Archive for the 'management' Category

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The typical customer

Published on July 27, 2006 in business, management, service and strategy. 0 Comments

I was reading this post from Olivier and I realized that he is describing how a large percentage of the American population consumes.

There are lessons to be learned.

  1. Most of time, consumers will tire of your products/services
  2. Comfortable and safe is only tolerable for so long
  3. The products that work today probably will not tomorrow
  4. Brand loyalty is hard to generate and harder to sustain
  5. Consumers are human, not statistics.
  6. Listening is better than analyzing.
  7. The “what have you done for me lately” attitude applies to products/services as much as people.

technorati tags > branding, consumers, customers, market research, trends, product development

How to give better feedback

Published on July 24, 2006 in business, management and marketing. 0 Comments

Another wonderful post (an oldie but a goodie) from Seth Godin via Core77.

How to give better feedback.

Synopsis:

  1. No one cares about your opinion
  2. Say the right thing at the right time
  3. If you have something nice to say, please say it
  4. Give me feedback, no matter what

Giving good feedback is all about putting yourselves in the shoes of your audience. It’s not about your personal feelings or your favorite colors or what you think your boss will like. When you approach everything from the POV of your customer (hopefully based on research) your opinions don’t matter. It’s what’s best for your audience.

Here’s a good hierarchy for reviewing marketing materials. Start at the top and answer the hard questions first.

  1. Does it meet the stated strategy?
  2. Does it succinctly convey ONE value proposition?
  3. Is it visually interesting? Does it make you stop and want to learn more?
  4. Does it meet your branding guidelines?
  5. Can it be developed within the stated budget and timeframe?
  6. Is it legally appropriate?
  7. Is it free of typos and grammar mistakes?

Notice that copy editing comes last. A lot of people want to dig right into spell checking as opposed to making sure the collateral is on target and effective. It’s easy but it’s not appropriate to do first. Having the ability to better review materials will increase the effectiveness of your marketing.

technorati tags > marketing, review process, strategy, seth godin, opinion, research, core77, guidelines

Creative Constraints

Published on July 21, 2006 in advertising, design and management. 0 Comments

Johnnie Moore’s post on constraints got me thinking about limits that clients naturally put on projects. It always surprises me that no one likes to talk about budgets or deadlines up front. Especially considering that those two very real constraints drive 99% of all marketing projects. After all who is going to pay an agency to work forever with no goals or defined invoice amount?

The true genius of a creative person is finding the best solution available given project constraints. It’s not unreasonable to renegotiate deliverables to fit within constraints – and that goes for client expectations as well as agency desires to produce top notch materials on every engagement.

It’s hard to fault a designer for wanting to do the best job possible on each and every assignment. Unfortunately the business world is one of realities more so than possibilities. The trick is doing the best job possible under the deadline and budget restrictions. That’s hard for a lot of creative directors and producers to wrap their heads around. You have to make conscious design decisions that meet the project/brand goals while staying on time and budget.

As an agency, we have to set client expectations up front about what is possible within given project constraints. With margins thinning, it’s a fine line to walk between customer satisfaction and agency profitability. And I don’t think that’s a bad thing. The days of multi-year retainer client/agency relationships are gone. I’ve heard a lot of mega-agency people talk about retainers as if they are an open bucket of money without defined deliverables or deadlines. In reality, retainers are just multi-project engagements under contract with one agency. You still have the same constraints as one off project work; you’re just not fighting off other firms for each job.

We have to learn to embrace constraints. Use them as fuel for out-of-the-box creative thinking. Great work comes from finding unique solutions while meeting all goals (project objectives, client satisfaction, timeframe, budget, agency goals and designer expectations – probably in that order). Budget and timeframe should determine level of effort on a sliding scale. A seasoned design professional will know what is possible when they understand the constraints. After that it’s a matter of aligning client & agency expectations with those constraints and everyone involved making purposeful decisions to stay on target.

technorati tags > marketing, communications, advertising, level of effort, constraints, retainer, projects, budget, deadline, project management, designer, client, agency, creative

Simple vs. Dumb

Published on July 19, 2006 in branding, business, management and strategy. 0 Comments

Great post from Mary Schmidt.

The summary is that “dumbing down” your marketing so that it seemingly appeals to all audiences is the wrong thing to do. That tactic will appeal to no one. On the other hand, simplifying your message so that it’s easily understood and actionable is key to connecting with your customers/clients/prospects/etc…

New technology, being constantly connected, and having fewer hours in the day have created an environment where people are demanding more control over their marketing & sales exposures. You have to keep your message short, unique, value laden, and available on their terms to gain traction.

technorati tags > marketing, advertising, strategies, consumers, messaging, targeting

Are blogs in your corporate strategy?

