The legend of Doc Rounds

Doc Rounds made me believe in chiropractic. He was our football team doctor and the father of my close friend, Scott. Doc handled nearly every bump, bruise and bash by spraying it with a liquid that nearly froze whatever you complained about after which he would tell you to walk or shake it off. It always seemed to work though I never really appreciated Doc until one summer when I took a particularly nasty bash to the hip. Something must have disjointed and the pain shot down the leg and up the back which seemed odd. Every time I stepped on that leg I could feel the pain rise up my back and nearly over the top of my head. I finally complained to Doc.

My Dad really liked Doc and had no problem letting him treat me there on the wooden bench of practice field four at Shorty Howell Park. I lay on my back and Doc measured my leg then grumbled through a half chewed cigar that one leg was significantly shorter than the other. He lifted my knee and pushed it over while holding my shoulder down and crrrrrack. I was cured. Several years of wrestling, rock climbing and that one time I fell off a building while working as a photojournalist and that hip has yet to bother me since Doc fixed it.

Years later I was consulted by a chiropractic group concerning their marketing and I told that same story. One of the doctors gave me a book and I learned the history and philosophy behind chiropractic. Now I have to admit, besides my field-side treatment I have not gone back to a chiropractor but that does not dissuade me from giving credence to one of their core ideas: Alignment.

From what I understand, the philosophy behind chiropractic is that nerve signals are interrupted by misalignment and the result is a multitude of symptoms that seem unrelated. While the injury may lie at the hip you may feel it in your shoulder. Who knew?

Brands often behave the same way. They seem to ache in one place but the injury lies elsewhere. Their disjointed alignment has sidelined growth and no amount of spraying the “cold stuff” is going to make the ache go away. Brands have symptoms. Sometimes it’s due to old age. Sometimes it’s just growing pains. Sometimes once strong muscles are fatigued. Sometimes things are just out of alignment and need an adjustment. I believe these brands experience discomfort due to misalignment somewhere between the prospective customer and the brand where things have just gotten out of joint.

Here are a few symptoms that brands commonly display:

1) Gets tired easily

Sales rise but the cost of the sale is climbing even faster.
The brand that seems to continue to grow in sales but the costs associated with driving sales continues to go up each year so that the dollars that are currently in spent-to-drive sales (advertising dollars, trade promotion dollars or consumer promotion dollars) are getting increasingly inefficient. The result is profits growing at a partial percentage of what they actually should be. One of the reasons such a situation occurs is that brands have become commoditized in the mind of the trade and in the mind of the consumer. Marketers must consistently underwrite them from a financial point of view and give the consumer financial incentives or give the trade of a financial reason why they continue to support the brand.

2) Tapeworm

An inability to gain weight no matter what you eat.
A brand that is not increasing its sales no matter how many dollars invested in a downward spiral and that might be a decline in the category or it may be a function of new products that have come into the category that are deemed to be superior in either quality, value or performance. It just might be new products that touch the heartstrings of consumer in certain way that begins to gain a share of that consumer’s heart, consumers mind and ultimately share of business. Something new has to take place if the businesses are going to continue to expand and efficiently compete.

3) Thinning bones
The milk of long term planning makes for a healthier tomorrow.
The business is going fine but you want to make certain it's one of your strongest brands. You want to make certain that you are always thinking through every conceivable way of building a business because essential to the success of our company is this brand and its long-term success. You should never be caught short while thinking through potential positions and new ways to talk about our product to consumers and ways to continue to win hearts and minds. It's almost like it's an insurance policy that marketers continue to take out to make sure that this cash cow is a long term performer.

4) Anemia, brought on from giving too much blood.
Wall Street wants more blood whether you have it or not.
Wall Street continues to demand growth out of the company and single digit growth for each brand is not going to be sufficient to be able to continue toward the PE ratios that the company is currently trading on. Every brand manager is being tested and is under scrutiny to figure out new and innovative ways to make brands cost effective while profitably growing the business.

5) Blisters.
The pains of breaking in a new acquisition.
The new purchase of a brand along with the need for a new strategy to position a product to customers and trade under the idea that enhanced efficiency allows for a quicker return on investment and return to profitability.


Why does it hurt when I do this?

A brand suffers aches and pains that seem to come from all around but truly have only one source. The alignment between the consumer and the brand should two parallel lines. The first line is the reception of consumer’s thoughts, dreams, aspirations and desires inputted to the brand. The second is the reflection of the consumer’s input paired with the brand as a solution to achieve the consumer aspiration, desires and such. Brands give off symptoms when one or both of these pathways are out of alignment.


Finding and correcting misalignment.

Research, by virtue of its impact and purpose, should be unfettered. The reality is that research companies are sometimes scared to tell the truth. The reality is that sometimes a company’s own employees are afraid to tell the truth. Incorrect intake of information from the consumer results in incorrect strategies from the outset. Another common malady in marketing is the incorrect translation of the brand strategy into meaningful advertising. Production artists get enthralled with actors, techniques and style and the strategy gets lost. Alignment from consumer to brand comes through the correct conducting and interpretation of research in all its varied forms. Alignment from brand to consumer comes through the correct translation of the strategy into impactful creative which enlivens schema and connects to the brand.


Maybe the whole body needs adjustment.

The sudden resolution of discomfort in marketing might tempt one to consider adjusting the alignment of marketing within the entire organization. While marketing may be in perfect alignment when concerning itself, it may disjointed with sales, finance, production, etc. Correctly aligning marketing within the organization can resolve bigger organizational problems and allow a marketing campaign to truly succeed.


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