Fundamentals – Missing in Action

Jill Hughes

What's the one thing we've heard from marketing clients this year that's more than anything else? 

"We've lost The Fundamentals"  

Last week, my colleagues at The Collective and I reflected on almost a year in business. We shared our highlights and what we've heard from the valued clients who have put faith in us over the last year (thank you).

'The Missing Fundamentals' was a recurring theme.    

Fundamentals sounds like easy stuff, right?—the basics, level 101, the foundations. But this is not how we see it.  

Fundamentals are not just the simple stuff.

They are the invaluable elements that underpin our ability to build great brands and deliver success.

As Vincent Van Gogh said, 'How difficult it is to be simple!' But the simplicity of the Fundamentals is what makes them so powerful. 

Businesses are, rightly, investing in new technologies. In a desire to win in the market, the race to embrace the latest technology has only accelerated, leaving marketers spoilt for choice and running at pace to keep up.  

But without the fundamentals, marketers will always struggle to realise the promised step-change improvements in brand effectiveness and performance. New technology and automation are necessary—but on top of the Fundamentals, not instead of them. 

So what are the Fundamentals that are missing?

Here are the 3 main things that we hear the most from clients: 

"We're missing the fundamentals of Strategy" 

A survey of 3000 marketers by Marketing Week (March 24) showed that marketing strategy is the skill most undervalued by businesses.

As marketers grapple with the latest marketing automation tools, they struggle to focus the business on fundamental choices about 'Where to play' and 'How to Win'. Instead, short-term performance marketing wins over more profound, long-term decisions. 

The North Star of Strategy has never been more important in helping marketers navigate through the noise and guide long-term growth.   

"The Consumer/ Customer is getting lost" 

Businesses who iterate their plans and activities quickly based on clever use of performance data always impress. Yet we've also seen data-driven activation distracting marketers from understanding customer needs more deeply. 

Marketers often miss the fundamental connections between customers and their brands when genuine customer insights get lost in the data. Customer insight remains a hot topic amongst most businesses, yet it is rarely wired into reality. 

Those brands that do it well, such as Dove, Red Bull and Disney, continue to be held up as examples of brilliant long-term brand success, but they remain few and far between.  

"We're missing key skills" 

With fewer layers of management and home working, many marketers complain their teams miss coaching from senior colleagues in key marketing skills. These skills are often absent in technical and knowledge-based training programmes.

Instead, they are learnt through applied learning accompanied by excellent coaching.  Senior leaders describe how their teams are missing critical thinking skills, for instance, that help them ask the right questions, dig deep into the data and make confident judgements based on evidence.

Storytelling is another critical skill that gets lost in the day job – yet we all recognise the importance of creating a strong, consistent storyline that brings a brand or strategy to life, internally and externally.  

At The Collective , we believe a consistent approach to Fundamentals enables people to work well together. Common language and frameworks help people collaborate and work in a connected, streamlined way, creating joined-up thinking, integrated strategies, and greater effectiveness.   

 If you would like to know more about our approach to the Fundamentals and how we Unlock Potential Together using the Power of Co, please do get in touch.

Jill Hughes Mark Beales James Jesty Daniel Blake Martin Adkins Katy Hilditch