Archive for the ‘ Thoughts ’ Category

What brands can learn from a talking Irishman!

Yesterday I had the pleasure of spending the day listening to different bands by the lake in Ouchy, Switzerland. One of the performers was a talented guitarist and singer from Ireland who put on a great show.

There was one problem though, the Irishman kept telling stories to his audience between the songs – some of them interesting, some of them funny, and some of them sad, but at no point did the audience react.

It reminded me of many brands in their attempt to communicate with their audience. It’s easy to draw a parallel between a brand’s mistakes in communicating, and our artists attempt to entertain his audience

So what can brands learn from a talking Irishman?

The audience is not yours. Assuming your audience is, well yours and that they are dying to hear what you have to say is a common mistake. Like the customers of most brands, people attending the concert were not there specifically to see the Irishman. They were there to have a nice time and enjoy a day of music. What does that mean? It means that the stories he was telling were of no relevance to the audience, they had never heard of the people he were referring to, or the musicians he was honouring. As a brand, it is rare people turn up for you, recognising that should fundamentally change how, and what you choose to communicate, or do for that matter.

Different context requires different communication. The Irishman probably has a very strong following in some parts of the world, like many brands do, people that come to a concert to see him specifically. Among your fans (loyal customers) you can tell your tails all day long – to them it’s music to their ears (no pun intended). But outside of that environment you have to adapt, read the situation correctly. A discussion forum, for example, is not your environment, and can’t be treated in the same way as your website or your packaging (although I would argue the latter aren’t your environments either).

Your language is not their language. The Irishman failed to notice that hardly anyone in the audience spoke English. I don’t know about you but I don’t speak ‘brand’, yet brands keep speaking their language to me, which I cover in some detail this post about the language used by brands in advertising. Here is an example I site in the blog from a PC World ad voice over, ‘Plus they had 200 pounds of this 47 inch LG 200 hertz 10 ETP TV and it was only 699 pounds’. What? I’m sure that no one but product managers speaks that language!

Listen to feedback. One would think that after a few stories, and a silent audience, our Irishman would understand the potential language barrier and change tactics, but no.  The penny didn’t even drop when he kept asking people in the audience questions, and no one answered. How many times have you seen brands keep talking to an audience even when you don’t react, or even listen…how many times have you seen brands asking audiences to do something, and nothing happens, how many times have you seen brands commission consumer research to subsequently do absolutely nothing with the consumer feedback?!

Leave the ego at home. I suspect the Irishman not changing his behaviour had a lot to do with the fact that he was talking mostly to please himself – or his ego. And I’m sure all of us have met one…or two… or… Marketing Directors producing communications (especially those in the shape of 30 seconds) that have one main purpose, make the Marketing Director feel good about himself.

I could go on but I think you get the point!

But on a positive note,  at least the Irishman had one thing going for him that many brands don’t – a hell of a product (voice) and a hell of a setting to sell it in (below view). Beats Tesco, no?

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2010
08/30
CATEGORY
Advertising/Media
Branding
Customer Experience
Marketing
Thoughts
2 comments

Organisations should find, encourage, harness and reward passion!

A week ago I was having dinner with a good friend Thera at a restaurant in Place Plumerau, a beautiful square in the centre of Tours. It was a warm evening, we were surrounded by stunning buildings, a jazz band was playing, and a couple of waiters were entertaining the crowds by seeing who could run the fastest around the square with two beers on a tray. Basically all good!

Apparently not for everyone. Our neighbours were a Belgian couple – and for the entire dinner they did not utter a word to each other. She was too busy staring at her split ends (45 minutes) followed by staring at her cuticles (remaining 45 minutes). He was showing such interest in his mobile phone, we were quite sure he would end up kissing it before the end of the dinner.

What does this have to do with businesses and passion? Well, as I was looking at them I started to think about all the people I know, or have met, who are with someone they don’t want to be with, or are somewhere they don’t want to be, or doing something they don’t want to do.

Think about it. How many people do you know involved in business who love what they do (note I said love, not like, not think it’s OKish, but love!)? A few days later, sitting by the lake at Château la Vallière, I asked Thera that precise question. Her answer was “Two, actually no, now that you’re doing this fluid world, three”.

