The bollocks club

The what?

Yes, the bollocks club.

I propose this as a new introduction into your marketing decision making process.

Pick the biggest nay-sayers you can find. Ideally, non brand-loyal customers and potentially some of your sales team who need to sell this into your key accounts.

And run your new campaign idea past them.

What did they say?

Does your idea pass through the bollocks club and makes good common sense? Did it make sense to them? How did it make them feel? Do they think it is genuinely new?

Or are you just convincing yourself that this new angle for differentiation will be heard, understood and acted upon (i.e. your product bought or new, raving fans collected).

It's just another way of sense-checking if you have marketing myopia.

I am not saying that you have to do what this groups says, by any means - it is your job to lead people to new thinking and perceptions about your brand and potentially even the market.

But what it will do is give you the honest answer before you spend £10m on a new campaign. So you can choose before, not realise after how people will act as a result of your campaign.

You? Do you have your own version of the bollocks club? What does it look like?