Everybody is wrong

What conventional wisdom that "everybody knows" can you challenge?

I've gotten tremendous pushback from thousands of people over the past decade on these ideas. But I’ve also had thousands of people reach out to me to say that these ideas have been incredibly helpful to them.

Some of the best ideas come from contrarians.

Here are some things I’ve challenged in the past ten years.

"Everybody knows that marketing is about promoting your product."

Everybody is wrong. When you adhere to the famous "four Ps of marketing" and talk up your product (the first P) you end up with egotistical nonsense. Nobody cares about your products. They care about themselves and solving their problems. Marketing is about understanding your buyer personas and creating information that they want to consume.

"Everybody knows that PR is about pitching the media."

Everybody is wrong. These days, journalists don't passively wait to see what brilliant PR pitches are sitting in their email in-box. In fact, they increasingly see email pitches as spam. However journalists are looking for story ideas all the time by searching Google, reading blogs, and following Twitter. Are they finding you?

"Everybody knows that the press release is dead."

Everybody is wrong. The press release is an effective media to reach buyers directly. When you craft a release from your buyers’ perspective and send it through one of the press release distribution services, your news hits people’s Google Alerts, is indexed by the news search engines, and is syndicated to hundreds of news portals, vertical market sites, and via RSS feeds.

"Everybody knows that newspapers are dying."

Everybody is wrong. When television came around, people predicted the death of radio. Radio didn’t go away, but the ways people consumed radio content changed because people didn’t sit around watching the radio in their living rooms anymore. The Web will not kill newspapers. But individual newspapers like my hometown paper The Boston Globe have to change and adapt to survive.

"Everybody knows that working for a big company means you have job security."

Everybody is wrong. Just ask people who worked for Bear Stearns or Enron or Worldcom or Lehman Brothers about job security. You make your own security by being excellent at what you do. I was fired three times. Now, by working for themselves, millions of people have the greatest job security there is.

Here's a new one I am hearing more and more.

"Everybody knows that social media changes everything."

Everybody is wrong. Yes, social media is changing the ways that companies are communicating on the web. But that doesn’t mean that offline marketing and communications is changing. You still need to meet with customers. Sometimes attending or exhibiting at a trade show is a good idea. TV and magazine advertising can still be effective. And getting your company into the Wall Street Journal or seen on Oprah (or your trade publication) has tremendous value.

What conventional wisdom that “everybody knows” can you challenge?

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Comments

[Steve Johnson]

Likewise I've found that nobody knows what "everybody knows" about your company. "Everybody knows that we've been in business since 1804." Wrong! "But everybody knows that DSL is 20 times faster than dial-up." Nope. "But everybody knows that our product supports Oracle." Try again.

Thanks for your post. It's a good reminder that you should always question what everybody knows.

[Jason Pyle]

Great post David. Agree wholeheartedly. I especially enjoy reading the last point. I hear so much how social media is the be all end all. It's a great way to get yourself out there, be a part of the conversation, showcase your expertise, and drive traffic to your site, but it's like investing. It's just one piece in the diversification puzzle.

I've read a number of books lately filled with "absolutes" about business and each time I read something I shake my head at how wrong they are about my business. It's a wonder how some get book deals.

[Poul Hebsgaard]

Everybody knows government cannot run healthcare – everybody is wrong!
Having grown up in Denmark it amazes me how superficial the media in general (watching CNBC this morning) are treating the subject. I stopped counting the number of times I heard “We are not France” and “bureaucrats should not manage healthcare”. It would be nice if someone in the media outside of PBS and Michael Moore took a look at what other countries are doing in some details – good and bad cases. I see what superior care my family in Denmark (old and young) is getting for “free” – 7% of GNP - and we in the USA are spending 16% of GNP on healthcare.

The Obama administration has a major PR job in front of them. David, I wonder what advice you would give them – create a healthcare rave?

[Kevin McDonald]

As a recent watcher of your blog and reading your book, your points are correct. Companies focus so much energy on the next big thing rather than focusing on all aspects that their customers are looking at. But they cannot be "blinded" by other ways to communicate which is essential. Thanks.

[Mark Allen Roberts]

Great post,
One of my favorites is : What got me here will take me to my future goals…
Everyone was wrong!

[Henry Posner]

Everyone knows "The customer is always right." Wrong! The customer is to be valued, appreciated, cherished, coddled, but NO ONE is always right. The customer who falls back on this is usually wrong, knows he or she is wrong but wants what he or she wants anyway despite knowing he or she doesn't deserve it.

[Elliot Ross]

I'm with Steve -

Too many businesses assume that 'everybody' knows the 'obvious' things.

However if you are not inside that industry - or just getting your feet wet - what is obvious to you may **not** be obvious to them!

[Ari Herzog]

...and by extension, your blog post is wrong too, eh? *grin*

[Jeremy Porter]

It sounds like "everybody" needs to get a clue.

There's a consistent thread to all these points: you need to be flexible and adapt to change.

P.S. - nice comment Ari. Way to be a contrarian.

[David Meerman Scott]

@Ari - Yup, you got it.

@Henry - Thanks for commenting. Love it when the master commenter stops by!

[Jake LaCaze]

"Everybody knows no news is good news". Just because your clients aren't complaining doesn't mean everything's okay. You should constantly be looking for ways to measure and ensure customer satisfaction.

[Tony Faustino]

I know I’m armchair quarterbacking with this example but can’t resist. Conventional Wisdom at Microsoft in Spring 2007:

“There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance.” – Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft at 2007 CEO Forum (USA Today, http://bit.ly/NDamF). Apple’s share of worldwide smartphone sales grew from 5.3 percent in the first quarter of 2008 to 10.8 percent in the first quarter of 2009 (CNET, http://bit.ly/11Forg).

[Ron Arden]

Challenging conventional wisdom inside an organization is critical to its success. If no one did that, we would not have anesthesia, newspapers, cars, cell phones or computers. But I agree with you that everyone shouldn't run to the newest widget just because conventional wisdom says so. Our current news channels are entertainment and report on the hottest story. Embracing new ideas does not mean getting rid of old ones that work. I still use a pencil and paper to jot down notes, because it works.

[angkasuwan]

thanks for the new media wisdom. great things to keep in mind when pushing forward.

[David Tyler]

Everybody knows marketing your company via social media is the next big thing.

[Rebekah Donaldson]

Go David! Great post. Today in a new blog post I'm citing this as an example of:
Considered poking in the eye --> engaging blog posts and world a better place

[Seh]

It's understandable that newspapers are experiencing a slow death, but I still see them everywhere. It has to be hard for pieces of paper to compete against so much interactivity. For instance, it's almost to the point that I dont want to read anymore. I'd rather have the option of video. I mostly market video as well. I post to a site called http://www.Adwido.com and they target keywords to boost traffic to my site and it's Free to set up an account... Why even mess with a newspaper?