It’s an incredibly low figure, and although many of you will state a higher one, I wonder if it will be significantly higher.

This is a massive problem for the business world because I don’t believe you can be passionate if you don’t do something you love. I don’t believe you can be passionate if you’re somewhere you don’t want to be? And finally, I don’t believe you, and therefore organisations, can excel without passion and therefore I don’t believe companies can thrive without passion (thrive that is, not just get by)! Hence the problem!

Passion does much more than allow people to excel, passion breaks down barriers.

It breaks down the ‘we have no money for this’ barrier. Look at the Wright Brothers. They invented the airplane not because of the support of a large team, or because of unlimited resources (they had none of these). No, they succeeded in designing a plane that could fly because they were passionate about the idea of flying! Passionate enough to work night and day, passionate enough to remortgage their house, passionate enough to finally succeed to fly for 12 seconds, this without caring that no-one was there to see it happen!

It breaks down the ‘lets not collaborate’ barrier. We may be closer to a cure for AIDS today if research in this filed was driven by the passion for saving lives, rather than the quest for being the first team to find a cure, and hence reaping the large economic benefits that come with it (this leading to competition rather than collaboration).

It breaks down the ‘mediocre’ barrier. Let’s face it you can go from OK to good, and from good to excellent… but you can never go from OK to excellent. And it’s unlikely that you will ever be good, or excellent, at something you’re not passionate about. Just ask top athletes (well, excluding certain European football teams), just ask 1st class musicians, just ask extraordinary business people if they have passion for, if they love what they do? And I can guarantee you the answer will be yes, with capital letters!

I challenge you to find any corporate problem that can’t be solved, in one way or another, directly or indirectly through passionate people!

One of the greatest compliments I ever received was given to myself and Jonathan (my business partner in this fluid world) after delivering one of our learning & development programmes. It came from one of the older participants “You have reminded me of why I work in advertising, once upon a time I loved it, and I’m finding that again”.

This should be the role of organisations, to find, encourage, harness and reward passion!

I don’t think there’s an excuse for not being somewhere you love, or not doing something you love (at least for a big chunk of the week). I don’t think there’s an excuse for an organisation not to do everything in their power to create an environment where people want to be, and where they, for at least a significant part of the day, do something they want to do, something they love, something they are passionate about.

So if you rather stare at your phone, your split ends, or your cuticles, I think it’s time for you to seriously question what you do, and where you do it…and well…just stop doing it!

What can I say; I’m with Blackberry on this one ‘Do What You Love, Love What You Do’. I would only add one thing to that, and that is do it TODAY! I know it’s not easy to find IT, or to transition, but I can promise you that at the end of that journey awaits Excellence (spelt with a large E, like Tom Peters likes it)! And if you manage an organisation, or a team make sure you are your people’s IT, as that is the only way you will ever benefit from some of their Excellence!

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2010
08/15
CATEGORY
Competitive Advantage
Human Behaviour
Organisational Behaviour
THE EDGE
Thoughts
this fluid world
5 comments

The chronicles of a customer: Volume 2

This week was admin week. Nothing good can come out of admin week. Not only is it not enjoyable, but it usually involves dealing with loads of files, paper and unfortunately….organisations.

Throughout the entire week I was reminded of a blog I wrote a while ago called ‘Who are the lowest class citizens in business? That’s an easy one, CUSTOMERS!!!’. As you can imagine the blog is about the challenges one faces being a customer.

The life of a customer is an endless source of frustration, disbelief and rare moments of feeling ecstatic – or seen from another perspective, an endless source of inspiration for someone who likes to observe, and write about business and marketing in action (or should I say inaction!).

I have therefore decided that, as I continue to be a customer, observe customers, speak to customers or read about customers, I will report on my observations via ‘The chronicles of a customer’  (hence why I re-named the original blog ‘The chronicles of a customer: Volume 1’).

So back to my admin week….

