Every morning, while everyone is still fast asleep, comfortable, warm and in bliss – the cock crows. Grumbling people get out of bed and go about their chores. Why?

You see, when the cock crows, everyone knows the sun is going to rise. Then, if the cock does not crow, or worse, there are no cocks where you live (get your head on straight); will the sun rise?

Sometimes in marketing, isn’t this how it seems to be? You see, we marketers have all these creative ideas, cool slogans and dazzling logos; our marketing {crowing} is irressitible. We hypnotise them with our witty copy, compel them with our TV commercials and of course, endorsements – who can resist when a movie star tells you which soap to buy?

So, it is not surprising, that just as there are some dumb cocks (no pun intended) who think that they are the ones who bring the sun up each day; we marketers sometimes feel that nothing succeeds without our brilliant marketing. It’s exciting stuff, this marketing.

What I want to say here, is that success requires teamwork. Any company that thinks that it can succeed with excellent technology alone, or products, or low cost, or great marketing – are delusional. So, we need great marketers; but these must complement a group of great engineers/cooks/designers…. you get the picture.

One final word on this. A smart aleck farmer hated cocks, so he assigned that crowing job to the ducks. I don’t know how successful it was, his farm is still dark, probably not awake yet.