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A time to focus on marketing questions, not answers

Mark Schaefer
4 min readJun 22, 2020

A news headline caught my attention and it reminded me of an important marketing idea to blog about for you — the wisdom of focusing on marketing questions, building flexibility into your plans, and perhaps (gasp) having no plan at all … especially in this crisis.

First, the headline, then I’ll explain.

What’s up with Quibi?

The most-watched new entry in the streaming content space is Quibi, a startup that is producing mobile-friendly, episodic content with big-name stars … and it seems to be failing.

It was founded by Jeffery Katzenberg, a veteran Hollywood executive who ran Disney’s movie business and co-founded the DreamWorks studio. Meg Whitman is the company’s CEO. She grew eBay from a startup with 30 employees to an e-commerce goliath and she was the CEO of Hewlett Packard.

Quibi entered the market with huge financial commitments from big brands, enviable access to cash, and the promise of a new storytelling format — short programs, 10 minutes or less, that people could watch on the go.

But the problems are piling up and making headlines — Missed subscriber targets, disappointed advertisers, deep-pocketed companies launching competing products, and a global pandemic that has made Quibi’s main selling point —…

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Mark Schaefer
Mark Schaefer

Written by Mark Schaefer

Keynote speaker, marketing strategy consultant, Rutgers U faculty and author of 10 books including KNOWN, Marketing Rebellion, and Belonging to the Brand!

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