“Amateurs talk about tactics, professionals talk about logistics”, Napoleon once explained about warfare.
The gist is this: When amateurs think of warfare, they think of flanks, maneuvers and maps littered with red arrows. The stuff we see in movies. Professionals are about logistics: Keeping soldiers fed, engines fueled and guns loaded. When we move past Hollywood cliches, this becomes obvious: A tank without fuel and ammo is just a cage.
In warfare and everywhere else, logistics is a hidden, but crucial aspect. The same dynamic exists in marketing.
In marketing, amateurs talk creativity, professionals talk operations.
Creativity is to marketing what the cunning flank maneuver is to warfare. Viral tweets, hilarious commercials, promotion so subtle it merges with pop culture. Like the flank maneuver, these things get results, but only with the proper “logistics”.
By logistics, I mean you need systems that turn attention into customers. You need positioning that differentiates you. And you need operations that ensure you keep delivering. These logistics are unsexy. They don’t win awards. But they’re crucial to your success. No viral tweet will make money if your landing page doesn’t convert.
In warfare, you can’t sent an infantry unit into a risky assault if that infantry unit isn’t actually there. But in marketing, there are no physical logistics. That’s why many skip the logistics and go straight to tactics. They obsess over viral tweets, social likes or being creative.
Those things can work, but only if the fundamentals—the logistics—are in place.