Fortitude: The Key to Marketing Success

Marketing is simple.

One segments the market by need, develops a solution to meet that need better than the competition, and communicates the solution’s “story” to the market until the market appreciates its value and chooses accordingly.

As a result, marketing can go array for a few straightforward reasons:

1. The market can be improperly segmented. A firm can misdiagnose a segment’s “need” or misattribute said need to either too big/small a demographic or psychographic segment to achieve its growth ambitions.
2. Develop a solution that is inferior to the competition’s. A firm offers a suboptimal solution or one mispriced commensurate with its perceived value. In other words, the market does not value the value the firm provides. The prospect’s pain has not reached a detrimental point to address or the solution does not return enough desired value.
3. The Solution’s story is neither strong nor memorable. The firm’s message looks and sounds like everyone else. Consequently, the market does not hear the message or ignores it like the drone of a nearby expressway.
4. Inconsistent and unsustained marketing effort.  Companies become dissatisfied with their marketing outcomes and grow weary of their own messaging. Consequently, they alter messages too often, prematurely reduce investments (time, resources, and budget), switch channels or communicators, and revert to old familiar habits. Ultimately, they give up.

I have seen each of these issues inhibit the growth and marketing success of high-potential firms. Items 1-3 are textbook marketing strategy issues. This is the core work of Prudent Pedal and requires strategic thinking and discernment (i.e., Prudence).  Issue 4 is a different animal and a more common cause of “marketing” failure.

The firms that overcome issue four demonstrate a cultural virtue that others lack—Fortitude.

What is Fortitude and Why Is It Important to Marketing Success?

Fortitude is a virtue that encompasses courage, resilience, tenacity, and strength in the face of adversity or difficulty. It is the ability to confront challenges, persevere through obstacles, and maintain steadfast resolve to pursue goals despite setbacks. 

If Prudence discerns the proper strategic course, Fortitude fuels the journey.

Fortitude is important to Marketing (any) success for several reasons:

Courage in Decision-Making: Success often involves making difficult decisions that involve risks or uncertainties. Fortitude enables individuals to make courageous decisions, take calculated risks, and step outside their comfort zones when necessary.

Persistence: Achieving significant goals requires consistent effort over time. Fortitude helps individuals maintain persistence and discipline in their actions, even when progress seems slow or obstacles seem insurmountable.

Overcoming Challenges: Success requires individuals to overcome various challenges (personal or professional) in pursuing goals. Fortitude provides the inner strength and determination needed to face these challenges head-on and find solutions.

Resilience: When pursuing long-term goals, setbacks and failures are inevitable. Fortitude allows individuals to bounce back from setbacks, learn from failures, and continue moving forward with renewed determination.

Personal Growth: Fortitude fosters personal growth and development by encouraging individuals to confront their fears, embrace challenges, and expand their capabilities. Overcoming obstacles through fortitude builds self-confidence and resilience.

Leadership and Influence: Leaders who demonstrate fortitude inspire confidence and trust in others. They lead by example, showing resilience in the face of adversity and motivating others to persevere towards shared goals.

How Prudence and Fortitude Work Together

We cannot discuss Fortitude outside of the mother of all virtues, Prudence. Prudence and Fortitude are closely related and often work in tandem to guide ethical decision-making and behavior. 

• Prudence Guides Action: Prudence provides the intellectual framework and wisdom to assess situations, evaluate options, and make informed decisions based on ethical principles and long-term goals. It helps individuals discern the right course of action in complex or challenging circumstances.
• Fortitude Enables Execution: Once prudence has guided the decision-making process, fortitude empowers individuals to act courageously and persistently pursue the chosen course of action. It provides the inner strength and resilience needed to overcome obstacles, face adversity, and stay committed to virtuous goals despite challenges.
• Mutual Reinforcement: Prudence and fortitude reinforce each other in ethical behavior. Prudence ensures that actions are aligned with moral principles and long-term goods, while fortitude ensures that individuals have the courage and determination to follow through with virtuous actions, even in the face of difficulty or opposition.

