The market advantage of using agile is that... Key Benefits of the Agile Methodology

While we're still debating the consequences latest changes in the Facebook algorithm, for marketers, our audience has already moved to Instagram.

What, are you saying your company is now on Instagram?

It's a shame your customers switched to SnapChat. Or WhatsApp. Or Reddit. Or... Consumers change their habits more often than Bieber gets arrested. We are always one step behind - no matter what we do.

So what should marketers do in a world where the customer not only decides where the game is played, but also determines its rules?

What is needed is new paradigm marketing, agile enough to keep up with the speed of the social and digital world.

Agile Marketing- a fairly new concept. It's slowly gaining momentum because we're taking on the old school of marketing.

Agile marketing is born out of the need to improve speed, prioritize decision making, flexibility, and put the customer at the center of everything. If decisions made have not justified themselves, you can quickly change their direction. Marketers no longer have to throw away an entire plan or continue pursuing an inadequate strategy just because the financial year is not yet over.

Agile Marketing Manifesto

• Real learning instead of opinions and conventions.
• Customer-centric collaboration instead of hierarchy.
• Adaptive and iterative campaigns instead of large and complex ones.
• Customer discovery instead of static forecasting.
• Flexible planning instead of rigid.
• Reacting to change instead of following a plan.
• Lots of small experiments instead of one big bet.

This means that you and your management will make decisions based on data, not documents. You will have to welcome flexibility, be prepared to experiment, adapt and evolve. And also - to put the client’s opinion above your own opinions and experience.

So is agile for you or not? Yes, if you want to focus on customers, respond quickly to market changes and prioritize according to your resources.

Conclusion: Agile marketing is a great concept for those who can use their brains. But the bureaucratic machine of some organizations will not allow this - but what about endless meetings and a ten-volume marketing plan?

David Idelman, Jason Heller, and Steven Spittles wrote an article for mckinsey.com about how successful companies develop employees. They talked about the processes and technologies for effective implementation of Agile marketing.

LABA publishes an updated translation of the material.

Agile values ​​in marketing

One of the international banks recently decided to check how clients would respond to a new offer in an email newsletter. To do this, we collected a list of addresses, cleaned it, worked on the text and design of the letter, and received permission from lawyers.

After 8 weeks, the campaign was ready to launch.

It now takes people 3 seconds to decide whether they like a site or not, and Quicken Loans processes mortgage requests within 10 minutes. And if someone takes 8 weeks to test an email campaign, they are thrown to the curb.

Despite this, in many giant corporations such slowness is considered normal.

You've probably heard that marketers are using digital technologies to implement more effective ways responding to customer requests.

For example, chatbots (which are used to relieve online consultants) provide ease of interaction, speed of response and the ability to customize for the user.

According to a study by Forrester Consulting and SAP Hybris, today only 16% of marketers are truly able to capture customer desires and send the right content on time (including Commercial offer) using digital channels.

To take advantage of new digital opportunities, marketing departments within large corporations must constantly accelerate the pace of their work.

In other words, act according to Agile principles. After all, flexible methodologies are best adapted to the constant development of technology and the emergence of new development tools.

Agile Core Values:

people and their interactions

work product

building partnerships with the customer

readiness for change

Agile approaches are mainly built on the concepts of Theory Y, according to which people see work as a means of self-realization. They find motivation when they see benefits from their activities.

Agile marketing is about continuously searching for new opportunities and solving problems in real time based on data and analytics. Such marketing is built on the principles of operational testing, result evaluation and rapid iteration.

Iteration (in Latin iterare - repeat) is short cycles of team work that minimize risks. This can be achieved due to the fact that the customer accepts the results of each stage and immediately voices adjustments.

After completing a certain stage of activity, results are summed up and new requirements are collected. Changes are then made to the development plan.

A properly organized Agile marketing department will handle several hundred tasks simultaneously and generate many new ideas every week.

Many marketing companies believe that they are Agile simply because they have implemented a few corresponding principles. This could be, for example, testing, employee training and team cross-functionality.

But if you dig deeper, it becomes clear that they are using Agile approaches only selectively and are not fully benefiting from them.

In marketing companies there is often no own service support, legal department, development team or finance, which significantly slows down processes.

It also happens that such an organization cooperates with programmers who have their own pace of movement, and this also slows things down. Simply put: if you are not 100% Agile, you are not Agile at all.

In 2001, a group of experts in the United States adopted the “Manifesto for Agile Development Methodology.” software".

Here are some principles of the Agile Manifesto:

Changing customer requirements are welcomed even at later stages of work. Agile processes provide the ability to apply these adjustments to provide the client with a competitive advantage.

Developers and business representatives must interact daily throughout the project.

Motivated professionals must take part in the project. They need to provide support, create the necessary conditions and trust completely.

A working product is the main indicator of progress.

It needs to be released as often as possible - from several weeks to several months.

Minimizing unnecessary effort is very important.

Best solutions are born in self-organizing teams.

