When Marketing Races Past Operations

Watch a NASCAR race and you might notice stock cars circling the track behind a pace car. It’s the least exciting part of the race. No one watches NASCAR or F1 to see fast cars make four left turns at 45mph.

Pace cars don’t enter the track often. But when they do, you’ll see most cars following the leader like a band following a drum major. Some cars zigzag to keep their tires warm, anxious for the race to start or resume so they can slam their gas pedals to the floor.

Powerful race cars with aerodynamic features are like a company’s marketing activities. They’re built to move fast, look good, and make lots of noise.

The pace car?

It’s like a company’s operations. The pace car checks the race cars and creates equilibrium. Its purpose is to keep cars in line ensuring an orderly track.

But what happens when race cars speed past the pace car as it exits the track?

It’s what auto racing fans crave: cars traveling at blistering speeds. But when the pace car exits, anything can happen. Including running out of fuel, a blown tire, or a debilitating crash.

Such is the case when a company’s marketing activities race past its operations.

A marketing and operational misalignment dictate one of the immutable laws of business:

Thou Shalt Not Market or Sell Beyond Operational Capacity Over a Long Period of Time.

When I owned and operated a small business I ran afoul of this law too many times. My business made doughnuts from scratch, and we were very good marketing our irresistible creations. Too good, in fact.

We’d often create new, craveable doughnuts and whip our customers into a frenzy while whetting their appetites.

The problem?

It was difficult to make enough doughnuts to meet customer demand. Our operations - making doughnuts from scratch - lagged behind our ability to market and sell the product.

Our doughnut race cars - ahem - sped around the track and returned to pit road with banged up frames, low fuel, and angry drivers.

So how can businesses keep marketing and operational activities in blissful symbiosis?

The answer is a sound business strategy.

Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter is an expert on strategy and competition. He argues that every business’s strategy is fundamentally integrative, bringing the demand and supply sides together.

The Demand Side:

A business’s value proposition is the atomic element of strategy. It informs customers on how a company’s products or services are unique.

But a value proposition is not a sufficient condition for a sound business strategy.

The Supply Side:

Every business must also have a unique value chain capable of supporting the value proposition. The value chain is a set of operational activities unique to the business.

Simply put, a sound business strategy is when a company’s value proposition aligns with its value chain.

Most businesses have plans posing as strategies.

Faux strategies often lead to misaligned marketing and operations functions.

This is the norm.

To be exceptional, get your strategy right first.

And then design and calibrate your marketing and operational activities accordingly.