vacuum. We concentrate hard on the task at hand, and are driven to get "the next big thing" out the door. We fail to recognize the great big world out there that we will have to eventually get our product and ads into. In our haste, we become oblivious to what is happening around us and fail to consider the "context" in which we will pitch our idea/product to the public.

 

Timing is Everything

It's not always about what's convenient to you, your artificial deadlines, or the fact that this needs to go out before you go on vacation. You need to consider your audience and what's happening with them when you decide to "ship". 

 

I'm reminded of April 20th, 2011. Lexus bought a sponsored tweet placement on Twitter's "Trends" list. These go for well over $100,000 a day. What Lexus failed to consider when they bought this ad space was that April 20th is Hitler's birthday, the anniversary of the Columbine massacre, and the celebrated pot head day, "4/20" - all of which were trending heavily on the same day.

 

Do yourself a favor and research. Google. Ask your customers. Insert yourself into their world and live life as the customer sees it.

 

If you don't, you may be in for a big surprise. You could be throwing away money trying to compete with people or events that overshadow your efforts. As the title says, "Fail to plan, plan to fail."

 

If you know of (or have personal experience of) other failures like the one Lexus had, share them with us!