It always amazes me when intelligent, well-intentioned businesspeople expect that a marketing investment will work as it should or grow in value WITHOUT care and attention. Is there something so unique and impervious about business that things operate counter in this universe? Of course, the answer is no — but that’s what many hope and believe.

I recently upgraded my 2008 Altima Coupe to a newer model. I also hired a contractor to lay down exotic wood floors on the second floor of my home. If I don’t put oil in my car, and I drive it regularly, then what happens? If I don’t seal the floors, and moisture is allowed to interact with the wood, then what happens?

How is it that marketing assets become exempted from the same fundamental type of thinking — and by players as critical to success as senior executives and business owners? It’s one thing when an intern or junior professional doesn’t appreciate the care that’s needed. That’s a lack of experience playing out. What does the boss use as her excuse?

The same well of thinking that’s needed to launch is also replenished in maintenance. Successful marketers never stop measuring, supposing, brainstorming, testing, asking, answering, enhancing, relaunching, etc. It’s a powerful cycle of business self-help and improvement that’s either positive, negative, or dormant.

Here’s a starting list of marketing investments that require regular maintenance:
a) website
b) sales pitch
c) corporate identity
d) elevator speech and talking points
e) product development and portfolio

A website requires regular content updates to keep things interesting to repeat customers. Prolific, quality publishing ranks highly with Google. The homepage benefits from new photos, upcoming and recent events, service alerts, social media feeds, and more. Security needs to be kept tight, with hackers and spammers left at a distance.

A sales pitch needs to account for changes in consumer perception. If a competitor has launched a new product or better way of doing business, then you’d be wise to at least address that (if not counteract it more actively). A smart business peppers in seasonal promotions.

An identity ages and matures over time. Businesses keep them poignant and communicative with refreshes. Perhaps the logo needs a slightly new shade of orange. Maybe the tagline is revised or changed entirely. It could be time for a new image library to be adopted – more action shots, for example.

An elevator speech needs to highlight the latest and greatest sound byte. Perhaps an award was won, or a new offering has launched. Maybe the business was featured in a well-known media channel. Talking points need to communicate — which means they must continue to strike the right chords as things change around us.

The best marketing is probably the simple decision to pace or move ahead of those around you. That’s product development and innovation. Your product should be on par or better than what others have developed. You should care deeply about showing your portfolio and the level of excitement people have for your solutions(s) compared to what others can do.

Challenger brands is a frightening term in business for a reason. Challenges are ongoing, elusive, maturing, and relentless.

I’m not here to prescribe all that you should do in any one area of marketing. If you hire me, then we’ll go through this mindfully each week or month. Today, it’s surprisingly enough to care about maintenance in the first place. It’s not sexy, I know — but it’s absolutely necessary. Marketing and maintenance go hand-in-hand.

Don’t allow yourself to be the American brat who wants something, buys it, but then neglects it. You think it will be wonderful forever and ever — no matter how little of your time and attention it receives.

Worse, don’t stretch to buy something you CAN’T support. Far too many businesses launch a new website or product without the executive focus, people power, or the financial resources to sustain the initial spark and momentum. Sometimes it’s best to hang low for a stretch — until you’re ready to do things well.

Consumers will consume. Ultimately, it’s smart and sustainable consumption that will advance your business beyond the initial bump. Think about it. When you take a step forward — especially one that has an immediate impact — do you really expect competitors to sit back and be mesmerized?

They’re going to take action again soon. They’re going to lessen the draw of your latest accomplishment. What will you do to counter that?