Performers must systematically improve their work style by adjusting it.

It is not easy to compete in such a fragmented market. Many organizations, applying Agile principles in working with individual products, have increased their profits by 4 times.

And even the most technologically advanced marketing companies, where there is little room for maneuver, increase their income by 20-40%.

Agile speeds up processes. It used to take months for a marketing company to good idea transform it into a full-fledged proposal to the client, and working in Agile, they complete it in 2 weeks.

Moving your marketing to Agile is no easy task, but we'll show you how to do it practically and effectively.

How to Assemble an Agile Marketing Team

For efficient work Agile marketing requires certain conditions.

The company must clearly understand the goals they want to achieve through Agile.

Such a task could be, for example, determining which user segments to attract or which customer decision journey to optimize.

You also need to have enough analytics data and a good marketing automation infrastructure to achieve these goals. Technologies make it possible to capture, collect and manage data from various platforms; make decisions based on forecasts at each stage.

In addition, they provide the ability to automate the delivery of marketing campaigns across different channels; collect statistics from these campaigns and user behavioral data.

It is not necessary to look for perfect automation tools. You should not get hung up on this, so as not to shift the focus from the main thing. Many companies use more services than they actually need.

For successful implementation of Agile it is important to use ideological and financial support senior management.

You will certainly encounter resistance from the old system, and here this assistance will become indispensable.

Common features of traditional approaches that can hinder the implementation of Agile:

Submitting to the leader rather than developing teamwork skills.

Individual financial reward instead of non-financial motivation (an employee’s natural desire to make a popular product).

Coordination of the project by the project manager and department head, rather than the formation of cross-organizational teams with common goals.

In case of a problem, find and punish the culprit, rather than counteract the root causes.

Meeting deadlines and budget rather than being interested in delivering business value to the consumer.

Communication through documentation rather than face-to-face work.

Another important element- these are people.

Tobias Mayer, author of The People's Scrum:

Distributed teams are not a cohesive team. At best, these are groups of employees who communicate from time to time. But communication is not the same as collaboration; it is only a poor semblance.

How to motivate talented people to work in one team and at an accelerated pace?

Such individuals must have many skills (professional and psychological), not be constrained by their usual activities and constantly be in the “war room”.

The purpose of such a room (different companies give it their own name: “capsule”, “tribe”, etc.) is to launch a continuous cycle of rapid experiments that will affect the final result.

The composition of the "war room" team depends on the tasks facing it. Testing with complex personalization will require professionals with good analytical skills.

If you need to run a lot of small tests to increase conversions, it makes sense to hire good UX designers and talented project managers.

Regardless of who it consists of, an Agile team must establish good communication with other employees within the company and have the tools to quickly communicate with them.

For example, to purchase marketing assets, a procurement analysis and permission from the legal department are required. In this case, the Agile team needs to communicate directly with the responsible people from these departments to discuss all changes in real time.

In one bank, when trying to organize a “combat room”, they were faced with the fact that legal department and quality control management stubbornly did not want to give them their specialists, and all because of competing priorities.

But senior marketing management, realizing that the Agile team would not exist without these employees, contacted their bosses and pushed for the solution.

It is better to identify the necessary people from other departments in advance and conclude a so-called service agreement with them so that they respond to your requests within a specified time frame.

Such interaction models are suitable for IT companies, financial groups and risk management organizations.

The war room team should be small so that all members remain accountable to each other. Optimally - no more than 8-12 people.

Jeff Bezos, an American entrepreneur and founder of Amazon.com, jokingly called them "two-pizza teams" - that's how much will be enough for them.

A good Scrum Master should have experience in Agile, have his own personal assistant, and lead the team.

He sets priorities and hypotheses for the team, manages backlogs, selects resources to implement them, and leads “sprints” (work cycles of up to two weeks).

Organizing an Agile war room requires a new approach to collaborating with external agencies and strengthening resources in media buying, creative and UX design, and analytics.

Working at an Agile pace will interfere with the company's usual rhythms. But experience shows that once synchronization occurs, efficiency will increase and these changes will be worthwhile.

Management marketing organization should keep a pulse on what is happening in the “war room”, but do this in moderation - no more than once every 3-4 weeks.

Automated tables of key metrics will help maintain transparency with management.

Reading about how teams work in “war rooms,” you might think that Agile only involves direct marketing.

But Agile also has a positive impact on product development, mix marketing and brand marketing through regular feedback, testing, idea iteration, market communication and rapid development of brand power.

A step-by-step look at what the Agile team does

Establishes work with company management and sets expectations from the team

Once the war room team is assembled, it needs to work with the organization's senior management and other stakeholders. As a result, everyone should have a common understanding of what goals the initiative leads to.

The War Room staff then holds a debriefing meeting to explain that the old rules no longer apply.

