• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, March 1, 2010

“Marketing isn’t about being concerned [about what doesn’t work]; it’s about being confident,” says Larry Light, the longtime marketing chief at McDonalds Corp. and at Nissan, now president and CEO, Arcature LLC.

He says research will help but executives need a vision, a passion.

Getting metrics to support your results? That leads to less passion. “It’s numbing to market by the numbers, justifying marketing by metrics,” he says. “Judging from the past experience won’t tell you want happens in the future.”

Concerning the colossal marketing issue at Toyota, Light says: “Where was the voice of the consumers? What were the ad agencies doing? Consumer failure is worse than product failure.”

One chief problem that Light says is something that the 4A’s conference is intent on changing â€" breaking down the walls in the advertising business.

“We can’t build on segregation,” says Light. “That’s having responsibilities without accountabilities. It is a certain path to failure.”

Then there is finger pointing when things don’t work out, he says. “It’s always the other silos fault.”

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