I sound like a broken record (not that anyone still has records) when I endlessly implore companies to focus their marketing on a few core initiatives where they have the greatest chance of success.

For any manager having trouble focusing, I recommend this recent article in Harvard Business Publishing: “The Key to Effectiveness? Focus” — and in particular this passage:

One of the tough truths of management is that we all have trouble making choices. While older and supposedly wiser, we still often act like kids in the candy store who want everything. So we go after too many markets and too many demographics with too many products.

One of the reasons some companies lack focus is because they lack the courage and culture to make difficult choices. Managers pride themselves on multi-tasking; fiddling with smart phones during meetings is accepted practice, almost a badge signifying the user’s importance. And there’s a daring feel to the concept of throwing a horde of ideas out there and waiting to find out what sticks, or juggling a bunch of balls and seeing which ones stay up. Until it all crashes.

There are very few success stories from the ranks of companies spreading themselves too thin or trying to be all things to all customers. There are plenty of success stories from companies that focus.