Agile culture and expectations need to be clearly communicated:

deep and continuous cooperation

accelerated pace

forget about the usual rules

quickly navigate unexpected developments

strive for simplicity

rely on facts; accountability

and most importantly - customer-oriented solutions

Analyzes data to see all possibilities

On the second day, the team should work fully. First, they take targeted analytics and extract insights from them to see problems, opportunities, and decision paths for customers and leads.

Stand-ups are held every morning, where each member of the group informs what was done yesterday and what is planned today. This establishes accountability, because each team member makes a promise to others and will have to report their results the next day.

Develops tests and determines the order in which they are carried out

In response to an identified problem or opportunity, the team puts forward a proposal on how it can be solved and how the effectiveness can then be tested. For each hypothesis, the team comes up with a verification method and determines key metrics - KPIs.

Once a list of potential tests has been compiled, the order in which they will be performed is determined. In this case, you should be guided by two criteria: the potential impact on the business and the complexity of implementation. Priority ideas are put at the top of the list and tested first.

Conducts testing

During one- or two-week sprints, the team tests how new methods work. For example, did an updated call-to-action button or an offer to a certain segment lead to an influx of bank customers who filled out a form to receive a loan online.

The team must act productively - several meetings, very short and to the point. This is necessary in order to provide good output, continuity of work flows and rapid approval of new ideas.

One group at the European Bank conducted weekly system media tests of all categories and regularly redistributed costs based on the results. They managed to increase conversion by 10 times.

Iteration of ideas

The team needs impeccable test controls to promptly report on each test. The Scrum Master usually holds sessions to review the results of the reviews.

They decide how to apply successful tests on a larger scale, adapt to feedback, and eliminate ineffective tests - all in a short time frame.

At the end of each sprint, the war room team debriefs to implement new lessons and share the results with all stakeholders. Depending on the testing performance in the previous cycle, the Scrum Master adjusts priorities and develops opportunities for the next one.

How to implement Agile company-wide

One fully operational “war room” team is good, but the main goal is to get the entire marketing company running Agile. And this requires time and resources.

Head of Sberbank of Russia German Gref:

Those who do not master Agile in current business processes today will be losers tomorrow.

The first step in rescaling is to be believed. As the war room team conducts testing, the results of Agile practices will build a reputation within the organization.

For example, for each successful test, the team predicts the impact and draws up a brief within the company, recommending the establishment of a number of rules governing business activities and initiatives.

However, you need to first study how it works on a larger scale.

When people trust you, it's easier to add new Agile teams. One large retail network expanded the scale to 13 “war room” teams working in parallel.

As organizations add new war rooms, it is important that each one is focused on just one goal, product or service, depending on business priorities.

For example, some companies create one team to work on attracting customers, and another to work on cross-selling and upselling to existing customers. In other organizations, such teams focus on different products, customer segments, or forks in the customer journey.

As the number of such groups grows and their capabilities increase, the focus of their activities can be gradually expanded - so that they update the rules of doing business and work contrary to the existing order.

This systematic approach doesn't just support each new command after launch. It also allows business leaders to develop metrics tables that provide insight into the performance of individual teams.

"Command post" helps to correctly distribute resources, get acquainted with best practices and fight the bureaucratic system. With this balance of power, it will provide new opportunities and speed up the pace of work in marketing, customer service, analytics, and procurement.

One US retailer set up an Agile marketing "command post" with several "war rooms" to measure personalization across all key categories.

This point ensured that the hundreds of tests that are carried out per year did not conflict with each other. This requires that adequate technology is used to collect the right data from the audience and then deliver personalized experiences across different channels and categories.

Each of the “war rooms” systematically tested different media attributes and optimized the conversion of the company’s website for all types.

After 18 months of operation, the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns quadrupled, customer satisfaction increased by 30%, and online sales doubled.

As successful testing results become business rules and war rooms become more numerous, the insights gained through Agile practices will have a greater impact on marketing as a whole.

Managers marketing companies It is often said that breaking old orders is difficult. Marketers need to aggressively implement Agile practices so that they can transform the organization into a fast-moving team that constantly increases business performance.

Agile marketing - breakthrough of 2016. Changing traditional methods to agile ones is like challenging yourself.

In this article, we'll cover 6 things you need to know about agile marketing. What it is; why is it needed and what does it give to marketers; how to overcome the difficulties of its application in a company.

What is agile marketing

This is agile marketing in which workflows consist of small tasks and experiments. Agile marketing responds immediately market conditions and improves customer experience across all channels. Final goal- involve users.

There is no need to make long-term plans, implement complex strategies, or run a cumbersome barrel organ to please users. Doing good for the client here and now is the main principle of agile marketing.

Where do legs grow from?

Agile marketing, of course, did not fall out of the sky. This is the evolution of flexible development methodology (agile software development). The methodology appeared about half a century ago in the depths of IBM. Back then it was described as step-by-step iterative development.

How is agile different from the traditional waterfall model? In the waterfall model, progress is only possible if the previous steps are successfully completed. If one of the steps fails, you will have to go back and start again.

In an agile model, a failed step will not affect the final result. You can skip it or reconfigure the circuit on the fly.

