This is a question that marketing directors do not ask out loud. They do not ask it because they are afraid of the answer. If the answer is that the strategy is generic, then the budget is a waste. If the budget is a waste, the marketing director is in trouble. So the question stays unasked. The meetings continue. The slide decks grow longer. The outcomes stay the same.

“Why should we use this specific mix of channels?” Bart asks.

“It is industry best practice,” the advisor says.

“But our customers do not use these channels in this way,” Bart says.

“The data shows that this is the standard,” the advisor says.

The advisor is safe. The advisor is using a shield. This shield is called a best practice. If the campaign fails, the advisor can point to the shield. They followed the rule. The rule is the industry standard. The advisor did not make the rule. The industry made the rule. This makes the advisor blameless.

The client is the one who loses. The client pays for the shield. The shield does not protect the brand. The shield only protects the advisor from the consequences of a bad result. This is a transfer of risk. The client takes all the financial risk. The advisor takes none of the reputation risk. They both agree to follow a map that was drawn for someone else.

The Heat in the Room

Zephyr K. is a machine calibration specialist. He fixes machines that cut metal. He once told me about a factory in a valley. The factory was hot. The factory was humid. The manual for the machines said the blade must be at a 90-degree angle. This was the best practice. Every technician followed the manual. Every technician failed. The blades broke. The metal warped.

Zephyr K. did not look at the manual. He looked at the metal. He felt the heat in the room. He adjusted the blade to 88.4 degrees. The machines started working. The blades did not break. The manager asked Zephyr why he ignored the best practice.

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“The manual was written for a room at 20 degrees Celsius,” Zephyr said. “This room is 31 degrees. The metal is different here.”

– Zephyr K., Calibration Specialist

Most advisors are not like Zephyr. They are afraid to adjust the angle. They are afraid of the 1.6-degree difference. If they adjust the angle and the blade breaks, they are responsible. If they follow the manual and the blade breaks, the manual is responsible. People prefer to be wrong within the rules than to be right outside of them.

Last week I tried to explain cryptocurrency to a group of bankers. I failed. I used too many metaphors. I realized that metaphors are often just a way to hide a lack of understanding. If you understand the mechanics, you can describe the machine. If you do not understand the machine, you talk about “the future of finance.” Best practices are the metaphors of the marketing world. They are vague enough to sound like wisdom but specific enough to sound like a plan.

The Anatomy of Isolation

Public relations is often a silo. In this silo, the best practice is the press release. The advisor writes a press release. The advisor sends the press release to 412 journalists. This is the standard. It does not matter if the journalists are the right journalists. It does not matter if the story is a story. The advisor can show a list of names. The advisor can show a distribution report. The advisor has done the work. The work is the best practice.

Social media is another silo. In this silo, the best practice is the posting schedule. The advisor says you must post three times a week. The advisor says you must use five hashtags. This is the standard. It does not matter if the content is boring. It does not matter if the audience is sleeping. The advisor can show a calendar. The calendar is full. The advisor has followed the rule.

Influencer relations is the third silo. In this silo, the best practice is the follower count. The advisor looks for influencers with 50,000 followers. This is the standard. It does not matter if the followers are bots. It does not matter if the influencer does not care about the brand. The advisor can show a spreadsheet. The spreadsheet has big numbers. The advisor is safe.

When these three silos work in isolation, the brand message breaks. The press release says one thing. The social media posts say another thing. The influencers say a third thing. This is fragmented communication. It is the result of following three different sets of best practices. Each advisor is safe in their own silo. The brand is the only thing that is not safe.

A brand needs a system. A system is not a checklist. A system is a way of connecting parts to achieve a goal. If the goal is reputation, then every part must work together. The press work must support the social media work. The social media work must support the influencer work. This is difficult. It requires someone to be responsible for the whole system. It requires someone to look at the heat in the room and adjust the angle.

Visibility is not the same as attention. Attention is a flash. A flash happens and then it is dark. Visibility is a light that stays on. You do not get a light that stays on by following a generic schedule. You get it by building a reputation. A reputation is the compound interest of communication. It grows over time. It grows because the message is consistent. It grows because the strategy is specific.

The Crowded Middle

If an advisor tells you that something is “best practice,” ask them why. Ask them to explain the mechanics without using the word “standard.” Ask them how the tactic specifically addresses the 31-degree heat in your specific factory. If they cannot answer, they are not an advisor. They are a librarian. They are reading you a book that someone else wrote.

We live in a world of defaults. We use default settings on our phones. We use default templates for our emails. We use default strategies for our growth. Defaults are designed for the average. But no successful brand is average. Success is a deviation from the mean. If you follow the best practice, you are aiming for the middle. The middle is a crowded place. It is a place where you compete on price because you have nothing else to offer.

Bart finally left the meeting. He did not sign the contract. He walked back to his office. He looked at his budget. He realized that he was not buying a strategy. He was buying insurance against being fired. He decided that he would rather be fired for trying something specific than be forgotten for doing something standard.

The manual is a starting point. It is not the destination. The destination is a market position that no one else can occupy. You do not get there by following the tracks of the people who came before you. You get there by understanding the machine. You get there by being responsible for the result.

Communication is a connected system. When you break the system into pieces, you lose the power of the whole. A press release is a piece. A tweet is a piece. An influencer post is a piece. These pieces are not the brand. The brand is the space between the pieces. The brand is the feeling that remains when the pieces are gone.

To build that feeling, you must stop looking for the safe answer. The safe answer is a lie. It is a lie told by people who are afraid of the heat. The only real safety is in a strategy that works. And a strategy only works if it is yours.