Published on July 16, 2006 in ROI, advertising, branding, business, management and strategy. 0 Comments

Still think the blogosphere is just for early adopter fringe web users?

Think again. Check out some of the stats in this article.

  • YouTube traffic doubles monthly
  • MySpace is bigger than Yahoo
  • Blogs can drive explosive growth or outrage
  • Revolutionize customer service programs
  • Senior citizens are the fastest growing blog population

User generated content or free for all communication; call it what you like but blogging and social media networks have really grown into their own over the last 12 months. Companies are launching new 3o second commercials solely on YouTube instead of paying $$ for network airtime. Fortune 5oo companies use MySpace to launch products to highly influential young adults w/ billions of dollars of purchasing power.

When a customer is happy enough or mad enough to talk about your product or service you should pay attention. In fact, you should encourage the conversation. That’s what web 2.0 is all about. The tables are turned and if you’re not taking the lead you will be left behind. Your audience is too savvy. They demand control over their experience with your brand and the ability to speak out about it – good and bad.

You cannot control your brand. You can only hope to guide it’s direction by knowing who you are, who your customers are, what they want, and who you want to be to them. If you think the world is small; the gap from CEO to customer is tiny. You don’t need a million dollar research program; just start a blog and pay attention.

The truth is that they’re already talking. They always have been. Read more…

technorati tags > blog, social, networks, media, youtube, myspace, marketing, advertising, customer, branding, web 2.0

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

Branding 2.0

Published on July 14, 2006 in branding, management and social media. 0 Comments

Here’s a quick tutorial of some of the web 2.0 sites that are driving viral & social networks.

Branding 2.0 – Mashable

technorati tags > branding, web 2.0, youtube, myspace, ask a ninja, social networks

Brand vs. ROI

Published on July 12, 2006 in ROI, branding, business, management and strategy. 0 Comments

Great article from Jim Lenskold. The gist of it is that long term branding activities should not be in a death match for budget dollars against short term marketing projects that generate a measureable ROI. They should be complimentary. You may not be able to pin-point exactly which branding initative contributed directly to quarterly sales, but branding has long term impacts on pricing, stock value, and strategic direction.

If you only focus on short term project-led ROI, you miss out on big picture industry-shaping strategic activities that lead to future sales growth. If you’re not tracking either; you should and need to be able to prove a positive return on your daily activities. If not, how do you expect C-level execs to continue funding? Not to mention, you’ll never have a true seat at the table for strategic discussions.

It’s funny that I was just talking about this the other day as well. The point is that what gets measured improves. You can track long term strategic goals like preference, attitude, and profitability; as well as short term goals like purchases from online ads, direct marketing response rates, and event marketing.

Done well, all short term activities feed and strengthen your long term strategic goals. You can build brand while making sales – as long as you are truly working with your customer’s best interests/desires in mind.

technorati tags > branding, marketing, ROI, investment, strategy, metrics, measurement

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

Market Trends

Published on July 6, 2006 in business, management, marketing and strategy. 0 Comments

Companies that ride economic trends grow more rapidly than companies that rest of their laurels. Pretty obvious, but without good trend data it’s hard to know where to point your business strategically. Here are McKinsey’s ten trends in 2006 that will shape 2015:

  1. Centers of economic activity will shift profoundly, not just globally, but also regionally.
  2. Public-sector activities will balloon, making productivity gains essential.
  3. The consumer landscape will change and expand significantly.
  4. Technological connectivity will transform the way people live and interact.
  5. The battlefield for talent will shift.
  6. The role and behavior of big business will come under increasingly sharp scrutiny.
  7. Demand for natural resources will grow, as will the strain on the environment.
  8. New global industry structures are emerging.
  9. Management will go from art to science.
  10. Ubiquitous access to information is changing the economics of knowledge.

If you’re on the business battlefield now, there’s not doubt you’re living a lot of these. So while these may not seem revolutionary; the real question is how are you evolving your long term strat plan (5-7 years out) to account for these trends? Your short term plan (1 year out) should be able to flex enough to allow for changes to make you more competitive.

Unfortunately a lot of marketing teams are not a core part of the corporate strategy sessions that define business direction. If that’s the case you have to step it up. You’re not bringing enough value to the table. No one should know more about customer desires and how to address them properly than the sales & marketing team. Over time a data-driven process that keeps you riding current trends instead of fighting them will get you a seat at the table. Drive it and you will succeed.

technorati tags > market, trends, research, mckinsey, strategy, strategic plan, business,