Like the wise man (or was it the wise guy?) said, “If you seek what you sought, you’ll find what you thought.”

On that note, I’m off to LA for focus groups…

I read your post with interest and agree that the division you are trying to define almost certainly exists. In addition, I believe you are suggesting that the ‘Agile’ approach is superior to the ‘Waterfall’ approach and there I would also be tempted to agree with you. There are still many marketers who believe that their role is to churn out a certain number of pre-defined activities for a fixed number of dollars and if they can tick those boxes then they have done a good job.

However, I would raise two objections/discussion points in response to your post.

Firstly, I am not convinced that every attribute expressed in your Waterfall vs. Agile profiles should belong exclusively to one and not the other. For example:

Creative vs. Analytic

I think many would agree that creativity is an essential item in any marketer’s toolset, however this quality can be expressed in different ways. I would imagine that creativity for the Waterfaller could be described as artistic creativity, where perhaps the Agile equivalent might be expressed as creative problem solving instead. Similarly, ‘Analytics’ abound in the wonderful world of the Web, but being able to sift through that data and divine appropriate actions based on the information gathered is where real boosts in performance can be made.

Revised Waterfall attributes: artistic creativity; collation of data
Revised Agile attributes: creative problem solving; action-oriented analysis

Secondly, I would also urge caution around an exclusively iterative approach to developing effective marketing strategies. I agree that this is a low-risk approach which can yield significant efficiencies and improvements in ROI, it should not exist in isolation of other more daring approaches. When Columbus set sail he was not executing an iterative process, but embarking on a risky and expensive foray into the unknown which eventually brought great rewards.

There’s my two cents. Great post!

Waterfall marketer – talks to the market
Agile marketer – listens to the market, engages with the market