When did companies start using agile marketing?

Brave marketers practiced agile back in the 2000s. Matt Bloomberg, CEO of SaaS company Return Path, wrote in a blog post: “Agility can help bring complex and confusing processes to a close.”

Return Path have created a flexible six-release plan for themselves. Each was allocated 1-2 main topics and 2-3 weeks of time. The marketing team held daily “stand-up meetings” to literally adjust processes on the fly.

Why do you need agile marketing?

Agile marketing is a logical product of a rapidly changing world. If you want to keep up with the times, flexible marketing will help. Every year there are new points of interaction with customers, applications, products and solutions. Everything is changing - from your Instagram feed to the climate.

The Oreo company, maker of the famous cookie, is an example of flexible marketing. In 2013, a power outage occurred in New Orleans during the Super Bowl (American Football League final, the main sporting event of the year in the United States).

Oreo immediately responded with a gorgeous tweet: “No lights? And it is not necessary. And in the dark you can chew":

Oreo's tweet has been shared more than 15 thousand times, and the number of likes is off the charts.

In Russia, flexible marketing is used by Aviasales. This publication appeared on social networks immediately after the news of the divorce of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt:

The post went viral and caused several scandals, including a boycott by certain media outlets.

Agile marketers are like a rapid response team that rushes to the scene of a crime in seconds. It’s useful to plan, but it’s more important to change course in time, make a decision, and post viral content.

Another example is Aviasales. The number of likes and retweets speaks for itself:

Benefits of Agile Marketing

This is an opportunity to stay on the same page with users. Agile marketing uses all marketing channels - from social networks to Email. Business units use common information for a common purpose. Nobody asks the question, “What exactly does the marketing department do?”

Not everyone is ready to change. Change means disruption to long-term plans. It is easier and calmer to plan for changes, to take into account possible changes in strategies and methods in advance. Agile will help you “make friends” with changes and benefit from them.

Difficulties of using agile marketing

The main difficulty, as is usually the case, is in people's heads. Imagine that you have been playing in an orchestra all your life, repeating the same melody day after day. Suddenly you are transferred to a jazz group where there is a lot of improvisation. It's difficult, especially at first.

People from different departments may not communicate about work topics for years because they believe that their positions are not related. Break down these barriers if you truly need agile marketing.

The practical implementation of the agile ideology is scrum. This is absolutely new approach to project management. Scrum starts with making a list.

The marketing team focuses on a small area. A certain amount of time is allocated to complete tasks—a sprint. The Scrum Master is the main person who monitors the team and corrects the work.

At the end of the sprint, the process stops to summarize and draw conclusions. This is called a retrospective. Conclusions and results will help you discard steps that did not lead to success. The Scrum technique will quickly identify problems and shortcomings that are dragging you to the bottom.

Agile marketing to help and high sales for you!

When it comes to marketing, especially online marketing, the following artifacts immediately come to mind:

• Extensive technical specifications with a description of each advertising tool;
• A weighty media plan for 12 months, in which each channel is calculated with forecast indicators;
• The budget is fixed and distributed among the instruments. Does not change throughout the year;
• Complex structure of performers, a separate specialist or agency is responsible for each channel;
• Division of responsibility for advertising tools.

Unfortunately, such a traditional approach to marketing, with attempts to strictly plan and bureaucratize every step, simply does not leave a chance for rapid changes in campaigns in the conditions market competition, and now it has become critical.

Market changes dictate their own rules

Now we see something like the following:

• Markets are overheated by competitors, even the size of the budget does not solve the problem of “being first”;
• There is a clear demand for strong marketing teams (in-house or contract);
• The number of advertising tools is off the charts, and if you start counting the combinations of channels to achieve synergy, you get a three-digit number;
• Every day there are new news channels and new hypes that need to be used;
• Bringing traffic to the site is nonsense; it is much more difficult to convince the client to interact with the brand;
• End-to-end analytics and building customer relationships across multiple touchpoints have taken center stage in omnichannel campaigns.

If earlier this situation was attributed to the fact that some simply have sufficient budgets for experiments and mistakes, while others do not, today such an excuse does not work. Today, to be ahead, you need not so much budgets as flexibility, speed and team cohesion.

This approach to work is called Agile marketing. It is precisely aimed at solving the problem: “How, in conditions of limited resources, to build a flexible marketing campaign and get a multiple increase in profits.”

The emergence of the Agile Manifesto

Agile (English: flexible) came from the field of software development back in 2001. The development team decided that the traditional incremental model for creating new products was no longer effective and came up with an alternative approach.

Alternative - because he proposed, instead of one long-term action plan, short iterations of 1-4 weeks with subsequent adjustments to the product.

This is how the Agile Manifesto appeared, which consisted of four ideas and twelve clarifying principles.

These ideas did not provide an understanding of what exactly to do, but they placed the following emphasis:

• people and interaction more important than processes and tools;
• working product more important than comprehensive documentation;
• cooperation with the customer more important than agreeing on the terms of the contract;
• readiness for change more important than following the original plan.