I need a new bank. Why? Because in addition to a personal account I also need a business account, both with its own credit card (or at least a debit card). But Citibank refuses to accept that one can be a private banker and the owner of a business, all at the same time. Hence their business processes are structured as if those two worlds were mutually exclusive. I will spare you the statistics of how much small and medium size business’ contribute to a country’s GDP, suffice to say it’s a massive chunk – hence one would think a bank would like to cater for their needs, but when it comes to Citibank apparently not so much.

(Me trying to get information on Citibank Business banking prior to calling them and getting the bad news…)

So I call Lloyds. Not because of their site, or anything in their documentation – as you know these things are never written for a customer and are therefore totally impossible to understand. I chose Lloyds because someone I trust recommended the bank to me (this by the way would make me seriously reconsider how I allocate my marketing spend if I was the Marketing Director of a major bank).

Five phone calls later, with five different departments in numerous cities, I realise this is a pandemic. Banks insist on separating the organisation that takes care of personal banking from the one dealing with business banking, and not only that, no one in personal banking has a clue about who one should call to get a business account set up.

The only solution for me, the customer, is to compromise. I have to stay with both banks, making one my personal and the second my business bank. Not ideal, but then I’m just a customer.

Next. Time to insure the Vespa. I call my insurer Aviva as I want to know what difference it will make to my present insurance if I exclude one of the extra drivers. A few hundred commands, and a significant wait later I’m told that ‘Unfortunately we can’t tell you this without actually taking out the extra driver from the policy’.  I’m also informed that if I, at that stage, decide to keep the driver on the insurance I will have to go through the whole registration procedure again. Why? Because that is how the system is designed.

The only solution for me, the customer, is to compromise. And in my case it meant keeping the extra driver on, I just don’t have 20 minutes to spend on the phone with some random insurance company working around ‘their system’. Not ideal, but then I’m just a customer.

I also needed to re-new my travel insurance with Insure and Go.  After having answered the security question of when I was born with ‘in 1969’, I was asked during the health questions  ‘Are you older than 75?’.  Am I older than 75? I don’t know, bearing in mind I just told them I was born in 1969 what do they think? Ah but then the person writing the security check questions is not the same person writing the insurance application questions – who cares if it makes an organisation look a little silly – or forces a customer to answer unnecessary questions!

And finally I spent a ‘glorious’ time at the post office until they finally accepted my Belgian Driving license when I tried to change money. Apparently the UK Post Office is not aware the the UK is in the EU, and therefore by EU law; if they accept a British driving license, they also have to accept all EU licenses  (yes even a Belgian one :) ).

The only solution for me, patiently waiting for the manager followed by some lengthy negotiation. Not ideal, but then I’m just a customer.

It’s Sunday and admin week is over! I say thank God for the Screen on Baker Street. A lovely little cinema, recently re-designed, and yes with the customer in mind!!!! This my friends is how I celebrated the end of the week in the life of a customer (courtesy The Screen on Baker Street’s alcohol license) – cheers to admin!

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2010
08/01
CATEGORY
Customer Experience
Marketing
Organisational Behaviour
The chronicles of a customer
Thoughts
1 comment

You are what you dare to do!

Per tradition, a slightly less business focused post for a hot summer holiday day!

I learned how to dive in this lake at the age of 12.

(Lac Léman seen from Ouchy Switzerland)

I remember standing on my uncle’s boat looking down into the water and being so incredibly scared. I had never entered water head first. What if it hurt, what if I would dive right into a fish, or worse algae? But most of all I was scared of the unknown.

But I did it, I took a leap and into the water I went.

Why?

Because my uncle was on the boat, watching. I wanted him to think I was as capable and brave as my big brother, I wanted him to think as highly of me as I thought of him (the man had climbed Mount-Everest, he was popular, successful, funny). In short, I thought so highly of Francis impressing him was more important to me than the fear of diving.

The water was cold, and I’m not sure I really liked the feeling, but I grew 20 centimetres the day I dived into Lac Léman!

It’s not often in life you meet people that make you want to jump, despite your fears.  These people are as rare in life as they are in business.

And everything rare is a collector’s item to someone. So I don’t collect art, I don’t collect jewellery, I collect people who challenge me, people who make me do things despite my fears, things that allow me to grow, and I especially collect people who allow themselves to be challenged, people who act despite their fear.

