I Look Good With A Five O’Clock Shadow But I Still Use Ockham’s Razor
- 2 Comments
- March 1st, 2007
Why make things more complicated then they need to be? Why add features to a marketing program that at best qualify as “nice to have”? Because we are all 
scared of acknowledging that sometimes, Less is More.
William of Ockham was a 14th century English Franciscan friar and logician who stated “entities should not be multiplied beyond necessity.” This has come to be known as Ockham’s Razor. Cut away all that is not necessary. In the ensuing seven centuries this “razor” has been applied to biology, medicine, philosophy, physics and even zoology. Let’s now add marketing to the illustrious list.
When faced with a new initiative you should be asking yourself “what is the absolute minimum we need to get the job done?” and then build upon that. When my previous agency OnLine Communications was working on the Viagra launch we were faced with the challenge of how to score medical education exams taken by participating physicians. This was 1998 and much of the distance learning technology that we take for granted had yet to be developed. Remote login to databases was reserved for the IBM’s of the world. Our solution: convert test answers to an email and fire them off to the accrediting institution. It wasn’t sexy but it worked. And it allowed us to get the program up and running immediately.
So… what can you do to eliminate waste and preserve budget? Use a good razor and identify the essentials. You can learn a lot from a friar.
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