Thoughts on how the weather teaches us about marketing

Like a great number of my fellow Northeastern U.S. citizens, I am living through the summer that never was. Aside from one nice weekend last week around July 4th, we have been in nothing but cold dark and miserable weather. There have been either all day long showers and drizzle or horrific thunderstorms neither of which are fun.

I can't help but think of all the people who run seasonal resorts in Maine or Cape Cod. Unlike those in the mountains, who have the ski season to fall back on, the resorts in Maine and on the cape rely on the summer for the bulk of their revenue. What has to make this even worse is that with the economy the way it is, they certainly do not need another weight on their shoulders to make their lives even more difficult.

The point here is that sometimes you can have a great marketing plan in place and be ready to go to market and events out of your control will then intrude and make lemons of your lemonade. Does this mean your plan was bad no, nor does it mean that you failed by not having a plan B. There is no plan B when it comes to an act of nature. Rather what needs to be done is you need to have an emergency plan where you can pull back a bit and then when the environment returns to a more agreeable setting, you are ready to seize back the initiative.

I remember reading a history of the Boer War fought, at the turn of the century between the Boer's a Dutch colonial group who colonized today's South Africa, and the British. The Boer commanders gave one order to their troops and it was save your resources and fight the battle's you can win. That way you win the war. That is true when dealing with attempting to market against the unknown element that is mother nature. You plan your marketing, but have a reserve group in place to act when and if your first plan is not able to be used.

In my other favorite news, I was so happy to see that Tim Wakefield proved he is an All-Star last night. 8 strikeouts is in my opinion a perfect cap to being named to his first All-Star team. Also, speaking of the weather, we had a monsoon here yesterday for the second straight day. I thought New England was a temperate climate, not a tropical one? Oh well it is fun and cool to watch.

Well work will not wait. Some writing to do and then an errand in Newton. I hope the hot dog guy is there with his cart in Wellesley Hills. Yum!