When it comes to marketing (and general business) strategy, there's unique - and then there's idiosyncratic.
And the idiosyncratic can continue to be that way because they wouldn't be where they are if they didn't know what they are doing.
Classic: Spike Lee fires back to his more-than-gracious interviewer, "Hey, did you make 'Do the right thing?' Well, just how many movies did you make anyway?" For celebrities, automakers, bailout recipients, tenured professors, NEA bosses - success becomes its own hemlock. There are special rules for me because, well, I wouldn't be here if I weren't special.
With success, you can insulate yourself from the voices you don't want to hear. And there are always other voices seeking to curry favor. Don't fall for it Spike. Don't surround yourself with sycophants. If someone tells you you're still running your 5000-customer business as if it were 500, or that this kaizen thing is something you may want to look into, don't get miffed. Maybe you're just the last one to realize it.
If your marketing looks like General Motors "best resale value of any domestic truck!" because you get rid of the Jim Harbours (barred from GM property in the 80's) and surround yourself with people who tell you "sure, that resonates," get ready for the ode to the CEO.
It may take a few years. It took fifteen years at $7 billion a year being spent on GM pensions and retiree healthcare until CEO Rick Wagoner said before Congress in December, "If we had the $103 billion... it would enable us to be even farther ahead on technology or newer equipment in our plants, or whatever." (Pardon?) No, zero percent financing is not a sustainable marketing plan.
Being able to carry on with boatload of idiosyncracies can be the mark of someone who has enough success to insulate themselves from their critics, but it's not necessarily a badge of honor.
