Punching above your weight

You may have heard there was a boxing match this past weekend. It got me thinking about boxing as a metaphor for marketing. And while boxing's governing bodies would never allow such a match (although maybe it would be more interesting than Mayweather-Pacquio), the reality is that marketing almost always features a giant vs a much smaller competitor. And a lot of the time, what happens is exactly what you'd expect -- the smaller competitor gets the snot kicked out of them, by every measure that matters.

But there's a reason the David and Goliath story has resonated for thousands of years. Because every now and then, a marketing giant gets bruised by a welterweight. How does this happen?

If I had the whole answer, I'd be a lot richer. But here are three characteristics that appear to be shared by the giant killers:

Clarity of purpose. The whole team, from the C-suite to sales to marketing, knows exactly what they are there to do, and there are no questions or doubts as to the validity of the goal and the steps to get there.

Narrow focus. They don't try to do too much. The "everything-to-everybody" strategy really isn't a strategy at all. It's an excuse for weak thinking. And a sure way to flush a marketing budget down the toilet. A narrow focus assures that the full weight of the marketing effort is not spread so thin as to make no impact anywhere.

Courage. They are not prisoners to the strategies of the past. They are not beholden to short-term thinking (which is why it can be difficult for those who are accountable to shareholders to be a giant killers). They are not afraid to fail.

Of course, there are other characteristics as well, I'm sure. But what really intrigues me about these three is that they are also characteristics of a great advertising concept. It's clear. It's narrow. It's bold. Ideas like this are like the point of a spear. Or, more to the point, like a pebble in a sling.

David Ogilvy once said that "clients get the advertising they deserve." When the marketing team and the advertising concept are mirrors of each other, well, that's how an underdog can topple a giant.