Tennis is a Game - without the rules it would be mere smacking of balls and aimless running around.
Marketing is a Concept - without rules it would be aimless truck driving with goods in the back and colourful but meaningless artwork. "What should this poster be for? Eh, no, have no idea, let us do some cool pictures."
Both exists by rules.
Tennis is a stand-alone game, it entertains on its own. Marketing is not stand-alone, it's a play within a game. The game being business.
If you want another ball-game with balls, play squash.
If you want another ball-game with customers, create another game, start over, have the balls.
Did snowboarding grow from tweaks to skiing? Are half-pipes a result of a thorough analysis of downhill races?
Start over, do not tweak. Loose the current concepts, forget the rules.
Squash is not tennis. Different game, different name. Change the game, change the name.
New game for customer fulfilment? Start with the game-, eh, concept-names. Throw away the words marketing, branding, management. That's a good start. Clean sheets, fresh crayons, no rules-sets, no concepts, no nothing, just a need to fulfil, a clear purpose.
Then we can get somewhere. Look for other ways to fulfil the need.
Could there be better ways? Why bother?
Look to reality - how we run business, how we market, how we manage. All old, very old rule-sets.
Concepts rarely questioned, only the way they're done, by the rules.
Rules tweaked constantly by thousands of articles, books, seminars every year, gazillions of dollars spent at consultancy firms and academia for ages. With what result? Not much. Zip, nada, really.
Changing, tweaking a rule or two within a rule-set is like applying a rubber band. Stretch... snap. Back to start.
For some real results - dump the concepts, loose the rules.
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