Hit 'em Where They Ain't

There once was a small, wiry, major league baseball player named Wee Willy Keeler. In the early part of the last century, Willy was famous for hitting singles almost every time he came up to the plate.

My good friend, author, tourism marketer and journalist, Len Hansen, of Bellingham, Washington, (http://www.lenhansen.com) who is an authority on such matters, told me: " Willy couldn't hit home runs…while, in contrast, the contemporaries Babe Ruth and such, were slugging four baggers while, at the same time, averaging under .300…while Willie, by choking up on the bat and "hitting it where they ain't" was punching singles.

Additionally, if he was on first, he was quickly on second and third, and then scored when a long ball hitter would stroke a sacrifice fly. His teams won ballgames and Willie both batting and on-base records".

How did he do it? When asked by the media how he always seemed to get a hit, his answer always was a variation of: "I hit 'em where they ain't!" Which is another way of saying: "I hit them where I have made observations and a conscious decision to put the ball to the best of my batting ability…or something like that." In other words, he aimed for where he wanted the ball to go, not to where he thought he could hit it.

One of the biggest reasons we marketers often fail in our grand plans and schemes is that we fail to have the concrete discipline to achieve the desired results we need, particularly because we do a lousy job of defining what those results should be in real terms. Often we focus too much time on the actual tasks that need to be done and not enough on the results and what they should look like.

Author, Sergio Zyman, ex chief marketing honcho at Coke says: "In the future, marketers are going to have to do a much better job of what I call destination planning. And their bosses will have to demand that they provide a clear and objective result for the effort and money that gets allocated to them. Put another way: if you want to be successful, then you must clearly define, in detail, what success looks like. Then you've got to figure out how to get there."

The reason for stressing this point, particularly in this challenging economy, is that with all the money that will be spent on marketing, advertising and restaurant promotions, it makes sense to know where you want to go; but also 'what' and 'how' it will look like when you get there. Planning your destinations, not just 'what' it is; but the 'how' it will look (the way or results that you are after), are most important to generate the focus you need.

Focus on the ultimate customer, not the "game".