In my collection I have a Pastor from The Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem NYC (and his entire congregation), whose Sunday Sermon on the 24th of September a few years ago challenged conventional thinking and behaviour to the point that I found myself saying AMEN for the first time in my life (and not just once!)! Was a lot of what he asked the congregation to do scary to them? Absolutely, yet they were right behind him!

(The Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem NYC)

In my collection there is a young girl who left a life of comfort by not marrying a prominent Asian man, for whom she had moved to London for from a small village in India. A woman who broke a high profile engagement going against her family, religion, culture, tradition to start a new life where she would have no friends and no means of supporting herself. “why?” I asked her one-day “because I know I can feel more” was her answer. Was she scared! Absolutely! But she still did it.

In my collection is Jonathan MacDonald, my business partner, who challenged me to set up my own business despite the fact that I knew that, from having seen my dad and friends go through it, it would be one of the hardest things I would ever do. Scary? Most definitely! But here I am, less than a year later with this fluid world.

So sitting here by my childhood lake, looking at the boats I find myself thinking of, and celebrating those people whose existence remind me of being 12, standing on that boat on Lac Léman, where I despite my fear decide to dive!

I can’t wait for the people I yet have to meet, I can’t wait for the fear, and I can’t wait for the next time I have to dive because what comes after is a whole lot of growth!

Join me, and bring your collection of people, I would love to meet them because to me ‘you are who you meet, you are who you keep in your life, and you are what you dare to do’!

(This post is in celebration of Loretta Castorini Clark – the greatest collector item of them all – thank you!)

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2010
07/18
CATEGORY
Thoughts
this fluid world
2 comments

If you can’t connect, reach for the bottle of wine!

I’ve just spent four days without Internet, and with hardly any mobile connection. Yes you read right, four days. And no, it was not due to a BT strike, and no I’m not describing a scene from a horror movie, nor is it a joke.

It’s simply life in a village in Tuscany.

People working in marketing and communications know that they’re not a representation of the majority of people they look to sell products to. Most of us are very well aware of the fact that we live in a tiny bubble called ‘media and advertising…in London’. Yet I wonder sometimes if we really do know, really do understand, as on a deep level, how a big chunk of the world lives?

I have the pleasure of working with Steve Gladdis at MediaCom (a fabulous person and also happens to be the best dressed man at the agency). A few years ago Steve came up with the idea of method planning. The concept is simple, if method acting refers to a series of techniques by which actors try to create in themselves the thoughts and emotions of their characters in an effort to develop lifelike performance. Method planning does the same thing, but with the output being a great media plan (of which Steve, may I add, is responsible for many).

(The lovely Steve Gladdis)

Well, I have just had a dose of ‘method living’!

Last week I arrived in Italy for the wedding of one of my oldest friends. It was in an amazing village situated in the rolling hills of Tuscany (3 hours drive from Pisa) surrounded by vineyards.

I had been in the hotel 2 minutes when I asked about wifi (of which there was none) and 5 minutes when I realised that not only did they not have international TV channels, but the ones they had were rendered useless by static. Thank God for my iPhone…but nope…no connection!

The next day my friend and I were sent on a mission to find candles. As we walked around in search of candles I realised that a hardware store and a fruit shop was the only retail experience the village had to offer. We proceeded to ask the locals, only to be greeted with the same apologetic phrase from everyone we asked, “Ahhh no we don’t have things like large candles here” (only in Italian of course – not an English word between the inhabitants of the stone village).

Have I just arrived in marketer’s hell I asked myself? No channels to advertise on (digital does not exist, and TV is impossible to see), and no shops to sell anything to anyone in? But more importantly no people who seem to care about the fact that they are living in a marcomms free zone!

I have to be honest, I spent the first 24 hours confused wondering what do people in a place like this do? How do they manage without the bare necessities?

And then I decided to get over myself and do a bit of method living. And I can tell you ‘they manage’ very well.

I joined them in cafes and I talked, I watched them make amazing wine, I looked at some of the most stunning views, I tasted the previously mentioned wine, I watched them hang and laugh, I basically saw them living life. I also saw their Yves Saint Laurent bags, and their designer glasses so they are also clearly able to shop. They are just not connected 24/7!