Comparison of approaches: cascade model vs. Agile

They immediately began to form specific techniques, which contained these ideas at their core. For example, some - Scrum, XP, Kanban - are well-known today even among those who know almost nothing about Agile (in Russia, we can thank German Gref for the popularization of Agile, who zealously promotes this approach to the masses).

Application of Agile in Marketing

5 years ago, when we first started talking about Agile marketing at conferences, there was practically no information about this approach on the Internet. Among agencies, only a few tested such a scheme, and businesses, in principle, were not ready to accept the absence of strict planning.

In 2018 the situation changed in better side, and we notice how some Customers themselves are already asking: “Only Agile!”

The Agile Marketing Manifesto reveals the concept of the approach:

• Analytics instead of opinions and conventions. Constant cycle - research target audience, making changes and measuring results. Circle after circle;
• Customer-oriented cooperation instead of hierarchy. The marketing team functions in such a way that main task is to satisfy the customer's needs. The rest is secondary, there is no rivalry or internal conflicts;
• Adaptive and iterative campaigns instead of voluminous and complex. Refusal of long-term plans allows you to quickly adapt to changing consumer interests;
• Customer research instead of static forecasting. Advertising campaigns are built only on the basis of indicators confirmed by analysts. No general market research;
• Flexible planning instead of hard. The team adjusts plans with each new iteration, without being rigidly tied to the original picture;
• Reactions to change instead of following a plan. Rapid campaign changes are normal;
• Lots of little experiments instead of one big one. The validity and understanding of relationships in small experiments is greater than in long-term studies with many variables and factors.

Agile-marketing... Have you heard anything about this? If not, then you still have everything ahead: crazy Internet articles and no references to primary sources, strange conclusions and interpretations - everything is ahead, since this topic has been discussed quite passively for a couple of years, but is already noticeable for those who are interested in marketing and say nothing that the authors of this stuff will soon calm down.

And before your head swells from trying to figure it out, let me tell you something worthy of attention about Adgile marketing, especially since to find out the truth, I had to study several books in the original language, and a decent number of Internet publications and watch a couple of trainings. Thus, I believe that I am informed enough to tell you about Adgile marketing.

Why do you need to know about Agile marketing?

1. Yes, because there are still a lot of people who are not informed about Agile marketing, which means that once they pick up another topic for “pumping up”, consultants and trainers will not get rid of it for a long time. You need to be prepared!
2. Because if there is a discussion somewhere, then you need not only to have an encyclopedic understanding of this, but also to know a point of view that is different from the adherents of this phenomenon;
3. Because, unlike Internet copy-pastors and pseudo-specialists, I not only present arguments, but also quote primary sources, and they exist, which means we need to know about it;
4. Because, perhaps, you don’t have such a “toy” in your marketing department;
5. Because one of the well-known Western consulting firms, workfront dot com, in its brochure “I would”ve been an Agile marketer. But...” provides the following figures for the “popularity” of this phenomenon:

In a 2016 study from Workfront, a leading provider of workflow management solutions, which surveyed marketers, "among the most intriguing findings" were:

• 30% of marketers report using Agile to manage their workflows;
• 70% do not use, citing lack of knowledge/experience;
• 57% of marketers report that they do not plan their work well at all;
• 40% say their departments use a combination of different methodologies to manage work.

That is, according to this company, a third of those marketers they reached through research use some kind of Agile in their work. I think that we shouldn’t delude ourselves too much - it’s unlikely that the survey was in any way representative and it’s unlikely that they were able to survey any serious audience, but it’s worth keeping in mind the fact that companies that somehow and in some way the form they use is.

What you need to know about Agile?

At the turn of the 80s and 90s, programmers began to think about finding a more effective approach to managing software development. What is the connection between programmers and marketers? No! But for now we're talking about something else... In 2001, a small group of software developers formalized their views into a new approach to their programming work in the so-called Agile Manifesto, which states:

We present best ways software development. We do it ourselves and help others. These are the principles that we value:

• People and their interactions are more important than processes and tools;
• Ready software more important than documentation on it;
• Cooperation with the customer is more important than strict contractual restrictions;
• Reacting to change is more important than following a plan.

Manifesto for Agile Software Development” agilemanifesto dot org

Did you understand anything? What does all this have to do with marketing? Hmm... can you imagine how much patience I needed to have to re-read this “water” chapter after chapter and try to understand how all this applies to marketing? Wait, I’ll tell you everything... This is important!

Agile is a set of methods and methodologies that help your team think, work, and make decisions more effectively.

Ed. "Mann, Ivanov and Ferber"
ISBN 978-5-00100-614-5, 978-5-00117-035-8)

Agile is translated as “agile”, “mobile”, “alive”, “nimble”.

