Chief marketing officers and other senior marketing leaders now recognize that agility has become a critical attribute of successful marketing. The interests, values, and preferences of today’s buyers change rapidly, and marketers must be ready to respond effectively to a competitive environment that is always evolving.
The growing need for more adaptable and responsive marketing has given birth to a new marketing discipline that’s known appropriately as agile marketing . Agile marketing is derived from the discipline of agile software development. It is based on several principles, but the primary focus is on rapid prototyping, small-scale experimentation, and breaking marketing activities into small tasks that can be completed in a relatively short period of time (a week or a few weeks in most cases). The ultimate objective of agile marketing is to make marketing more responsive to a rapidly changing customer and competitive landscape.
Agile Marketing vs. Long-term Strategy
Some marketers may wonder whether agile marketing is compatible with a longer-term strategic approach to marketing. Given the focus on short-term projects, small-scale experiments, and the use of feedback loops to drive frequent iterations of marketing programs, it would be easy to conclude that agile marketing replaces the need for (or at least diminishes the value of) long-term strategy and planning.
In reality, however, a well-conceived marketing strategy is essential for effective agile marketing because it (the strategy) provides the context for agile marketing activities. For example, your marketing strategy:
- Defines the kinds of organizations you company will seek to serve (your target market)
- Describes the major ways that your products or services will create value for buyers (your core customer value propositions)
- Describes the kinds of people who make or influence the decision to purchase your products or services (your buyer personas)
These core elements of strategy provide reference points that act as a guide for agile marketing activities. Agile marketing provides the flexibility that marketers need to respond quickly and effectively to changing market and competitive conditions. However, without a well-conceived marketing strategy, agile marketing techniques and practices can result in unfocused marketing efforts that fail to produce meaningful marketing results.
In 2001 Michael Porter wrote an article for the Harvard Business Review titled, “Strategy and the Internet.” In this article, Porter was responding to the then popular view that Internet technologies changed the rules of business in fundamental ways that made competitive strategy less important. Porter argued that, if anything, the Internet made strategy more vital, because without an effective strategy, Internet technologies could actually reduce company profitability.
I contend that agile marketing should be viewed in a similar way. If used properly, agile marketing can improve marketing performance, but it must be grounded in a sound marketing strategy.