As I traveled home I started thinking… How to be relevant to these people? How to engage with them? And more importantly how to connect with them? And when I say them, I don’t mean just my new Italian friends, but anyone, anywhere with other things to do (I stopped myself from saying better things to do :) ) than staring at screens of different sizes.

Just to follow on the theme of method living…I think the best thing for me is to pour myself a glass of wine from the lovely bottle I brought back, in the hope that living it some more will give me an answer to my questions!!!

P.S Catriona it was a laugh!

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2010
07/04
CATEGORY
Advertising/Media
Marketing
Thoughts
1 comment

Is there a crack showing in the shiny Mac Apple?

No one would disagree that Apple is a company that get a lot of things right.

  • In 2011 over half of their revenue will come from products that did not exist four years ago. We can safely say that ticks the innovation box.
  • Any company about whom people tweet the following ‘Glad I helped Steve Jobs reach sales targets this month. Feeling quite proud’ has definitely ticked ‘the army of fanatics supporting them’ box!
  • An organisation that successfully launches a new product (iPad) and an upgrade to a core product (iPhone 4) within months of each other gets a tick next to the commercial box.
  • And as for differentiation, there are more ticks than I can mention here!

So why was I feeling uneasy as I left the Mac store on Regent Street this Saturday? My experience there raised some key questions to which I don’t have an answer, but  that does make me wonder if there is a crack starting to show in that shiny little Mac Apple?!

Let me tell you what I mean.

Saturday 2 AM my computer dies and at 9 AM I’m at the Mac store on Regent Street only to be told that the next appointment in the Genius bar for technical support is on Friday at 18.00.

One week to get technical support! ‘This is wrong on so many levels, and it also shows some structural problems. Below are my top line observations.

  • If you’re a life style brand, promoting a way for people to live their lives, then you can’t at the same time turn around and say that it’s OK to be without you for one week.
  • This is even more the case if your product provides some form of utility. I run this fluid world with my business partner and i can safely tell you none of our clients would be happy with me being out of action for a week.
  • Customer service that offers technical support one week later is just not good enough for a premium priced product – it’s not actually good enough for any priced product in this category!
  • Not one member of staff I spoke to disagreed with me, a one week wait is just unreasonable. If your own staff can’t support your customer service level, then as an organisation you do have a problem!
  • It’s clear when you’re in the store that Apple is an organisation that prioritises sales and marketing. The look and feel of the store as you know is great, there are more sales people walking around than I have ever seen anywhere else, and they are happy letting people be on facebook all day long because ‘we’re nurturing future customers’. The problem is that ONLY a handful of people working in the Genius bar, and a sales force that can’t handle even basic trouble shooting, does nothing to nurture your present customers with a pressing problem!
  • And finally, when your staff speaks less than gloriously about you as an organisation to customers, in this case I had to listen to comments like ‘we’re becoming an IBM’, then you really should sit up and listen! Not to mention that the staff also seems totally unaware of the risk taken when speaking so honestly to a stranger (I mean really have they never heard of journalists, bloggers, facebook fans twitterers?!)

I did end up getting help though. One of the young men I spoke to squeezed me in. I had to wait three hours for it all to be sorted out, but it did get sorted (these chairs are really not that comfortable by the way)!

The issue is that the reason my trip to the Apple store was a success had nothing to do with Apple as an organisation, and everything to do with one person breaking a rule. Not a sustainable solution to what I think could be a major problem – a focus on product development and launches on the possible expense of customer service and staff motivation.

I propose Steve Jobs takes a trip down to one of his Mac stores, accompanied by a broken computer and a pressing dead line. I think it would do him some good, but then I suspect they would make an even bigger exception for him than for me :)

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2010
06/21
CATEGORY
Branding
Customer Experience
Organisational Behaviour
Strategy
Thoughts
this fluid world
3 comments

Having an army of fanatics = game, set and match!

I’ve been asked to speak at a panel at EGR Live (eGaming Review brand) covering the topic ‘Marketing on a shoestring budget’. My role on this panel is as ‘someone who knows about social media’… and it got me thinking.