Agile [in a management context] is a noun, not an adjective. It is a specific work management methodology consisting of a set of principles and techniques that help teams work faster, smarter and more strategically.

from the workfront dotcom brochure “The Complete Guide to Agile Marketing.”

The basis of Agile management is:

1. Organizing work in your company in small cross-functional teams that contain all the necessary specialists;
2. The task is divided into small, functional parts focused on performers - team members;
3. All work is carried out in stages with permanent monitoring at key points (from once a week to once a month).
4. At the end of each stage, there is a review of what has been done to get feedback from the customer, and a retrospective - “debriefing” - to optimize your processes.
5. After this, the customer can change the requirements and their priorities and launch new stage work.

Scrum is one of several agile software development methodologies. Scrum is a rugby term that refers to the formation that players form before starting a throw-in. Among all Agile methods,Scrum differs in that it places a major emphasis on ,quality control of the work process. The method is that the development of the project is divided into stages - sprints, at the end of the cycle of which the client receives incredibly productive software, in a time frame that he did not even expect (I’m being funny if anyone doesn’t understand).

This is probably all very interesting. What the hell does all this have to do with marketing? Wait, I’ll definitely tell you everything!

Where and how else is Agile used?

What's so interesting about Agile? Yes, the fact that the efficiency of small working groups allows you to save: resources, time, money. I put everyone in an “open space”, gave them the opportunity to self-regulate their work within a short work cycle, iterations and breaking the project into stages and... and oops!

Agile is easily applicable in the development of anything: product ideas, logos, packaging, any concepts - in any management of creative processes. This means that it could be applicable:

• in creative agencies,
• in design
• and architectural bureaus,
• in grocery departments
• and industrial design
• in web mastering groups
• and when creating e-commerce software

Do you see what I see? Management, management, development, creativity... But what does marketing have to do with it, after all? Wait again...

“Nimble” marketing or Agile management – ​​I’m confusing the pedals!

You have to work well

Let me, again, quote from the book about “nimble marketing”:

Managers know that it is not wise not to spend the planned budget if they want the same budget next year. To waste, in any case, practically guarantees that resources will not be used effectively. Unable to adapt and reallocate funds mid-year, a marketing team in one area may have to slow down due to lack of resources, while managers in another area are sitting on a pile of money or spending it on things that don't maximize ROI.

Well, with the fact that it is impossible to work ineffectively and it is not reasonable to have a tight budget, without the possibility of itemized redistribution of funds - this is understandable. You have to work well. Do I need to implement Agile for this? I don't know.

Friends, I cited this passage as an illustration of the fact that all books, websites and publications about “agile” marketing consist of two unrelated blocks:

• statement that one cannot work poorly
• and a description of what Agile is.

Why management must be effective in a company is clear even without them. What does marketing have to do with it? In general, there are quite serious reasons to believe that adherents of “agility” confuse management and marketing.

Marketing or management?

It is not only the adherents of this theory who confuse management (as a process) and marketing (as a concept of market activity). They are confused by businessmen and marketers who pass off, say, the unusual nature of advertising, the quality of lead generation and CTR as the quality of marketing. So the ideologists who want to make money on this concept, as they say, were ordered by God himself not just to “confuse”, but to “embellish a little” or outright lie...

What is the difference between marketing management and the market concept? Let me just repeat what I already wrote:

1. It is necessary to distinguish between marketing management - as a kind of management that is carried out in the marketing department and marketing - as market principles on which the entire company exists.
2. It is necessary to distinguish between a good result of management in the marketing department and a good result of market activities (marketing) of the entire company.
3. It is necessary to distinguish between process indicators in the marketing department (reach, conversion, lead generation, clicks, sales) and result numbers - customer satisfaction.
4. Marketing philosophy and empathy are not specific to the marketing department, but to the company.

Why you should not confuse management in the marketing department and the marketing of the company is written in great detail. After reading, most likely, you will have a strong belief that better management in the marketing department (with or without Agile) and customer satisfaction of the company are connected, but very conditionally. At a minimum, because the quality of marketing is influenced by both the procurement management and the sales department and how much empathy the service managers have. Improving the quality of management in one of the departments will not increase customer satisfaction!

More likely,

Adherents of this concept, when speaking about “Nimbleness,” do not mean marketing, but management. The very definition and description of the principles from the books speak about processes (management), and not about customer satisfaction (marketing).

Software development or website development, banner layout or coming up with conditions new promotion Marketing is just management. If you try to attribute something to this English word with a hyphen, then it will be Agile management.

I am ready to agree with the attempts, if not to accept and implement this concept into management, then at least to understand its advantages for management. And yet, the authors of the Agile marketing concept are lying, because they are talking about some new way of satisfying customers, different from marketing as we understand it.

Why did Agile adepts need marketing?

I think that you can already see how I, following the propagandists of this concept, am unsuccessfully trying to “pull this, frankly speaking, not very tricky principle of management organization” into marketing, and string it onto market activities. Why am I doing this? I’m trying to understand... Why are the adherents of “agility” trying to introduce this “innovation” into marketing? In general, the purpose of introducing something new is usually dissatisfaction with the old. In this case, it’s dissatisfaction with the fact that consultants can’t make money on marketing, but I really want to!

