And then the editorial staff tries to draw up a current credo in seven points, which is supposed to provide market leadership to those willing to learn. We would like to single out three points and voice our doubt that this propagated simplification will really show the desired results.

“Pricing is the new discipline and whoever masters the pricing policy, rules the market”. First credo. Sounds plausible because, in Germany, one thinks of the successful Aldi-Story and the ideas of Herrn Pischetsrieder, to lower the price of a VW Golf via the air conditioning, respectively to make the car less expensive. Or- and this is also a good example- employ Boris Becker and Claudia Schiffer as models and create a happening, like it is only going to happen in society circles, and all of a sudden a normal man’s suit can cost € 1,000.- instead of € 250.-.

If it were that simple to achieve success through “pricing”, there would only be market leaders because one can expect marketing experts to always have good ideas in stock in order to promote their products well.

“Distribution is taking over the marketing-rudder. Marketing and distribution bosses go hand in hand. The surface warfare of the past years is over. But the more sales is going to determine the direction, the easier it is for so-called “nice-to-have” topics to fall through the cracks. And, we might add: The more sales determines the direction, the higher the budgets for sales promotions and the more sustained the demand for products which the competition has long been offering. We do not want to take away from the achievements of sales and distribution and we know that the people from the sales and distribution department know how to bear responsibility. However, putting sales and distribution above marketing would mean to put policy above strategy.

“Innovation plus cost leadership. The brands of the future are no longer Coca Cola and Marlboro, but Aldi, eBay, H&M and Ryanair”. Indeed, there could be cases where innovation leads to cost leadership, but to chain the two of them together could not be named as a prerequisite by any reasonable person. The success of brilliant innovation does not depend on cost leadership. And if the founders of this new “simplify your marketing” philosophy really believe that Aldi, eBay, H&M and Ryanair are going to herald the end of classic brands, they can rest assured that there will be no more innovation and we will not have to discuss cost leadership ever again.

Many are in need of enlightenment. We have to be thankful to the Lord for providing the general population with enough common sense to make reasonable decisions. We can trust in simplified marketing going away (if it should ever become reality in the first place) as soon as it reaches the consumer.