A few months ago, McConnell Marketing lost a beloved friend.

His name was Mr. Tea and , despite being a tea plant, he was a valued member of our team. We were all excited for the day we’d be able to harvest his leaves and enjoy some office-grown tea.

Unfortunately Mr. Tea didn’t get to live out his life’s purpose,  but that doesn’t mean he still can’t give us something of value. In fact, here are some lessons from our brief adventure into to  tea cultivation that are just as true for marketing! 

 

1. Sometimes, despite plenty of love and nurturing… it’s just not meant to be.

We’ve had other plants in our office before… they’ve all died. It’s not a matter of effort, it just doesn’t work out. There’s just something about our office that kills them.

Marketing can be like that too. Sometimes your idea, design or strategy is just wrong. It doesn’t matter how well you execute it, how much preparation you put in or how good you think it is, it just isn’t the right fit.

The worst thing you can do in this situation is  continue to pour energy and resources into something that you know won’t work. Step up and cut your losses instead of continuing to water a dead plant!

2. Failure comes quickly when you set yourself up for it.

Tea isn’t meant to be grown in Ohio, it’s not a very hardy plant. Tea needs a warm, sub-tropical climate to thrive.

Trying to grow tea in our office was an exercise in setting ourselves up for failure.

Think about that idea when it comes to your next project. Are you setting yourself up to fail ? Can you avoid it?  Step back from the whiteboard for a minute and try to identify disadvantages and obstacles to success before you encounter them! You might be amazed at the results.

3. Fluorescent bulbs are not an acceptable substitute for sunlight. 

Mr. Tea first started to show signs of distress after being moved away from his window ledge due to a construction project. The problem was  that the light from the office’s fluorescent light bulbs was not a good substitute for natural sunlight.

“All that glitters is not gold” comes to mind in this situation as does The idea that some things are too good to be true.  It’s important to keep in mind that all alternatives are not the same when it comes to a problem.

An obvious example of this in marketing is in communication. Just because you can communicate the same message through email as you can in a meeting, does not mean that you should. The social cues that come along with a face-to-face meeting just can’t be matched by a Skype meeting or phone call.

Be wary of options and why you’re choosing them. Is it out of convenience and ease, or is it really the best choice?

4. Never, Ever give up. 

We recently replaced Mr. Tea’s empty spot on our ledge with a bromeliad. It’s a hardy plant that requires little attention and grows in a variety of conditions. Hopefully we’ve learned from our mistakes and aren’t setting ourselves up for failure this time. We’ll do our best to keep this guy in real sunlight and if he dies, we’ll probably get another plant.

You might think that this lesson conflicts with our first one, but it doesn’t. Cutting your losses and quitting are very different things.

Not giving up means that after you kill that bad idea you attack again from a different angle. You try a different solution. You try until you succeed.

Mr. Tea never succeeded in becoming the full grown harvested tea plant we all wanted him to be, but we’re sure if he had a choice, he would never have stopped trying. RIP Mr. Tea.

 

What marketing lessons have you learned from common office decorations? Let us know in our comments section below!