The fundamental nature of the basic principles, the masters of science, the huge amount of published literature leaves them no chance. This means that you need to push your competitors apart with your elbows, shout loudly: “old marketing is shit that has outlived its usefulness” and there is some kind of “ new marketing". Now, out of nowhere, a “clearing for mowing money” has opened up, large and flat. Don’t believe me? Look...

Here they sell you certificates of Agile marketing specialists! How?! You, who have work experience, a university diploma and specialized marketing education, are still not certified? Well, how can that be? Collectors of diplomas, certificates of honorary members of the “vanity fair”, you are already behind in this rapidly changing world...

To be honest, having read a lot of “wonderful” things, in all respects, about the Agile concept, I quite understand why the “agile” needed marketing. But I still don’t understand, not just why marketing specialists need it (as they say, everyone decides for themselves), but how, introduced in the department, “agility” helps consumers become more satisfied with goods and services. Here, as they say, point at me with at least one text of any book, at least one paragraph, one line... How?

But what really struck me were the views of the “nimble” on you and me – marketers and our consumers.

How do Agile marketers lie?

Wild, bold as a bullet, sharp

Agile consultants trying to sell this concept to marketers argue that modern world everything is changing very quickly and the “old” principles of work based on progressive movement towards the goal are outdated, simply because the goal no longer exists or it changes so quickly that only those who are Agile can keep up with it. They use the following texts to confirm their thoughts:

That is, while “they” were “discussing” and drawing banners for 3x6 billboards for many years, Facebook suddenly appeared for them? In fact, at the time of writing this article, Instagram has been around for eight years. I admit that someone accidentally found out about it recently. I just don’t understand, what does this have to do with consumers of goods and services? Well, this is their view of consumers, but this is how they represent you and me, marketers:

Did you understand anything? I don’t know if the consultants were making such a bad joke or if they actually have such an idea about consumers and marketing, but the fact is a fact - in one or another similar form they claim that the rapid change of everything, and, as a consequence, chaos and Lack of professionalism, including management, in a rapidly changing world requires a quick response. And you know, I agree with them.

The less you plan and the more chaotically you move, the more often you need to stop to confer and double-check what you’ve done!

Would you like to quote how the same idea sounds among Agile marketing adherents:

Agile is optimal in situations where it is difficult, if not impossible, to accurately estimate the scope of a project, and where errors in estimating will waste effort and resources.

Apress. Nov 2011. ISBN-10 143023315X; ISBN-13 9781430233152

For non-professionals, with a lack of understanding of trends and a weak understanding of the market today, it is indeed easier to quickly respond to external challenges. Efficiency and nimbleness are an alternative to knowledge and understanding of market trends. Let's say!

That's not even the problem. Agile consultants, blaming marketers for the sins of ignorance of the market and lack of efficiency, have little idea of ​​what is written in the books of adherents, where they get their “knowledge” from. A lot of interesting things are written there, which allows us to doubt the value of this concept for marketing.

For small and self-sufficient work groups

Let me quote it again:

Agile – organizing work in your company in small cross-functional teams that contain all the necessary specialists

“Understanding Agile. Values, principles, methodologies" Andrew Stellman, Jennifer Greene.
Ed. "Mann, Ivanov and Ferber" ISBN 978-5-00100-614-5, 978-5-00117-035-8

and here, from another author:

The ideal size of an "agile team" is small - from three to seven people. Assign one person to be the Scrum Master for each team; and remember that this may be a rotating role. Also assign a project manager for each Agile team; although you can work with multiple Agile teams for one project manager. This is a person they probably already obey. If you have more than seven people on your team, you can create several smaller Agile teams.

The Agile Marketer. Turning Customer experience into your competitive advantage Roland Smart.
Willey. ISBN: 9781119223016

Thus, 3-7 people is working group local process. Everything that is not local is either several different projects and groups, or a large company with many marketing processes, working like normal people, guided by generally accepted management principles.

"Which contain all the necessary specialists"

This phrase is also taken from the definition in the book... This means that as soon as you involve, say, an outsourcer in the work of a working group, strict contractual obligations arise between you. You can't do it without a contract! From legal, financial, administrative logic. The leader, moderator and customer of the work being performed must also be part of this “Nimble” group or a contract must also be concluded with him and further follow the logic of contractual obligations. Why so? I think that this is already clear to you colleagues.

