Put it in a pot

I have to admit that it is not so uncommon for Maura and me to find ourselves without food. I’m not talking about famine from the African plain, but for people who are used to either following a well scripted recipe or heating up Digiorno, finding yourself with a block of cheese, a nearly picked bare baked chicken, four thousand different condiments and two cans of cheap domestic beer means that there’s no food. One with MacGyver-like skills might boil what’s left of the chicken with salt to make a broth, and then combine with the beer and cheese to make a very excellent beer cheese soup. If you have some leftover celery sticks or carrots (ours are often from an order of chicken wings), cut up the veggies and add them as well. This end result has made Maura and me a decent meal when we unable or unwilling to trek to the grocery store.

Other popular fun gourmet includes fried rice made with any frozen vegetables we can find and very interesting salads made with grapes, shallots, whatever cheese is hanging around and the combination of a condiment like hot sauce and a dressing such as Caesar.

But the result is not always so appetizing. We once made a bread pudding that came out more like a quiche. I tried to season venison with tea leaves one time. I know, it sounds nasty, but at the time it seemed like a good idea. The venison smelled so awful that we didn’t even try to eat it. I threw it to the dogs and they refused as well. We even have had the occasional beer cheese soup go terribly wrong. Our first attempt was made with a skunky import and Gouda. The result was so stringy that we nearly suffocated trying to eat it.

The thing about a leftover gourmet is that sometimes you get lemonade from lemons. Sometimes you just get lemon juice. Sure, I occasionally amaze Maura and myself, but you are really taking a chance when you commit to making dinner out of whatever you didn’t eat since you went shopping too long ago. It is more our habit to do the opposite and go to the store nearly everyday. I know it horrifies diet experts and financial gurus, but we simply enjoy the ritual of shopping together for the night’s meal. We like good eating and that you cannot always leave to the chance of leftovers.

I like having a recipe at work as well. I hate having to hodgepodge whatever is in the fridge when it seems the guest I’m serving wants me to throw it together in a pot and have it come out like Emeril himself cooked it. The entrée which I am talking about is a marketing plan. I have cooked them up with the recipe and received five stars. I have cooked them up with whatever I had in the fridge and the consumer critic found it an interesting delight. But other times, when the plans are laid sans recipe, my dogs wouldn’t eat it even if you smothered it in gravy.

I am not entirely certain what motivates people to commit large sums of money to a plan that has hardly been planned. A typical excuse is “we already know what our strategy should be,” to which the reply to my further inquiry is “we believe in innovation.” Sure, that’s real strategic, differentiating stuff.

Another justification for failing to plan is similar to Maura’s and my oft-used excuse for not going to the store. With Maura being a social worker and me spending my time doing things like writing this to you, we often complain we just don’t have the time. Marketing planners should find the time. Maura and I are changing our perspective as we have committed to eating smarter and healthier. We no longer just eat whatever is there. If I eat yogurt for breakfast, I need my granola and if I want my granola, I need to go buy it. I just can’t substitute breadcrumbs or allspice for granola. A desired outcome requires a commitment.

Not having the time to plan for marketing is not a marketing problem, it is a corporate problem. If marketing is truly concerned with how the product or service is delivered and compensated in a particular corporation, then it should be at the heart of corporate planning and not some tertiary concern regulated to whatever resources are left over after the donation to the zoo is made. Sure, go ahead and laugh. I know a $30 million company in a marketing-dependent industry that doesn’t even have a marketing department. That’s how important it is to them. How’s it working? Well, they only closed 50% of the number of locations they grew by last year. Some strategy.

So what exactly is the type of planning I am talking about? What kind of recipe from what type of book and where on earth are you going to find the ingredients? Well, I’ll tell you, and if you are in higher elevations, you might want to adjust your oven.

The list of ingredients.

One part fresh and high quality research.

Sure you could use that 20-year-old research and the result might come out alright, but considering how much the wrong research could ruin the rest of the ingredients (which you paid for), you might as well get the fresh stuff.

As for quality, don’t look for foie gras at the dollar store. If you are going to tack major efforts to the suggestions of the research, be willing to spend what it should take to get it right. This is not time to skimp and get a crack team of juniors or interns. I have said it before, cheap stuff ain’t good and good stuff ain’t cheap.

Season to taste

It sure would be something if marketing plans could be developed with consumer research and then be directly implemented without modification. But this is the real world, and you have to cook with what you got. Once a plan has begun to develop, it is best to consult with all facets of the company that will touch said plan. Production, distribution and field sales are critical; however, they should not be the only ones.

Careful, you want to let others taste a nearly finished dish, not consult on how to cook it. Too many chefs in the kitchen spoil the pie along with the ad campaign.

Let it simmer

My favorite part about a campaign is when we know we got it just right and then we let it simmer to think about what might go well with it. Time away from the problem helps enliven new contiguous concepts like promotions, new products and all myriad of in-strategy maneuvers. It is worth it to let it simmer. As for the beer cheese soup, don’t just eat it, serve it with some fresh French bread if you have it.


You never burn a good roux.


I use a roux in my gumbo and etouffée but I also use it in soups, sauces and red beans and rice. For those who have never made it, a roux is simply flour fried in oil. You want to get a nice chocolate brown, but if you overdo it, it will be bitter. You should charge into marketing with no less discipline (perhaps more, considering that gumbo doesn’t cost you $2.5 million). Take your time. Know the characteristics of the equipment you are using. Use high quality ingredients and don’t be afraid to ask advice from someone who has made a gumbo you enjoy.


Successful marketing is a combination of elements you buy and elements you already have. When done haphazardly with carelessness, it is simply not worth the effort. When done correctly the result is always better the sum of the ingredients. When the preparation is thoughtful, you can taste it. I like to think that the proof is in the beer cheese soup.


Snowden Tatarski is a marketing consultancy based in Athens, Georgia that focuses on the development and implementation strategic marketing plans. The company offers marketing research, marketing strategies, advertising development, media strategy and planning, sales consultation, trade communication strategies and the production of advertising, sales collateral, broadcast and interactive systems and materials. Information online at www.sn-ta.com