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The guy from Chicago never called back but I am still on hold reading email – this time, at the docks, via a faint and unsteady WiFi signal. I'm crammed into Ibis’s tiny dining area with one foot in the bilge and the other on a tool box, waiting on Mike The Boat Man and his bearded, ear-ringed, long-haired assistant to come back. Forty minutes ago, wearing nothing but jean cut-offs, they'd climbed aboard a moped and putt-putted off to buy engine parts.
Like many marketing guys, I have no idea why the bilge is three-quarters full although I am fairly certain that a broken “Y” valve in the galley explains the coffee grinds and cola. The rainbow colored diesel slick is perfect mystery. (Hence, Mike The Boat Man’s dramatic departure.) And the rest of the odd composition is not even remotely thinkable.
Worse, I have no idea how long my foot’s been soaking (and even playfully splashing) in the bilge. I’ve been working. Working hard with deep concentration. That’s why you pay me the big bucks. I’ve been taking whatever billable time I can get, wherever I can get to it -- even when it means baby-sitting Iris on a Wednesday afternoon with it hot as blazes down below because Mike The Boat Man has left the companionway open again while the AC’s running (and I just refuse to get up and close it again). To add insult to injury, I’m drinking a warm – almost hot—can of Budweiser because the refrigerator’s dead – when I came aboard I found my shore power cable unplugged – the cable hanging off the side rails into the water – and both battery banks sucked into a never-before-experienced bone-dry.
I’m not a happy camper.
Making matters worse, I’ve spent the last three hours – shipwrecked, you could say – explaining to a client (via inconsistent email transmissions on the wavering WiFi) that a marketing communications plan is different than a marketing plan per se. I wish I had a nickel for every time I’ve explained that (and I wish I had all those nickels by the time Mike The Boat Man gets back with the bill for the new part).
A marketing plan addresses “discovery” items such as short- and long-term sales forecasts, production and profit targets, pricing policy, promotional and selling strategy, staffing requirements, and whatnot. A marketing communications plan focuses on just the communications aspects -- the logo and tagline, website, advertising, direct mail, PR, trade shows, telemarketing and so on.
Sometimes a marketing communications plan is a component of a marketing plan, but it never goes never the other way around.
“Marketing Plan, Schmarketing Plan,” you might say.
Regardless that you already know the difference, others may not.
Given my particular station in life, I feel it worthwhile to point out the difference just as I would were you ordering from the menu at the Rusty Anchor unaware that the flat-nosed dolphin fish (“Mahi Mahi”) is different from the bottle-nosed aquatic mammal (“Flipper”).
As your host, I assume you'd want to know.
It changes the dining experience completely.
-- to be continued --
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