Everyone loves seeing an underdog make it. And in marketing land an underdog is someone with little or no budget. So when Paranormal Activity, a movie with a production budget of $10,000 and no marketing budget, makes it into American theatres through an active approach to social media, we pay attention, we pay attention and we want some of that magic too!!!

I love stories like this, but I fear that it gives people the wrong impression of the role that digital and social media should play in marketing.

Marketing does not = advertising, we must therefore look at marketing from a broader perspective

The main reaction marketers have when they think of marketing on a shoestring budget is free advertising, and the solution to this is social media and SEO.

This is a limited view of marketing. If, as a marketer, you truly want to decrease marketing cost you MUST look at marketing from a broader perspective. If, as a marketer, you truly want to be part of the social media tidal wave you MUST look at the role digital and social media can, and should play, in the entire marketing mix.

Some companies are getting this right, and ‘qu’elle surprise’, they are also the same companies we keep reading about in the trade press and hearing about at conferences. The reason they’re such success stories is because they do NOT look at social media as a way of decreasing advertising budget, they look at social media (and with this I mean the power of people) as something that can affect their entire marketing mix. Let me give you some examples, and I know you will be familiar with these.

And finally Zappos, a company who gets it right throughout the value chain, has during the past 10 years grown from almost no sales to more than $1 billion in annual gross merchandise sales. This has been achieved primarily by repeat customers and word of mouth.

These are all examples of excellent marketing, and in some cases of advertising on a shoestring budget!

Create an army of fanatics

There is another thing these companies have in common; they have what Jonathan MacDonald, my business partner at this fluid world, refers to as an army of fanatics supporting them. An army of fanatics are people that produce and create for you, talk about you, promote you, sell your products, and in tough times defend you!

Shift marketing investment to earlier stages of the value chain

When we at this fluid world work with organisations that are looking at decreasing their marketing budget (often through social media), we recommend that they shift their investment to an earlier stage of the value chain, in addition to focusing their attention on creating an army of fanatics, rather than on how to advertise as cheaply as possible. Why? Because we know that this will save organisations money across the board.

We recommend:

  1. They tap into the zeitgeist “the spirit of the times”, soak themselves in the cultural and spiritual climate, live breathe and eat what people do, think and talk about
  2. That they create extreme value, be it in utility, convenience, enablement, connectivity, coolness or reward; within and around everything they do. This can only be achieved if stage one is taken seriously, and done well
  3. After having created something extremely valuable make sure it’s ultra findable. The distance between inspiration and satisfaction must be reduced toward instantaneous. Be everywhere! Yes this is where search comes in – but only as a part of it
  4. And finally make sure it’s super shareable. It seems such an easy concept but the efficiencies of distribution become significant when people who like something can share it with others. The ‘viral’ campaigns we see working best are those that have an instant way of sharing between people. This accelerates the advocacy effect of armies of fanatics

Gaming is all about armies of fanatics

As you can imagine, creating an army of fanatics is easier said than done, especially if you’re in the business of selling sugar water or you are, for example, an energy company…

But if you’re reading this and you’re in gaming, than you’re incredibly lucky because you’re in an industry that by nature is made up of fanatics! People who game love gaming, people who game breathe gaming! You already have the army of fanatics to tap into by default. They are there, waiting to connect waiting to play (literally!).

So what does that mean to you? It means that your job is to make them YOUR army of fanatics!

Look at Zynga, the makers of FarmVille, and FishVille, with 230 million users each month (using a limited advertising budget) and Mafia Wars with its 12,104,521 facebook fans (as of 2nd of June 2010). These are games that have created and tapped into fanatical armies at great success!

This, by the way, requires following the same recommendations outlined above. Gaming is the perfect environment for a brand to create THEIR army of fanatics, and for social media marketing to prove itself in every part of the marketing mix.

If the gaming industry gets it right, I believe it could do to social media marketing what porn did to the Internet – accelerate its success!

And for whoever does this well, it will be game, set and match!

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2010
06/14
CATEGORY
Advertising/Media
Challenge the obvious
Competitive Advantage
Marketing
Social Media
Strategy
Thoughts
this fluid world
Write comment

We don’t need ‘heads of what’s in vogue’; we need great marketing and communications practitioners!

