Good, Fast and Cheap: Bending the Triangle

When I was just starting out in the marketing world, a client asked me if the agency could get a piece done on an incredibly aggressive timeline. I went back to the creative director with the request, and he said something I’ve heard a number of times since: “Good, fast or cheap: they can only have two.” I’ve seen the concept illustrated many times with a triangle diagram like this:

The iron law of marketing?

That image came back to mind when I was working on the recent article Ratio co-wrote with y’all on a brand launch plan we did for a client in two weeks. It was certainly fast, it was reasonably cheap (certainly much less than it would have cost if a larger agency did it), and based on the client’s reaction and my own assessment of the work, it was quite good. Did we somehow change the laws of marketing geometry? Or is the principle itself wrong? How can we deliver some degree of all three? Maybe we didn’t change the rule, but I’d contend we changed the shape:

The benefits of focus and commitment

By bending the sides of the triangle in (metaphorically speaking), an organization can deliver on “fast” without having to sell out on either of the other two values. The project referenced in the article above was VERY fast: it perhaps could have been cheaper with a little more time to avoid a few late nights of reading and prepping, but not that much, and while the final output could have perhaps been a little more polished it its presentation, the core of the strategy was excellent. If you were to put a dot on the above graphic, it would have been in the corner where fast and good converge, but still reasonably close to the orange “cheap” line.

Organizations that are nimble, efficient, quality-obsessed and purpose-built to solve specific problems for their clients can bend the sides of the triangle inwards like this. There are tradeoffs to be made, but they are less severe. Conversely, there are a lot of organizations where the triangle looks more like this:

The cost of an unfocused organization

Marketing services firms often become large and successful by increasing the range of what they offer clients, thus the ubiquitous phrase, “full service”. But over time that can lead to a lack of focus and efficiency that means they can’t deliver against compressed timelines without sacrificing quality or radically increasing costs. All too often, this means a large share of a brand’s marketing budget gets absorbed by a few high-cost “rush” projects instead of going to tactics and media that can help achieve brand goals.

Launching a pharmaceutical or medical device brand is inherently fast-paced and a bit chaotic. I built Ratio because I think there’s a better way to build winning strategies in that environment, and to ensure that those strategies are executed efficiently and successfully. Good agency partners are key to making that happen, but it starts with a process that makes every meeting matter, maximizes the impact of customer insights, and results in clear, executable strategies that capture the full value of your brand. If you’d like to find out how we can bend the sides of the triangle together, please get in touch.