When I was little my favorite color was red. Then later when I was a teenager, it was black, then in college it was back to red, and now I find myself buying everything in black and gray again. So what does this have to do with business? It’s a reminder that when it comes to marketing and advertising materials everyone will have an opinion, and their opinion is not necessarily relevant.
A few years ago we changed the color of our box from blue to orange. We did it for many different reasons. Of course everyone in the company had an opinion on whether we should go to red, yellow, green, orange, etc. Ultimately though, the marketing manager dealing with the creative agency and in charge of the box had to make the decision and had to deal with the fact that many employees hated the orange color. But it was the right choice and 3 years later we still have an orange box.
The moral of the story? Not everyone in your company should be given an opportunity to comment on your marketing and advertising. The people responsible for marketing should make the decision, and the rest of the company should let them do that. Read a great blog entry that inspired me to write this post: “Defeating the Armies of No” on Marketing Profs Daily Fix.
-Sabrina Parsons, aka Mommy CEO
Sabrina has served as CEO of Palo Alto Software since 2007.
