Feb 27, 2014 | Leadership, Management, Strategy
Some things we can predict with great accuracy, simply because we can quantify almost all the variables that come into play. The path a bullet will follow when fired, how long it will take a brick to hit the ground when dropped, and how much fuel it will take to do 10 laps of Mount Panorama racetrack flat out.
It is when you start to introduce unquantified variables, as distinct from unquantifiable variables, that things get exciting. A strong gust of wind will change the trajectory of a bullet, and a prang on Skyline and subsequent braking and weaving will alter fuel consumption, but the impact of both can be reasonably accurately forecast if they are included in the variables considered.
It is the random events that really cause trouble, the kangaroo that jumps out half way down Conrod, the quick-handed apprentice that reacts to the brick heading for your toes and does a diving catch, these things cannot be reasonably forecast, are random events, but have a profound impact on the outcome.
The point of the story is to again confirm the old adage that strategy rarely survives the first contact with the enemy, so the more agile you can make your reaction to the unpredicted and just plain random, the more likely you are to come out on top.
Feb 25, 2014 | Branding, Change, Collaboration, Demand chains, Marketing, retail
A pilot program I have been recently involved with, setting out to assist the evolution of a” Sydney Harvest” brand of local produce has not delivered the results hoped for.
After years of agitation by produce growers in the Sydney basin, beset as they are by aggressive competition from the chain stores, lack of scale and high operating costs as a result of being in semi urban areas, governed by urban concerns, the pilot was created. It was a collaboration between a small number of Sydney basin growers, and specialist retailers aimed at delivering the freshest and best possible produce to those discerning and demanding customers who choose to shop at the specialist produce outlets.
The value proposition was simple : “You know it is fresh, because it come from down the road, you know the retailer, and here is the grower, guaranteeing product provenance and farming practice sustainability”.
In considering the reporting of the exercise, part of the shortcoming of the pilot was that there was little commitment beyond the verbal from the participants, even though the verbal commitment was strong. This is very common in the early stages of collaborative exercises, everyone says “yes” and waits for others to do the lifting. The emergence or otherwise of a “champion” someone who takes on the challenges at a visceral level, can be the main bellwether of success.
Watching a presentation by Seth Godin last night, he articulated just the situation we had.
There was no “connection” between the participants beyond the superficial, the human connection was not there.
Godin calls Connection “The asset of the future” and in a connected world, it would be hard to argue against this proposition. He further identified 4 pre-conditions of connection occurring.
- Co-Ordination. There was co-ordination in this pilot, but it was managed from the outside, by me, there was little skin in the co-ordination part of the game by participants.
- Trust. Trust evolves over time as a result of behaviour, it is never given, it has to be earned. In this case, we underestimated hugely the role to be played by trust, and the preconditions necessary for its evolution.
- Permission. Seth is talking about permission being given by the subject of a marketing effort, so this pilot is a different set of circumstances, nevertheless, whilst” permission” was given in the sense that all signed up to the pilot knowing exactly what was going to happen, and the role they were expected to play, when it went away, nobody missed it. The “permission” whilst given was nothing more than a superficial “OK”
- Exchange of ideas. In this case, whilst there was superficial buy in, the subsequent behaviour did not include interaction amongst the participants. They were too busy and pre-occupied with the normal business to put the time aside to exchange ideas, and get to know on a human level the other participants ,exchange ideas and experiences, and learn from each other.
This stuff is really, really, hard, and the only way we learn is by jumping in and having a go.
Feb 24, 2014 | Branding, Governance, Marketing, Strategy
There is a lot to learn from the SPC imbroglio, the feds must be delighted to have got away with their IR/”no more handouts” agenda intact as the Victorian government bailed out not only SPC, but their federal colleagues, albeit not a good look for the state version and federal version of the same party to take a different position on a matter that both are saying is fundamental to their philosophy.
But what can we marketers take away?
- Every conversation has many sides. Jan Carlzons great “Moments of Truth” idea from the 80’s hold true in the C21, but the moments have been multiplied by the proliferation of connected devices. Not only do we need to have to have those we used to call “front line” troops on the hymn-sheet, but we have to have everyone on the sheet, as the conversation is now much wider, and almost totally uncontrollable, unlike the past. Best you can do now is have a credible seat at the table. I wonder would Sharman Stone have had the same impact 25 years ago as she has had over the last few weeks? I suspect not. Her message would have been the same, but her ability to access consumers, interest and advocate groups, and the public would not. She may have got a sound bite on the evening news, perhaps a radio interview, and the local paper would have run it indefinitely, but would the rest of us have been aware of the Gaffs the PM made about the workers entitlement, the connections made with the car industry, the Cadburys decision and Tassal decisions? No.
- We do care about local industry. SPC sales soared after the publicity, Australians do care that local industry is being decimated, but not enough to buy more cars. Is the cause of agriculture is closer to our national psyche than cars? Perhaps the cost of a car Vs the cost of a can of peaches had something to do with it. It will be interesting to observe how a renowned marketer like Coke extends the effect. I doubt they will be able to, as they will just revert to the tried and true, the plan, and what has gone before, when the context has changed completely. Having the cultural agility to completely change the message is usually beyond hierarchical organisations. I would radically alter and expand SPC consumer communications to keep the mood alive, and the retailers on side.
- Marketing needs to be agile, and connected. Following the above point, the production of annual marketing plans that feed into strategic plans, with budgets, accountabilities, media plans, and all the rest remains a vital task, with the huge caveat that things move so fast these days, that marketers need to be prepared to respond instantly to stuff that emerges. That single twitter post highlighting a product failure cannot be left alone, you may choose to do nothing, but ignoring it is not an option, you risk the classic “United breaks guitars” response.
- Marketing is the driver of everything. Marketing used to be just another functional responsibility, usually seen as a poor cousin to operations and finance. No more. Those enterprises that continue to see Marketing as the producer of the ads and promotional material, diviner of new products, and artistes of the long lunch rather than an idea that is the responsibility of everyone to be a part of, the driver of perceptions, and the voice of the market inside the enterprise will not be long in the business.
How does your place rate?
Feb 21, 2014 | Branding, Communication, Marketing
B2B and B2C is the way marketing has been described for the last 20 years.
Nonsense.
Marketing when successful has always been P2P, person to person.
Successful marketing is about engaging with people and people engage around stories, not data and specifications, and jargon, stories.
Stories about your history, products, and how they relate to the world, happy stories, informative stories, stories that are metaphors, that enlighten, that pique curiosity, that deliver lessons of things that should not be done again, and sometimes sad stories.
Successful marketing is always about the stories, and stories are told by people, even when there is a vehicle for delivering the story in the middle.
If you remember this basic building block of our humanity, marketing becomes easier.
Feb 20, 2014 | Governance, Leadership, Management
“If this was your money, would you invest it this way”.
This question worked well for many years as a corporate executive, asking the question of those who reported to me about the projects for which they were seeking support.
Usually, indeed, almost always, the answer was “Yes”. Clearly my last question had been accommodated before they got to the point of asking, and they knew it was coming, so made sure they could answer Yes before asking.
The added effect of this question was to ensure that there was a personal commitment from the managers involved, they had to look me in the eye and convince me that they had invested their credibility in the project.
This did not guarantee the proposal worked, that was not the deal, just that it was worth doing, and if it went pear shaped, there was accountability, and the opportunity to learn from the miscalculations would not be lost.
As a consultant for 20 years, I still ask myself the same question when recommending actions to my clients, “would I spend my money on this”
It still works.
