That Could Work: Why “That Won’t Work for Us” Is Killing Your Marketing

One of the most limiting mindsets I’ve come across in my career - both in full-time roles and through consultancy work - is the phrase:  

“That won’t work for my product / my customers / my market.”

Let me be clear: this isn’t about claiming I know your business better than you do.
I don’t.  

And it’s definitely not about pretending that every strategy works everywhere - because they don’t. 

What I *am* saying, though, is that ecommerce brands waste billions each year through self-imposed limits based purely on assumptions.  

Not evidence. Not data. Just - prejudice in disguise in 21st century marketing.

And I’m not even talking about ideas that have been tested and failed. I mean
ideas that never even make it off the whiteboard because someone, somewhere, decided *in advance* that they “won’t work.”

Here are a few of the classics I hear all too often:

- “Branding doesn’t matter in this market.”

- “My customers will never buy online.”

- “We’re a distress purchase - we can’t stimulate demand.”

- “The quoted X-year customer cycle is an industry truth.”

- “Pictures and video make more impact than written content”

Across 12 sectors - six in-house and six as a consultant - I’ve started from scratch every time. Different audiences, different products, different dynamics.  

But what remains constant is what *can* work: the underlying marketing
principles and the willingness to test them.

Right now, digital marketing gives you an unprecedented ability to:

1. Risk a small amount.  

2. Test quickly.  

3. Learn a lot.

And the biggest barrier to doing that isn’t budget or capability - it’s belief. 

So I’ll leave you with a question:  

If you haven’t tested something yet, how can you be so sure it *won’t* work?

 

"Not within a thousand years would man ever fly".

Wilbur Wright, 1902