Archive for the 'entrepreneur' Category

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Expanding my reach

Published on July 31, 2006 in business, entrepreneur and management. 0 Comments

I wanted to let everyone know that I will be blogging on the SmallBusinessBranding.com blog as well. A little backstory; while surfing around I came upon Yaro’s blog the day that he announced that he was looking for 2 additional writers to grow the blog. So I threw my name in the hat and was accepted.

We are building a nice team of international writers with experiences from big business to entrepreneurs on SBB. The goal is to share information and best practices about all things branding and marketing. It’s geared toward small business. But that’s a broad category, so there will be valuable content for everyone.

As soon as my posts start to go live, I’ll let you know.

Check it out. We’re also going to work on a site redesign so that it’s easier to navigate through the multiple authors.

technorati tags > small business, branding, marketing, blog, smallbusinessbranding.com

Everything a marketer needs to know…

Published on July 14, 2006 in ROI, branding, business, entrepreneur, management, marketing, service and strategy. 0 Comments

8.5×11 poster from Seth Godin

technorati tags > marketing, seth godin, poster, knowledge, customer, branding, advertising, marketer

Marketing measurements

Published on July 11, 2006 in ROI, business, entrepreneur, management, marketing and strategy. 0 Comments

Naras Eechambadi has a great article on making your marketing measurements count on CMOmag.com. It’s hard to pinpoint which specific activity persuaded a prospect to turn into a customer. It’s even tougher considering that industry best practice dictates at least seven touches need to be made before a prospect recognizes your brand. It’s difficult to fully understand where your budget dollars go the farthest. This doesn’t even touch the sticky mess that is short term ROI versus long term shareholder value.

Too many companies think that installing Siebel or Salesforce.com will automatically make all sales & marketing activities measurable. Anyone in the midst of a CRM roll-out knows that the devil is in the details. How clean is your customer database, are there duplicate database field names in disparate legacy systems, where did the inside sales team get their pre-show mailing list? There are too many questions to wrap your head around.

But you have to start somewhere. Start by mapping out what actions you want to take to be able to improve your business. Make the data available to base decisions on that inform those actions. Transparency and accountability are crucial elements required for success. And always keeping moving forward towards your end goal. Just remember, that which is tracked improves.

Here’s the best quote from the article:

An honest diagnosis of current capabilities and an assessment of how suited they are to future strategy is a crucial step in improving marketing performance. Ensure that the organization is properly aligned to strategy and to the processes that are essential to execution. Develop the right processes and make sure people are trained on these processes. Align the incentives for all of the people involved in planning and executing campaigns.

technorati tags > marketing, CMO, measurement, ROI, CRM, programs, effectiveness, strategy

Strategy by Design

Published on July 5, 2006 in business, design, entrepreneur, management and strategy. 0 Comments

I had to provide this article from Tim Brown. Tim is the President & CEO of IDEO, one of the largest and most respected design firms on the planet (think Leap chair, Palm V, Apple’s mouse, standup Crest toothpaste, HP industrial design, etc…). Tim breaks down five points to develop and execute your strategy by thinking like a designer. The summary is that design thinking can help everyone from the executive team, employees and customers better understand your vision and unique value prop. This is accomplished by translating strategic concepts and ideas into visual realities. It’s about storytelling. It’s about evolution, simplicity and consistency.

I believe that a business must innovate and communicate better than the competition in order to grow. And who does innovation and communication better than designers? It’s their God-given gifts to the world. Unfortunately the design community has done a poor job of aligning themselves with the business community. And because of that, a lot of executives will read this and think “artist”. But not the smart ones.

Article courtesy of FastCompany

technorati tags > strategy, design, IDEO, Fast Company, innovation, communication, talent, skills

Short Lived CMOs

Published on June 21, 2006 in entrepreneur, management and marketing. 0 Comments

Tom Peters has a great little post on the longevity of CMOs. More than 50% of the CMOs surveyed by Advertising Age have been in the job for less than a year.

Here’s a quote from AdAge, “the job of CMO has become one of highest-stressed, shortest-tenured in American industry.”

Here are some of the comments from Tom’s blog:

  • Great CMOs are like big bursts of ideas, energy, etc. especially when they first join their new team. The burnout or departure (23.2 months) comes as a result of the following:
    #1-Not a good hire to begin with:
    *Not qualified
    *Not psyched about the brand
    *Qualified, but at odds w/ that corp.’s philosphy#2-Bad Company
    *CEO doesn’t ‘get’ branding and isn’t willing to hire someone who does…and let them do their job
    *Will hire an underqualified CMO…ultimately resulting in the burnout of said CMO
    *Great brand but bad philosophy on taking care of employees first, then clients (see Starbuck’s, West Paces Hotels and other companies that care about their employees first) which causes the CMO (as well as plenty of other employees) to depart and find a better organization
  • My theory. These are highly creative people who innovate quickly. Large organizations typically don’t do well with rapid change.
  • My hunch is most CMOs are good at dealing with traditional media such as TV and newspaper, which are basically declining and not any longer effective. With the new media like social media and blogging, the traditional CMOs probably need to change thier minds sets 180 degrees.