How Can Firms Build the Virtue of Fortitude

Fortitude like all virtues must be consciously developed. It is a habit and must be practiced—individually and collectively. First in small things, then in great things. 

Here are some ways firms can cultivate and build fortitude:

Face Challenges Head-On: Embrace challenges rather than avoid them. Each challenge you overcome builds resilience and confidence in your ability to handle adversity. In the competitive landscape of professional services, firms often face challenges such as market fluctuations, changing client expectations, and emerging competitors. Go-No-Go sales decisions, adding new capabilities, expanding into new markets, killing outdated lines of business, installing new technology, firing clients, or implementing new pricing strategies can be gut-wrenching decisions. However, they are often the decisions that create growth inflection points. 

Set Goals and Persist: Set meaningful goals that require effort and persistence to achieve. Break them down into smaller, manageable tasks, and work consistently towards them despite obstacles or setbacks. This is particularly important as a firm tries to penetrate new markets and build its brand’s relevance. Building one’s reputation takes more time than most firms prefer to spend. Be prepared to lose proposals because you lack the necessary Results or client list in a given market. If you have the right Expertise, a compelling point of view, and build Simpatico, wins will come and the flywheel will turn.

Learn from Setbacks: Instead of being discouraged by failures or setbacks, view them as opportunities for growth and learning. Analyze what went wrong, identify lessons learned, and adjust your approach accordingly. When launching new solutions or testing new POVs, firms often must act with limited data/insights. Resilient firms understand that they are operating under a hypothesis and need to test the market, adapt features or messages, invest resources intelligently, and fail quickly if need be. That’s the process to drive long-term growth.

Step Outside Your Comfort Zone: Challenge everyone in the firm to try new experiences or take on tasks that push them outside their comfort zone. Building fortitude involves expanding capabilities and embracing discomfort. Long-term professional services firm success comes to the firms that manage their Performance Envelope, the evolving business model/service mix. These firms strategically “skate to where the puck is going to be.”  They recognize that their core services are already being commoditized by competitive pressures. Top firms keep expanding their core by building new capabilities and adding value.

Practice Courageous Decision-Making: Develop the habit of making decisions based on your values and long-term goals, even when they involve risks or uncertainty. Trust in your abilities and convictions to guide you through difficult choices. Lemmings run off the cliff together. The leaders and firms that can say the emperor has no clothes differentiate themselves. More often than not, firms that “zig” when the market “zags” come out on top in the long run.  Fortitude gives firms the wherewithal to make hard choices under good conditions instead of when the firm is behind the eight ball and there are no alternatives.

Stay Committed to Values: Fortitude is not just about perseverance; it’s also about staying true to your principles and values, even when it’s difficult or unpopular. Integrity and moral courage are integral aspects of building fortitude. Turning down business misaligned with business goals, firing an abusive rainmaker, or refusing to misrepresent unpopular research findings are not easy choices when they have tangible financial costs. They must be made nonetheless. Fortitude ensures that your words and actions align with the firm’s ethical standards and client commitments. 

Practice Gratitude and Optimism: Regularly reflect on your experiences and evaluate how you’ve handled challenges. Celebrate your successes and acknowledge areas where you can further develop fortitude. Cultivate a positive mindset by practicing gratitude and focusing on the strengths and resources you have. Optimism helps build resilience and fortitude in the face of adversity. 

Conclusion

Marketing is simple. It is not easy. There are four straightforward causes of marketing failure.

1. Improperly segmenting your markets. 
2. Not developing a superior product or service. 
3. A weak story.
4. Inconsistent and unsustained marketing effort.  

Prudence addresses numbers 1-3 by providing the wisdom and judgment to discern what is good and right (the goal). Prudence weighs various factors, consequences, and ethical principles before taking action. Fortitude tackles number 4 with the courage and resilience to pursue virtuous goals and overcome challenges along the way. 

Building Prudence or Fortitude is a continuous process that involves deliberate effort, self-awareness, and a willingness to grow. By actively practicing wisdom, resilience, courage, and perseverance in your daily life, you can strengthen the virtue of fortitude and enhance your ability to navigate challenges and achieve marketing—and personal—success.