My last blog ‘Do we need strategists? Hell yeah!’ mentions hiring ‘heads of what’s in vogue’, and I would like to discuss this topic a bit further.

When I say ‘head of what’s in vogue’, yes I do mean Head of Digital, Mobile and now Social Media (in addition to the next thing that will come along).

Do not get me wrong, every new channel, discipline and/or opportunity should be acknowledged and recognised for their potential importance, and the possibilities they may bring.

I’m also all for recruiting necessary skills, and for assigning roles and responsibilities (the buck has to stop somewhere), and finally I have no problem with those roles and responsibilities coming with a title.

What I do have an issue with is agencies and organisations reasons for assigning a head of Digital/Mobile/Social Media. From my experience when such an appointment is made it’s for one of the following reasons:

  • Everyone else is, so it must be important, hence we should hire someone too
  • We’re not sure we buy into it, but we do need to be seen as doing so (by the trade press and our clients)
  • We don’t really have time to think about it so we’ll hire someone to delegate the responsibility to
  • Hey, maybe it will lead to a new revenue stream
  • Hiring someone is as good as a change, no? (and yes a lot easier!)

What seems to only rarely be on the agenda is hiring someone to do what is desperately needed, manage the necessary mind-shift to affect real change, rather than just contribute to a campaign, or meet with senior clients (pixie dust).

For that to happen the new Head should spend his time:

  • Figuring out the role of, for example digital, mobile and social media, in the communications and marketing mix
  • Identifying its best use in achieving business objectives and marketing goals, this per category, stage in product life cycle and per campaign
  • Ensuring awareness and REAL understanding of the topic within the agency/company
  • Making sure everyone in the agency/company understand its role, value, and knows how to use it and what to expect from it

What is needed is to ensure that the right measures are taken to make what is new part of business as usual, so that it becomes EVERYONE’s responsibility.

Because without this happening we will never have what is truly needed and that is great marketing and communications practitioners that can adapt to any change and capitalise on any opportunity (be it a channel, platform or disciple) that comes their way!

So if you hire anyone hire a ‘Head of figuring things out’, a ‘Head of understanding people’, a ‘Head of getting stuff done’ – or alternatively hire smart generalists with deep knowledge and experience for a day, a week a month (we love those in this fluid world so if you’re one, or looking for one, get in touch)

Hire them and let them loose in your organisation with a simple brief, ‘to find answers, to find solutions, to achieve great marketing and communications that is channel, platform or disciple agnostic’ – hire them to achieve companie’s business and marketing objectives (this would be a strategy rather than sprinkling pixie dust).

I’m afraid this will not happen if we keep hiring Head… after Head… after Head of ‘whatever is in vogue’!

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2010
05/31
CATEGORY
Advertising/Media
Challenge the obvious
Marketing
Organisational Behaviour
Strategy
Thoughts
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Do we need strategists? Hell yeah!

A few weeks ago I read something quite depressing … apparently there is very little demand for strategists on the conference circle…

Does this mean that our industry has little interest for strategy in general? Does this mean that strategy has been replaced by things we can see, we can touch, things we can play with?

It would explain a lot.

It would explain why most of what we see awarded, rewarded, celebrated at our conferences, and written about in our blogs, are a series of activities and tactics which at beast sprinkle pixie dust but rarely lead to an increase in sales, or a major shift in brand perception (Yershon and Jmac I know you’re with me on this one :) )!

It would explain why people believe that facebook is a strategy, it would explain why people treat a platform like mobile as if it was a strategy, and it would explain why companies keep hiring a head of ‘anything that is in vogue’.

It would also explain why, when standing in front of a corporate audience, people look blankly at you when you ask them if they know what their company strategy, and/or vision is.

It seems like the future of strategy is under threat, and strategists are an endangered species.

This is serious, I mean very serious. We are in a period of change, a period of flux, and I can’t think of a time when strategy is more needed than during a period of change and flux!

Sun Tzu wrote of war “All men can see these tactics whereby I conquer, but what none can see is the strategy out of which victory is evolved”.

Be under no illusion, business and marketing over the next couple of years will resemble a war, a war where only the ones with a clear and solid plan of action (a strategy) will survive.