Well, for those who don’t understand, look at what the visualization of the difference between Agile principles and those principles on which management stands (for some reason, normal management is called by the authors: “waterfall method” - sequential execution of a series of works). Here's how different the principles of the two views on management are:

From this figure, we will be interested in the selected block for now. From an Agile point of view, “collaboration with the customer” is more important than compliance by the customer and the contractor with contractual obligations. And this is what “cooperation”, in the absence of strict obligations, turns out to be in practice:

I see, right? The Agility concept works when:

1. The customer is internal (this is, say, an employee of your or another department, in a company in which Agile has been implemented everywhere);
2. The customer is not crafty and did not have the goal of simply getting something from you without paying (and who hasn’t encountered this?);
3. When the customer shows high competence in the work that the working group is doing (and how often does this happen?);
4. If the customer’s plans and priorities do not change (and this is generally the case)
5. And in any case, when the customer or outsourcer didn’t give a damn (hmm...) didn’t give a damn (however, but, here...) respects the specifics of the management of your working group.

Otherwise, it's not about Agile, it's about real life. Thus, either “nimble” self-sufficient interested in solving the problem small group, without the involvement of external “forces”, or only contractual relations with a list of mutual obligations, deadlines and benefits of the parties!

Market Feedback

And here is another problem with the applicability of Agile in marketing management, noticed not only by me, but also by the author of one of the books. I will quote:

Traditional research methods are simply not in sync with Agile, mainly because the "agile" approach to product management is quicker in decisions and conclusions than traditional ones. marketing research. To illustrate, compare input data coming directly from consumers and data from those intermediaries in marketing channel who manage consumers of the service (distributors and sellers). Direct user feedback is ongoing, while business feedback is periodic, typically through dealer meetings or customer advisory councils that meet quarterly or less frequently.

"The Agile Marketer. Turning Customer experience into your competitive advantage" Roland Smart.
Willey. ISBN: 9781119223016

and here's another...

Many companies run into problems by focusing only on direct customer feedback.

The Agile Marketer. Turning Customer experience into your competitive advantage" Roland Smart.
Willey. ISBN: 9781119223016

I don’t know about you, but in connection with the quoted passage, I have two questions:

1. Agile marketers wish they could eliminate the need to get market data from consumers? Seriously?
2. Who needs this kind of flexible “marketing” if it doesn’t involve getting feedback from the market?

How do you like it, colleagues? Do you still think of Agile as a marketing tool? Well then I have more...

Marketing Strategy and Agile

Quote again:

...this in no way means that the strategy is no longer relevant. No organization can survive without a clear understanding of how and what it will focus on; without a plan that is based on an assessment of market conditions, internal company capabilities, differentiation, etc. […] Agile serves the immediate reality, while strategy looks beyond.

The Agile Marketer. Turning Customer experience into your competitive advantage." Roland Smart.
Willey. ISBN: 9781119223016)

Now I would need to insert some smart comment, but the thought of the Agile preacher is so complete and accurate that I can’t even say anything about the inconsistency between the marketing strategy and the idea of ​​“agility”.

The apotheosis of Agile marketing lies

Promoters of “nimble” marketing, without any doubt, present the following to marketing specialists:

[Marketing] school teaches you to necessarily do the 4Ps (product, price, promotion and place), and bam - you have success, but this is not always the case [...] In this book I will talk about people and how to interact with them, identify the other 4Ps and the success of your programs, your companies and your own career

"Agile Marketing" M.Accardi-Petersen.

That is, the author said: “Bam!” - and canceled the marketing complex. Indeed, if long-term NPD management for the development of a new product does not fit into Agile, then “Product” can be thrown out of the 4Ps, concentrating “on people”. And that's not all... In the first chapter of the same book, the author lists the probably well-known "" and "" of E. Rice and J. Trout, and then the author writes:

Before I go any further, I must clarify that I am a big believer in brand and the importance of brand in the marketplace and in marketing. But I'm not convinced that marketing can truly create a brand, as defined in the classical sense and set out in what I might call the 44 Laws of Marketing

"Agile Marketing" M.Accardi-Petersen.
Apress. Nov 2011. ISBN-10 143023315X; ISBN-13 9781430233152

Oops! Following the marketing complex, branding was also canceled! Do you think this is an author's reservation or a translator's mistake? No! The fact is that branding still does not fit into the framework of the Agile marketing concept. The point is not that the brand formation process is lengthy and cannot be completed within the Scrum cycle. The fact is that the brand is not formed in the marketing department or by the Agile team...

Brand – unique idea or the concept you put in the consumer's head.

"The 22 Immutable Laws of Branding" Al Ries and Laura Ries,
Harper Paperbacks, 2002

And now a consumer who needs to put the name of a brand into his head for a long time is definitely not a member of a “nimble” team, which means that, according to the preacher of Agile marketing, you can believe in branding, but it is almost impossible to create a brand.

Following the brand, therefore, it is also necessary to abolish the concept of positioning, competitive advantage, differentiation, since all this, just like the brand, is formed not in the Agile group or in the marketing department, but in the minds of consumers. Having agreed to this, you need to cancel the marketing itself, well, simply because...

Marketing is not a departmental activity, but a market activity: in people’s heads, in stores, in goods and services, on TV, in squares and events.

This is marketing, and not what the “Nimble Ones” think about it.

Something as a conclusion

Friends, I once wrote that

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