Marketing Wisdom

So many executives say “We must have a positive ROI and a positive ROAS!”.

I’ve written about this before; so many executives that have none or very little marketing experience all think that marketing can be easily measured by running an ROI (or ROAS) formula.

Marketing managers are very adept at spinning the ROI and ROAS to their benefit, especially as internet grows and becomes more important to the spend. Is this dishonest? Absolutely; it allows them to keep their jobs.

But, the diservice to the company is also a diservice to themselves.

ROI is a simple measurement that keeps companies doing many of the same marketing practices.

Managers as well as executives are shorting the opportunity to pursue an alternative marketing strategy that could quite possibly push their company, as well as their careers, into the stratosphere. It is something that I continuously harp about here, for you and your marketing team to be successful, you MUST explore and pursue, if you can, any and all non-traditional marketing opportunities. Everyone does a tradeshow. Everyone offers $1.00 off on their next purchase.

Don’t be shortsighted – take a risk and present alternative marketing opportunities to management. The worse that coul happen is they say “No, we want to continue doing the same thing”. But, maybe, they may say “You know, we would like to increase our marketing share by 1%” and off you go.

Even if you can’t measure it, take a chance.

It matters what you offer.

Was meeting with a client the other day – a start-up. Very young but with many clients throughout the United States.

This company is getting ready to hit it big and they are concerned – once they get the next three clients, they will be recognized as a nationwide company and a force to be recognized with. What this means to them, they THINK, is that everyone (their competitors who are already huge and well-established) will copy them and steal all of their clients.

Here’s why I disagreed by using the following analogy:

There are hundreds of Analyst companies throughout the world, right? Jupiter? Gartner? etc. From firms that are thousands of analysts to firms that are just one.

Just one? Yes, just one.

Why? How? Because they specialize. They focus on a niche market. They become so knowledgeable about a single product line that a large analyst firm can’t come close to having the breadth of knowledge that the single individual has.

This is the same as my client. They will have knowledge and focus that their large competitors can’t come close to having, now or even in the far distant future.

The DANGER is to themselves, where they may start believing that they are so large that they no longer have to be so concerned, worried, or detailed oriented towards their clients – that is where they will lose their client base and go out of business.

As long as they keep focused on what they currently offer and keep offering that, they will last far into the next decade before they will have to start worrying about competition and hopefully, by then, they will be onto the next field of expertise.

Have a wonderful client that is experiencing one of those difficult times that every start-up has, change.

Start-ups have many different times in their brief lives. They start and then collapse, they start and limp along and then collapse, they start and limp and then succeed, they start and become hugely successful.

There are also other “ways” that a start-up can go. I want to speak about the one that my client is going through right now. It is the one where they start, and they focus, and then focus again, and then focus again, and then become successful.

It reminds me of Thomas Edison – he didn’t make the lightbulb on the first try, he kept trying and trying and then succeeded.

This same company, each time it “refocused”, also changed its management team. It did NOT change it sales or product team, just it’s CEO. This allowed lessons learned to be kept but also allowed the “captain who was sailing the ship to change course and head in the correct direction”. Or, in their case, to refocus on a more direct approach to their potential clients.

I have written about this many times before. A start-up MUST change its management team numerous times as it grows from being young and immature to full grown and mature. An entrepreneur – who usually starts the company, rarely has the means, the patience, or the knowledge to turn a start-up into a global billion dollar company (yes, there are exceptions).

All I’m trying to point out and say here is this: FOCUS. Always focus. Look at your market, are you focused enough on them?

My client, because of its changing of focus, is becoming more and more successful – which is GOOD!!!

To you – it could be changing focus from the world, to APAC, to Taiwan. Or, it could be from using Gold, to Silver, to Aluminum. Or, it could be from using a blond, to using a brunette, to using a redhead.

Focus is research being put to practice.

By now, you know BP’s brand is crushed with the oil leak. Arizona Iced Tea has lost strong brand confidence because of Arizona’s government. What else?

For those of you who have been following me for the past few years:

1) Crisis documents had to have been finished and ready to go out (how can you NOT have crisis communications ready if you aren’t BP?).
2) Your spokespeople have already been determined and are ready to respond, within 24 hours, of any disaster (Arizona Ice Tea took four days to respond that they are NOT in Arizona, but in New York – way to long).
3) You already have spokespeople in place (or on their way), within 24 hours, to the local media as well as national media locations (i.e. here, in the U.S., it would be an individual in New York, one in Washington D.C., and one on the Gulf Coast (wherever all the media is stationed to report on the spill, in case of BP).

