If you’ve been there and done that, you know exactly what I’m referring to above. A school supply list that serves as the OG for both scope and budget creep. Scrambling from store to store to get everything because one place is out of glue sticks, the only folders left at another are glittery pink and you chose not to fight Katie – who clearly has had it with this – for the last multipack of facial tissue. What kind of biohazardous threat does Calvin Coolidge Junior High pose that necessitates a Costco-sized drum of antibacterial wipes, anyway?
Having done this song and dance for several years now – referring both to back-to-school and working in digital marketing – I’ve heard a few echoes of this least wonderful time of the year in how marketing teams tend to approach their brand work.
I’m sympathetic to these situations marketers and parents alike find themselves caught in because I’ve been there as both. Let's look at a few.
If your school district is anything like mine, you realize these supply lists look less like the crayons, pencils, notebooks, folders of our youth and something more akin to Van Halen’s notorious concert contract riders, no brown M&Ms and all.
I fully get it: educators are stretched way too thin, schools are perpetually underfunded and more is being asked of less. Yes, and amen. But is it really necessary to send little Timmy to his first day of school with enough school supplies to necessitate a U-Haul?
The same thing happens when a stakeholder wants to deploy an elaborate marketing ecosystem, going from zero to 60 ASAP, with little regard for what, how, when or (in my estimation, the most important question) why. They want video and content and social and a new website and paid ads and they want it now. The marketing team tasked with this Herculean (perhaps Sisyphean) task is small and capable, but never designed to take on such a burden.
Your kid won't need all of this on her first day of school and almost certainly won't burn through 1000 sheets of looseleaf all year (or in two or three!). That might mean four or six pencils, folders and notebooks to get the job done, one box of nosewipe and send only the one ruler because you know the second one will break or disappear before it’s ever needed (and you parents of school-aged kids know that second one will be needed). In the same way, your marketing plan shouldn’t be a mile-long and dropped on your team with minimal notice or perspective.
Start thoughtfully, earn consensus, scale intentionally. Going pedal to the metal in marketing isn’t sustainable. If you’re starting or revamping marketing, it’s not realistic or healthy to immediately expect two blog posts a week and one whitepaper per month, along with daily social media management and a weekly stream on YouTube, especially if there isn’t an agreed-upon, clearly defined strategy in place and buy-in throughout the organization.
You know the kid I’m talking about: Shows up on day one with the most expensive backpack and shoes. Busts out the Trapper Keeper. Has the scientific calculator at an age when the only function he knows is how to punch in numbers to make inappropriate words when it’s turned upside down. Oh, there’s a killer lunch box and whichever brand of water bottle is hot this month.
And he’s routinely asked to stay back for "enrichment work" when everyone else gets to go to lunch or recess.
It costs enough to get all the stuff your kids *ahem* need for school, but I feel for the parents who spare no expense and it doesn’t reflect on the report card. This isn’t Washington; you won't and can’t spend your way to an A.
Whether it’s subscribing to all the digital marketing or AI platforms, overspending on a sales and marketing SaaS or dropping massive ad spend for a half-baked search campaign, the reality is that while it takes money to make money, it also takes knowing your team and everybody knowing the purpose for the investment: a clear why best informs both what and how.
Great marketing doesn’t necessarily have to command an enormous budget: the right tools for the right people will cost the right amount. At the same time, while spending isn’t automatically commensurate with success, neither is spending (in both a qualitative and quantitative sense) too little.
Times are tough out there, but viewing marketing as an expense to be trimmed is like deciding to send your kid to her first day of school without a backpack: sure, she might get all her stuff to her desk, but it’s going to be substantially more difficult, while also running the risk of tripping on the stairs or having the bully knock her stuff (the stuff you bought!) out of her arms.
Put another way: You cannot protect your brand by no longer telling people about it.
Just like school supplies should be an intentional investment in your child’s scholastic success, marketing spend should also be seen as an investment in your marketing team, which is to say, both are an investment in your future, and investments should be prudent.
We made this mistake just last year: we had just moved and, in the midst of packing and cleaning and showings and more packing, back-to-school was an afterthought. By the time the last box got unloaded from the truck, the first day of school was less than a week away.
We ran to the store to grab everything our three kids needed, only to find that section looked like a cross between the paper products aisle when COVID first hit and a Soviet grocery store in 1986. After hopping from store to store, we finally got everything they needed, but we were uncomfortably down to the wire.
Granting that we had just endured a fairly major life event, the illustration still holds water: waiting too long or until the last minute is flirting with disaster. This year? I picked up supplies throughout the summer, found roughly a half-dozen unused glue sticks and other supplies from years before, went shopping with weeks to go and ended up spending quite a bit less overall. Not bad in a tough retail environment!
A solid content audit goes a long way! Thoughtful planning allows for a creative mix of new resources and assets already on hand. For content strategy, this means prioritizing knowing what’s in reserve as well as what’s needed (and knowing what to cut entirely from the back catalog) to best meet objectives and let the brand shine without overloading your team.
Indirectly related, having the latitude and ability to strike when the iron’s hot matters: if there’s natural, reasonable cause to connect your brand with a holiday, local event or to hop on a viral meme, neither timing nor messaging can be overlooked. Brands too often expose themselves to scrutiny when they show up and haven't realized the moment has passed.
For a few years now, retailers have offered one-click school supply shopping, coordinating with schools and districts to auto-populate everything needed for specific grade levels or courses at higher levels right into your online cart. The appeal is self-evident: why deal with stores and all that hassle when you can just have the retailer compile it for you and drop it on your doorstep?
I tried it a few years ago for our kids. I clicked, ordered and a gigantic box arrived a few days later. We opened it, only to find that the order was missing some things, contained too many other things, they fulfilled the order using lower-quality products and the lack of control in colorways left my young son with pink scissors and folders of all one color. The cost of this ‘convenience’ came pretty close to eye-watering. It was so easy, we still ended up going to the store!
Data from the National Retail Federation shows that 50% of survey respondents indicated they were going to do their back-to-school shopping online, a five-percent drop from a year ago. What people do for holiday shopping is pretty clearly not working in every retail season. Sometimes, going in and taking the time to do the work is entirely worthwhile. Sometimes, convenience comes at a greater cost.
Automation can be helpful in many ways, but the right solution at the wrong time remains the wrong solution. Whether or not this is the case may not reveal itself until you open the box and discover it’s not what you thought it was.
This isn’t a potshot at automation. For facilitating pipeline velocity, lead qualification and timely messaging, automation and AI are fantastic…when they’re deployed thoughtfully and intentionally. AI tools help us surface trends, are surprisingly capable to spotlight sources for research (to be validated before using, of course!) and often help us move past the blank page. Personally, I like AI for its ability to come up with ideas and angles that inspire me to come up with better ones.
Farming everything out to an AI platform, from vibecoding to content, though? That's ordering the mystery box and being OK with whatever shows up. One’s expectations for themselves and their brand should be higher.
There’s always a list.
Whether it’s school supplies or marketing materials, there will always be a list. Thankfully for us parents, some schools have recognized how oppressive some of these asks have become and pulled back in response.
The right list for the right time and the right reasons helps schools know they’re getting incoming students equipped for the year ahead.
More and more marketing for the sake of more and more marketing too easily winds up being counterproductive, even brand-damaging. The right blend of business messaging, brand and content may be more in some seasons and less in others. It can be hard to come up with the right list for your organization – or, more to the point, your audience – and that’s where our team can help.
Make this year’s list count. Our team can show you how.