My company and our products live and breathe Lean processes and Target-Value Design (TVD). In fact, our marketing mimics TVD. The Lean Construction Institute states TVD "offers designers an opportunity to engage in the design conversation concurrently with those people who will procure services and execute the design."
If you are like me the first time I heard that then you are probably saying "WHAT?!"
TVD means the creative design of a project is also focused on the cost to build it. And the people who are building it are also focused on the design. TVD reduces value engineering, reduces change orders, co-locates ideas, create solution based designs, and designs for what is constructable (instead of figuring out the constructability of the design). TVD means less rework.
Marketing should be target-value designed. Imagine less rework in marketing. (AND THE CROWD GOES WILD WITH CHEERING!) Imagine everyone in the company having a marketing mindset and working towards the same end goal. (MEN BEGIN TO SHED TEARS OF JOY!) Imagine marketing being a benchmark during everyone's annual review. (CONFETTI CANONS ARE GOING OFF AND THE TICKER TAPE PARADE IS GOING DOWN MAIN STREET!) Imagine having a seat at the business table of your firm and being able to design company objectives that makes non-marketers part of the marketing solution. (YOU HAVE JUST WON THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE!!!)
My marketing utopia might seem over the top but when we as marketing professionals work with other firm leaders to design marketing campaigns/initiatives then we get everyone on board. We understand the long term goals, can design marketing campaigns to meet those goals, and track our efforts with quantifiable numbers. When applying TVD to marketing it is extremely difficult for naysayers to have a leg to stand on because we are aiming to accomplish company goals and can back up marketing efforts with facts.
As with TVD on projects, TVD in marketing is not a flip of the switch. It requires a mindset reset. It requires management to take a leap of faith to do the right thing. And it requires a team effort to do something different than "the way we have always done it". If marketing TVD leads to a utopia then imagine the implications of what TVD can do for our industry as a whole.