BP still has a chance to slow/stop the damage (yes, it is severely damaged) – they need to get out front and stop hanging in the shadows (remember my posts on the poisoned dog food? I still hear people asking about that).

Arizona finally has started putting spokespeople on the air saying that they are not from Arizona so please don’t punish us.

It all comes down to marketing fundamentals (like baseball or football). You don’t practice and update the fundamentals, you will lose the game.

Good luck!! (Again!!)

Let’s refresh everyones thinking on managing your direct reports.

1) Anyone can manage others. Through fear, through intimidation, through reward, through favoritism, or, the best way, through leadership.

2) You are not the only one who manages your team. Every individual that they come in contact with affects their performance, their judgment, and their desire to finish/accomplish their (and your) goal.

3) Leadership by example will drive your staff forward. Do as I say AND as I do is the best way to manage – through example.

4) It is not necessary to have the largest or most direct reports to get a promotion. Promotions come with delivery – on time and on cost.

5) Surrounding yourself with a staff that “fills” your weakness’ is the smartest and fastest way to get a job done. Of course, learn from what they can teach you – knowledge is a strength, not a weakness.

6) Include them in as many decision making process’ as possible; not necessarily making a decision, but, seeing how it is done, what the end goals are, and what objectives and dates are important. If everyone buys in to the decision AND the goal, you are half way there to accomplishing it.

I’m sure there are more that you can add. Please fill free.

I believe that I have spoken about this previously, but, here is a little more info to help you.

Do you need to have a Scope of Work document to give to an agency (or RFD, etc.). Yes and no, depending on where you are in the process.

I am going to assume that you have not done this before and this will be the first time that your company has asked an Agency to “bid” for your business.

1.) Sit with your CEO, CMO, VP of Marketing and decide/determine what you want an agency to accomplish for you in the first six months and one year from date of hire.

This should be a simple statement (almost a mission statement) that address’ what you want – some want brand building, some want product awareness, some want damage control, etc.

2.) Write each of them an email and asked if they were interested – it gives great insight into how they react to the unexpected (and of course, if it took a week to answer, they don’t make the cut).

3) Have a conference call with them and lay out what you are looking for; this should be 10-20 minutes of you talking about what your want the END RESULT to be (one year from now). Then do 10-20 minutes of Q&A

4) Based on that discussion, THEN put together a scope of work and mail to them. The first page should state again your mission and what was already said in conference call; pages 2 & 3 are all the questions that they need to answer within “x” amount of time (I usually give 14 days business days). Questions should be like:

a. Who would manage the account (who, amount of time, what/who else do they manage on a daily basis)

b. How would they spend the $100,000 budget (example) (page one talks about what you want – so, say to them, “if you only had $100,000, how would you use that to accomplish our goals?”

c. What’s the reporting structure? Who calls whom when?

d. Who are some of their elite media contacts that could help you gain market awareness? (or share?)

You get the idea.

One last point – do NOT hire an agency until you and management have decided on the mission and what you want to accomplish. It is a waste of money to do anything else.

When I was young and working at a company (my first big company), I really believed that I was going to stay at the company for 30 or 40 years and retire out of it.

I know, funny. No one stays at a company for too long. Comon, let’s be honest, two – three years is pretty long in the market today – enough to learn the next step or “area” of expertise and move on.

When you get to be a more “valuable” asset to a company, and in fact, are aware of its future products, markets, profits, etc., you hold secrets (or information) that your employer does NOT want out on the streets.

So, when you say goodbye, that you are moving on,  they will usually come back with a form for you to sign. A non-compete, an NDA (non-Disclosure Agreement), or some form that says that you cannot go to a company that competes directly with them or let out (tell or publish) any of the confidential secret information that you may have.

Good for the employer, but, not good for you and your future – you can’t go to a company and USE the skill sets that you learned.

IT IS OKAY that this happens.

If your previous company does not want you to compete, then, have them PAY you not to compete. You won’t go into the office anymore so, as time passes you and your secrets become less and less valuable, but, you are being paid the same as if you were there.

DO NOT SIGN any NDA’s, or non-competes until this is finalized – it is WELL WORTH the $500.00 to hire a lawyer to negotiate this – believe me. Six months or one year of pay for not entering into their market is well worth it (if you have the confidence that you can get a job a year later).

