Occasionally, I hear a client complain about the size of their marketing budget vs. those of larger brands (budget envy). “Well, of course, they’re successful. They spend millions!”

There’s more to it than the allocations.

A successful brand is doing a number of things right besides spending money on marketing (See my nine criteria for the brand essence.).

Strong brands deliver a unique and meaningful experience … consistently. This requires operational excellence, not marketing.

A great steakhouse with no marketing budget is still a great steakhouse.

A bad steakhouse with a huge marketing budget is still a bad steakhouse.

The role of marketing is to articulate the sizzle, not grill the steak or clean the restrooms. Marketing can influence customer behavior, but only if the steakhouse is great to start with.

Need proof? The landscape is littered with big-budget brands that have fallen or disappeared:

• Circuit City
• Lehman Brothers
• Bear Stearns
• Woolworth
• Eastern Airlines
• Pan Am
• Linens ‘N Things
• KB Toys
• Polaroid
• Sharper Image
• Arthur Andersen
• Enron
• MCI Worldcom
• Montgomery Ward
• TWA
• Washington Mutual
• Adelphia
• Orion Pictures
• Merrill Lynch

Their big marketing budgets didn’t save them from bad operational decisions.

Now the good news: For every one of these highly publicized train wrecks, there are thousands of brands getting it right, with or without big budgets. You know them–they are the businesses you reward everyday with your patronage because the experiences they deliver are both special and dependable.

The better the customer experience, the higher the return on the marketing investment. Whatever the size.

How well aligned are operations and marketing at your firm?