My two cents; most good CMOs are change agents. They tire quickly in maintenance mode. Unfortunately, ~2 years is not long enough to ensure that his/her changes will be effective (you need at least four to see significant repeatable consumer/organization change). And that’s good and bad. Good for the individual because they leave for a better paying gig before they can truly be measured; bad for the employees and shareholders because if successful it may be a flash in the pan without the right team to keep up the forward momentum and bad because the business has invested a lot of time and money in someone that has put them further behind. This is why a lot of CEOs do not respect career marketers or invest in discipline of marketing.

Choosing the right agency/design firm

Published on June 16, 2006 in advertising, business, design, entrepreneur, marketing and strategy. 0 Comments

The good folks at the Small Agency Diary have a new post on choosing the wrong client. I thought I’d flip it around and talk a little about choosing the right agency/design firm.

You flip open the latest issue of AdAge or the Yellow pages and see a list of agencies so long your eyes cross. Some you may have heard of but most you have not. Some look like legal firms (partner + partner + partner + partner & assoc) and some look a little funny (watermelon toad, autonomy, or similar). All of their websites look similar (client list, portfolio, why we’re different – which doesn’t look that different after all). How do you pick?

Here are the highlights – in no particular order…

  1. Obviously you have to have some type of immediate connection w/ their account team. If you do not like them, there’s no way you’re going to be happy doing business with them.
  2. Check out their work, but don’t get too caught up in it. Any agency worth their salt puts a lot of thought into new ideas for a particular client & project. You’re looking for a consistent new-thought-generation process. You may or may not like their work for other clients, but that really doesn’t matter if the work was effective at meeting the goal for that particular client. The agency should be able to generate work that suits your organization, customers, and business objectives.
  3. Talk about budget early and often. Talk about how the agency will scope out the level of effort required to meet your goals. Doesn’t matter whether you’re buying months of international TV spots with a lot of high-end digital effects or just a local newspaper ad – talk about how they come up with their bid.
  4. Most importantly, you probably have an idea of what you’re looking for. TELL THEM! Don’t expect their account or creative team to be mind readers. I know you’re looking for new ideas and a fresh perspective, but tell them what you’re thinking. The last thing you want is for them go off on some tangent that you know the President will hate. If you are one of the very few people that really doesn’t have any idea what you’re looking for; then you have to be open to their suggestions when they come back. It’s a waste of your time & money to have something in mind and not discuss it. A test of their creativity is how well they function within boundaries – budget, timeframe, brand guidelines, etc… They are working from your direction, be sure to give it.
  5. And for pete’s sake, write everything up! Whether it’s your creative brief or theirs, make sure that both parties are working towards the same goal. You need to have detailed information on deliverables, scope, timeframes, and budget – and agree to all of it before work is started. I know you’re busy. I know this project has to be finished on time. But trust me, if it’s not written down and agreed upon, it will become a point of contention. Projects tend to show signs of success or failure within the initial 13% of the project. You have to have everything lined up before you begin. Otherwise you put a lot at risk – including your next promotion if not your career.

ANA/Booz Allen Hamilton Marketing Study part II

Published on June 13, 2006 in entrepreneur, management, marketing and strategy. 0 Comments

Here is how the study breaks down the different types of marketing departments:

1 | Marketing Masters (38% of respondents)
2 | Senior Counselors (17%)
3 | Service Providers (15%)
4 | Brand Builders (12%)
5 | Best Practice Advisors (9%)
6 | Growth Champions (9%)

1 | Marketing Masters “… enjoy the authority to coordinate with other major business functions. They do not, however, make strategic decisions and seldom lead new-business development.”

2 | Senior Counselors assist in guiding “… the CEO on marketing strategy and also serve as primary advisors on marketing strategy for individual businesses.” Rarely will these marketers lead product innovation initiatives, but they are responsible for leading major advertising and/or promotional campaigns.

3 | Service Providers are the coordinators of “… advertising, promotion and public relations at the request of the company’s brand and product teams.”

4 | Brand Builders provide “… marketing services like communications strategy, creative output and campaign execution of key brands, but their leadership role and decision rights on strategy and investment are all but negligible.”

5 | Best Practice Advisors work directly with “… individual business units to maximize marketing effectiveness and efficiency” by gathering and disseminating best practices within the company as it relates to advertising, promotion, and public relations.

6 | Growth Champions lead their company’s efforts in product innovation and in new business development. They also are heavily involved in decisions pertaining to new-market penetration and strategic investments. (btw, this is only category that truly drives revenue and profitablity – nothing says promotion and job security like top line growth!)

Which type do you work for? More importantly, what are you actively doing to move your department up the food chain by increasing the role you play in business development and NPD?