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I’ve returned to the blog and have targeted a monthly post. Check one of two places for where I’ve been spending my time writing of late: Go Booklets / Amazon author page.

here are additional amazon promos.

on his next play, given the same type of throw — tebow connects. to live and die by the sword.

more than 1 million mentions on twitter. the rate of tweets announcing the victory hit 9,420 per second. beats the 8,868 tweets-per-second rate reached when beyoncé announced her pregnancy.

forget disney world. forget what people are saying on social media and around the cooler at work. tebow earns a $250,000 bonus for this playoff win. it’s quite the story of forgiveness, second chances and redemption. can you imagine what would have happened if this game ended instead with a interception for a touchdown, and with the steelers victorious? i know, not possible with god on tebow’s side. still, what a holy war these broncos are waging.

look at what the team’s on-field leadership believes…

“football is an aggressive game, a combative game,” broncos coach john fox said. “you can’t play it careful. you can’t play it hesitant. you’ve got to pull the trigger.”

let me state here that i’m no tim tebow fan. i certainly won’t give him singular credit for what’s going on in denver these days. what’s most interesting is the alignment of strategic planning, branding and tactical execution — from iconic owner, to rookie coach who’s adapted the plan to account for his quarterback’s talents and shortcomings, to a number of players peaking at the right time (tim tebow, willis mcgahee, demaryius thomas, elvis dumervil, von miller, and others). not to mention, these rabid fans actually produced an orange version of their opponent’s famed “terrible towel” for this game. you’re dissing the legendary steelers, winners of a record six super bowls. that’s pushing your chips all the way in.

fan or no fan — and i’m an oakland raiders fan in football — this has become something more than just sport. this is big business.

Special sales on fan apparel are available through Game Ready Gear, our new subsidiary.

so let’s take a look at the difference between the two concepts. if you’re familiar with the military application of the terms, then you know that strategy is the highest of tier of planning. tactics are the lowest. in between is the operational level, where strategies are converted to tactics.

every businessperson has allowed his or herself to jump past strategy and operations to tactics. it’s easy to justify. better to do something than nothing. talk is cheap. don’t just sit there. the list of cliches goes on and on. however, we also know that time and energy are both limited. haste makes waste. with a little bit of upper level planning, the effort you put into tactics will help you to capitalize and achieve entirely different results. you will have a firmer resolve as you hit the battleground running. your focus is sharper. actions will mean more to you because they fit into a bigger picture. one can easily argue that just having a strategy — any strategy— will make each tactic more meaningful and impacting.

so do yourself a favor. be strategic. truly strategic. don’t just rush into the marketing tactic of the month because someone pitched you to consider it. even if someone you know benefitted from a measure, carefully consider how much you are like him or her — how your goods, information and talents might fare with same. when you have a strategic plan, you will be armed to make the quick decisions you feel yourself wanting to make. that’s because you will know your goals and how various speculative actions can or cannot reinforce them.

if i lean in one direction, it’s that an edge can’t fully be assimilated. it takes wonder, wishfulness and willpower to even pursue and develop an edge in the first place. few have that burning desire or curiosity in his/her belly. that means that few can take an edge and execute like its previous vessel. many are perfectly at ease with following life’s various manuals and attaining acceptable levels of performance. as students, some just won’t have what it takes to match or outdo their teachers.

that brings this around to perspective — the way in which one person perceives, parses and positions information to inform a more polished understanding of the way things are. is information not the same everywhere? it’s perspective that decides who gets it and how much of it. perhaps perspective is why i share at just about every turn. helping others is good practice, and i never feel that i’m at risk of irrelevance or bankrupcy. perhaps it’s my respect of karma that leads me to be so free with edge.

i’m reminded of a conversation that hip hop artist missy elliott and rock and roll hall of famer prince once had on the subject. missy elliott was fired up years ago that artists were “stealing” production methods from her and co-producer timbaland. she even went so far as to write new material that challenged that others had been copying — which one could argue was, in itself, copying through rehash. prince stepped in with a simple suggestion. why not change the game all over again? you did it once and could do it again. there’s nothing gained by copying something that’s already been improved. the bottom line — keep inventing.

before you go thinking that i advocate debt whole-heartedly — that is not my message. i’m saying that if you’re doing nothing…or you’re waiting for the right time…and you have the means and/or access to borrow a reasonable amount of capital for something that will boost your prospects in the near-term…then you should look into it today. better still, pull the trigger. we’ve heard it a gazillion times. it takes money to make money. if not now then when? despite the don-trodden talk that’s far too easily uttered these days, there’s an abundance of opportunity out there —and there are less people with whom you’ll need to compete. that’s an exciting notion!