We are digital, we are paperless, we are tablet-carrying executives in fluid motion multitasking in a world that has solved all inefficiencies with some form of technology. ...and then there is the Marketing Plan. The 3-ring binder that likely only leaves the shelf to be revised for the new year only to take its place back on the shelf, in its respective real estate, for another 364 days.

The purpose as it were seems so far from effective in today's environment that to continue doing it is truly an exercise in futility. "Let me decide today what we will do nine months from now", says no one...today. We are in the moment moving from strategy to execution and back to strategy again, leaving little time to pull out a 3-ring binder to consult the "plan". Our tech-driven, instant-gratification world allows us to fail fast with the speed to start again leaving little room for acknowledgment of the fail let alone a rewrite of a "plan".

"Just do it" works for Nike, why doesn't it work in marketing?

This year let's do it differently. As we are gathering our typical marketing plan materials let's collect our strategies and attach points of accountability to a dynamic plan that moves with us. A plan that is never final enough to pinch your fingers in the binder, because as soon as one page is executed the second is already being written. Take marketing off the shelf and get it in the game where it deserves to be shown in a new light.

This year we will have a marketing plan but ours will not be on a shelf, it will be in everything we do. You will see it in the dedication of our teams and the exuberance of our guests. It will change as needed, at the moment, as new opportunities are identified.

I declare "Death of the Marketing Plan", bury the 3-ring binders, and burn the shelves as this is not where strategy lives. Marketing strategy is alive in those passionate enough to wear the nametag and serve guests that long to "feel" something beyond what they can identify in words. It is an awareness that something here is different, it is the consideration to accept something that takes you out of your comfort zone and converts to a memory not soon forgotten, ready to serve you again.

Lori Kiel

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