Tug of War (Will Marketing ever get on board?)
I know we probably don’t need another post describing the chasm between Marketing and Design, but here we go ;-) In recent years I’ve seen Marketing destroy good experiences for political reasons, timelines, advertising, and turf-wars. Of course these are the things that bother us Designers most. We want to produce a great product, something we’re proud of and yes, even something that will help make the company money.
The other day a graphic popped into my head. Besides the whims of the Marketing department (More Touchpoints!), these are the factors I see marketing using to create a product again and again:
(Download PDF Here – 64k)
Money, Focus Groups, Numbers, and Buzz. This is the deadly cocktail that will take a product from great to passable. Let me touch on each subject.
Money -
Marketing is in charge of getting you to take money out of your pocket, by force if necessary. Typical thought: “We make money on ads, we’ll make more money with more ads.”. While that almost makes sense, us users of the web know better.
Focus Groups -
Instead of observing people in their natural state of work, Marketing tends to fly people in, set them in a room and ask them questions. “What do you think of this?”. Or, “which do you like better?”. These end up being somewhat contrived, and not very useful.
Numbers -
Most Marketing Power Points I see are riddled with numbers that don’t really mean anything. “90% of people buy things” – therefore if we sell something, someone will buy it. Or “MySpace has 30 million users”, therefore our social website will do just as well.
Buzz -
The most fun to spot in a meeting, Buzz is responsible for many a fumbled project. While searching out and paying attention to trends is great. Spouting buzz words, and using buzz technologies as a product is not a good idea…
I’ve tried to balance this “Marketing Mix” with some good User Experience practices that can lead to a great product.
Common sense things like:
- Using best practices for technology and UI
- Staying ahead of the curve, and innovating
- Defining what is useful and desirable to your customers
- Viewing your customers in real world situations
- Working with Marketing on defining Business Goals and make sure they are met (while advocating for the users!)
These are just a few User Experience practices that can help launch something you’ll want your friends to know about.
If you’re in Marketing I hope you can partner with your UX team as well as your development team and strike some middle ground. And if you’re a User Experience Professional, remember to equally take into consideration timelines and business goals.
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