Originally Posted by
simla
Interesting promo. A sign of the very intelligent market segmentation thinking going on at Blis, which seems likely to pay off. A hint of where things might be going beyond K12 and M18 maybe?
There is no doubt that Blis is now embracing marketing with a gusto, and this is the right stage of the company to do that. Nevertheless, I also hope they remember that the marketing approach is not always appropriate and that the half year report must contain lucid factual statements on a myriad of subjects that shareholders need to hear in order to evaluate their many millions of dollars of investment in this company (and to meet the company's legal listing requirements.) Marketing is a powerful tool, but more powerful when you know when to do it and when to not do it - like in legal reports. The marketing manager can do marketing all day long, but the senior company officers have a range of duties beyond that.
I particularly feel this because the marketing approach is definitely very interesting indeed and looks very appropriate to me for future growth. But it must be in combination with very level-headed realism too, or there eventually grows the risk of the hype forming a feedback loop (such as Obama can't even see these days what a blah washout of a president he has been because he believes his own marketing). Probiotics are an absolute mine field of legal obligations, as are the financial and reporting obligations of a listed company, and a powerful marketing approach will pay all the better results if the company is ensuring it has someone on board with a natural flair for clear factual statements in order to stay on top of legal compliance on all fronts.
I am reminded of Gertude Jekyll and Edwin Lutyens. He built very solid and well done houses and garden walls, and she added fantastic overlays of romantic gardens. The combination of very competent and grounded reality with the best of human imagination and intelligence in appreciating the unseen possibilities made them extremely famous and extremely admired. They swept England before them in a way that neither of them would have achieved alone. They were the yin and the yang combination, the combination of hard nosed reality with great imagination and insight.
Blis has clearly picked up a talented marketing ability. We know it has truly excellent science. I hope it is remembering to always have present a trusted and hard nosed legal advisor of equal talent to ensure that reality is always solidly rearing it's head in the company offices.
Having said all that, it is nevertheless very fascinating to watch the marketing vision being developed. I suspected early on that the intention seemed to be to see the Blis name as a major asset in its own right in addition to individual products, and this looks increasingly likely to me. That is a powerful dream and will be interesting to watch - all the more so if we see ongoing evidence that the company knows when marketing's "one or two key messages" is a good thing, but also when to stop the marketing and cut to detailed reality. Yin and yang. Both should be evident to shareholders in the company reports.
Thanks for the posts, Emearg.