Larry D. Lauer

This week I visited a former consulting client. I was asked to return to the institution to review and comment on the progress. We had restructured some of the operational units, put in place several planning groups to better integrate marketing and communication, and recommened new and traditional media initiatives.

Upon return I found that the new structure was working fairly well, but several of the reporting units are having their ups and downs. I also found that the use of an institution-wide taskforce to integrate marketing planning and implementation had gradually become only an email exchange.  But, on the positive side, a more coordinated and pervasive use of new and traditional media has been a grand success, and is still on the upswing.

I was also struck by the surprising discovery that one major unit, that several years ago was eager to cooperate with an overall integrated marketing  program, had completely gone off on its own. And in doing so, it alienated most everyone else in the organization. Not surprising was that all this happened with a change in leadership.

Sitting here reflecting on my visit has reminded me of the cyclical nature of most everything we do. Indeed, with a change in personnel, things sometimes really do suddenly take a nose dive. But I am also reminded that many times everything improves.

I am also recalling now how often over the years I have talked about these  institutional and personnel cycles in my seminars and classes. It’s a fact that entire institutions find themselves “on a roll,” only to peak and plateau at some point. For most institutions, this is a historical certainty. The question then becomes: Can current leadership re-energize itself, or will institutional and marketing progress have to wait for new leadership? Either way, another cycle starts all over again.

In many cases a new marketing campaign will generate a strong sense of forward movement, only to peak over time. Almost always you can track a campaign from initial audience awareness, to receiving the message, to acting on the message, to the feeling that the ad is getting old.  While it’s true that we get tired of our messages long before our audiences do, here too we are always working in up and down cycles.

What’s interesting is that while these cycles are so natural, we still seem to plan as if the roll we are on, or expect to get ourselves on, will last forever. My visit this week to a former client reminded me that we all need to step back, realize that cycles are natural and inevitable, and then take that reality into account in our strategic planning.