Yes, you lose the valuable information you have and even become “out of date”, but, you make money.  The question will be for you to answer. Do you take the money and insurance and possibly go into a new market? Or do you not sign, walk out, and hope that they don’t file suit against you if you let anything out.

Have any of your watched TV? Has any of you watched a news channel? Sure you have. Have you watched a TV news channel who has guests on – guests that are NOT on TV regularly (like, every other month)?

Why, may I please ask, do they NOT look at themselves in the mirror before they go in front of a camera? Oh, they do? Of course they do.  Have they never seen someone else who is not on regular TV on TV?

Of course they have – and most likely, they have said “I will not repeat that look”. 

No, we are not talking about Media training – there are millions of media trainers out there, go use it. 

This is about LOOKS.  Both male and female. Yes, the lighting is harsh, but that doesn’t mean that you should cake on blush, or eyeliner, or pancake mix. 

GO and pay for professional make-up artists – pay the money, even if you are on for only 1 minute.  People will pay attention to your words and not try and figure out what color of purple your lips are.

What’s my point? I have seen so many interviews lose their focus and essence because the individual was dressed inappropriately or had bad make-up.  And yes, this DOES apply to men.

Amazing how anyone who is in marketing forgets to focus on what is needed to succeed.

I have had the recent pleasure of working with some companies who realized “loss of focus” means “loss of time and ultimately revenue”.

I have written about this before, but, it has been some time so thought I should hit everyone over the head again about this.

Marketing Focus – there are many opportunities to be focused as you work through a marketing campaign, or strategy, or brand campaign, or tactics; you get the idea. 

Make sure, if this is all new to you, to go and pick up a basic marketing book and follow their steps.

1) Who is your target (and you can’t answer, North America, or All Children that are 10)?

2) Why are you targeting them?

3) What is the value that you see getting from them? (this is important and I have written about it under Gatekeepers and other areas – you might say “we are going to sell kids video games”, but, if you think the value is that, you may be wrong – because the parents are the “valuable” ones – they have the money, not the kids. You get the idea.)

4) Look at the forest, not the tree in front of you – yes, we are talking about focus and eventually you will have to look at individual trees, but, not at the beginning – the single tree is the last part of the equation. Remember playing with a Magnifying glass as a kid? The first time you used it, you held it far away and didn’t see where the point of light was hitting, until you brought it closer and closer to the object and the light became more and more focused.  But, first, you had to find the target, and then the focus began.

As usual, I can go on and on, but, to spare you and me wasted time, I will end here, and remember, you can always write me an email and I would enjoy helping you become successful.

If anyone is watching TV lately, they see the U.S. government, specifically the President, continue to try and “sell” the Social Health Care plan.  The most powerful individual in America and 300 of his supporters (or marketing staff) and the many outside firms, companies, and individuals who also support and “market”  for the President are now trying to get the Social Health Care plan passed.

Forty speeches, hundreds of town hall meetings, and TV advertising for almost one year has yet to convince a populast to “approve” and “support” the plan.

Can you imagine that you are in charge of a new product. That you are doing the same thing that the U.S. Government is trying but, you are a private inividual that works for a company and you are responsible for marketing there new products.  Let’s run with that and see how it would work out?  First, we need a product – hmm…let’s choose a new shoe that is made out of tree bark.

You have the most visible individual in America (that is not a politician) as your spokesperson – let’s choose Oprah Winfrey.

You have 300 individuals (marketing managers) that will help you push the shoes to the public and they are extremely visible also – let’s choose the top 300 Hollywood actors and actresses.

And then, let’s choose 1,000 retail stores (Asst. Marketing Managers) (clothes, make-up, etc. with small shoe departments) like Macy’s, JC Penny, etc.

All these people, for almost a year, get on TV, place ads, write articles for the web and magazines, all talking about how important it is to buy and wear the shoes made from bark. And, after every month, you all get together, all 1,301 staff/spokespeople and say “The public doesn’t know about these bark trees and how they will save the planet – they don’t care that the shoe will only last until the first rain, they only care about not filling up the landfills any more”.

And the people still won’t buy them.

How long do you think you will keep your job? Or how long will you get approval for more money (budget) to spend to “pitch” the new shoe?

You won’t, you will stop selling it and move on to another product.

So, what’s the moral of this story? LEARN from what is going on here in the U.S. on ways to NOT market a product by comparing it to the current Social Health Care bill that they are trying to get passed.