And be under no illusion, the organisations you see celebrated and hailed on a regular basis for their digital campaigns, for their innovative use of technology and channels (for their tactical activities) …

… the organisations you see achieve victory in changing, confusing and scary times …

… these organisations are the same companies that, like Sun Tzu, have a solid strategy to back up everything they do.

Strategy is the difference between sprinkling pixie dust and achieving a real impact, strategy is the difference between ad hoc success and a sustainable business, strategy is the difference between winning and losing the war!

Don’t take my word for it, but do take Sun Tzu’s – and next time you organise a conference, do roll in the strategists, it’s by involving them that real, valuable and long-term activities will emerge!

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2010
05/25
CATEGORY
Strategy
Thoughts
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If you don’t control your value chain, control your communications!

This is the final piece of a series of three. The first ‘A bad piece of meat will always be a bad piece of meat’ discusses how people select suppliers,  the second one, ‘In this collaborative world, if we own the royal mile, then we have to accept that our suppliers are our responsibility!!!’ discusses how organisations are responsible for the actions of their suppliers since they own the final customer touch point, or what we at this fluid world call the royal mile.

This piece deals with when all else fail, control communications.

I’m prepared to accept that there are times when you are forced to cooperate with organisations whose actions are not under your control. If you happen to find yourself in such a situation, then you must be responsible for, and take control of the one thing you do have power over – your communications.

Let me give you an example.

A few years ago I bought a TV from John Lewis.

Anyone who has had the pleasure of buying anything in John Lewis’ electronics department will know that it’s a pure pleasure. The waiting time to be served is short, the staff helpful and polite, the advice based on customer need and not on the desire to up-sell, and the choice available more than acceptable. So far all good (and yes under the control of John Lewis).

However it all goes horribly wrong just a few days later (while I’m still in the post purchase anxiety of ‘do I really need a new TV?’ period – and also within the time frame when I can bring the TV back).

A letter arrives in the post, it’s not a ‘we hope you enjoy your TV’ message from John Lewis, but a threatening letter from the TV license people.


A letter treating me like a criminal because I have just bought a TV and, according to them, don’t have a license for it. No consideration that I may have bought it as a present for someone, or that I may actually have a license (which I did!) – just a threatening letter full of assumptions.

In one second my warm and fuzzy feelings for John Lewis disappears! Warm and fuzzy feelings I had because of an excellent service that I’m sure cost John Lewis a lot of money to deliver on! “But this has nothing to do with John Lewis” I hear you say!

But it does!

I understand John Lewis legally have to inform the license people when someone buys a TV from them.  I also understand that they have no control of the letter that is ultimately sent to their customers (although if I were them I would fight this one all the way to court!).

What I DON’T understand is why they did not have the courtesy to inform me about this legal obligation, and about the letter that would arrive at my doorstep a few days later. What I don’t understand is that they don’t try to separate my experience with them, with my experience with the TV license people. What I don’t understand is that in a situation where they can’t control the actions of an organisation they are forced to cooperate with, over whom they have no power, they don’t control and manage what they do have power of, the communications.

All it would have taken is a “We would like to inform you that we legally have to inform the organisation responsible for TV licenses about your purchase, and that you will be receiving a letter from them within a week”.

Just one simple phrase, yet a phrase that would mean a 100% disassociation from an unpleasant experience that is about to happen, one that could damage their brand, one phrase that would leave the customer with the feeling that John Lewis is on ‘their’ side!

As an organisation you must have a clear understanding of what you can and can’t control. As an organisation you must have a clear understanding as to the possible damaging scenarios around what you can’t control. As an organisation you must make sure that you use communications in your favour to avoid any negative associations from the behaviour of any of those suppliers/collaborators.

But use communications as a last option, control and prevention will always be more powerful! And after all, if Apple can force Vodafone to make each customers open the iPhone package themselves when they buy a new iPhone because ‘it’s part of the customer experience’ (bearing in mind that I as a customer can’t get Vodafone to do anything) – then everything is possible!

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2010
05/09
CATEGORY
Customer Experience
Marketing
Retail
Strategy
Thoughts
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