If my inbox is to be believed, Geico’s slogan “so easy a caveman can do it” is contagious. Every thing from CRM (customer relationship management) to multichannel marketing is tagged as easy.
Call me foolish, but if something is easy, shouldn’t anyone be able to do it? Falling off a log is easy. Staying on it isn’t easy, but it is simple. (Focus, keep your balance, don’t fall.)
CRM isn’t easy. It is simple – capture data, use that data to promote products and serve customers, make deposits. But, when data is in multiple systems without clearly defined links, capturing it with integrity is anything but simple.
Multichannel marketing is simple, too. All that is required is the ability to identify customers and prospects by preferences, create targeted marketing designed to drive cross channel shopping, provide exceptional service, and stay ahead of the competition. It isn’t easy.
The copywriters who create the taglines and write the promotional pieces should have to use the products they are promoting. If they did, the word EASY wouldn’t be on their list.
In fact, I will take it a step further and in a different direction. Programmers should have to prove that they can easily use their software before they are compensated for it. I have been in hundreds of meetings with solution providers who explain to me that their software is user friendly and intuitive. Then, when they try to show me, they waste our time looking for the correct link to click.
The bottom line is that managing a multichannel business is a complex process best handled with simple solutions. Easy is for falling off logs. Simple gets the job done!
Click here to read my article The Difference Between Simple and Easy.
