Jan 4, 2010 | Change, Management, OE, Operations
Over many years, the best marketers I have come across have been trained as scientists, in a wide range of disciplines, many had no formal marketing training.
Took me a long time to figure it out, the scientifically trained people had as a part of their automatic response, a systematic process of collecting data, forming a hypothesis based on the data, testing it and looking for inconsistencies in the results, then forming a further hypothesis based on the better data to test. Kaizen or “continuous improvement” by another name.
It was an automatic, built in response that works really well in a marketing environment, particularly where many marketing people are inclined to see a problem and jump straight to a conclusion based on what has worked in the past, rather than a detailed examination of the root causes of the problem.
As I write this post, I am reflecting on the role of the “automatic” response being one that seeks to understand the cause and effect relationships underlying a problem, and how little we know about how to make our businesses embrace it across all functions and all challenges.
That would lead to systemic Kaizen, and should prove to be a potent competitive tool.
Jan 3, 2010 | Leadership, Management, Strategy
Is it just a date, or does it signify a new beginning?
A bit of both I suspect, and forecasting the future should be left to the ladies in tents at the circus, but a couple of things we know for sure:
Firstly, the infrastructure of the world economy will undergo a profound change over the next decade as carbon management emerges as the dominating political and economic factor after the turmoil in the Middle East, and the potential that has to blow up in our collective faces. How we manage it over the next decade will impact for generations, hopefully we can avoid the short-sighted, narrow, self interested and belligerent posture that created the middle east imbroglio in the equivalent decade a century ago.
Secondly, the world is now connected, the technical advances of the last decade will throw up huge opportunities to address the challenges and inequities we face globally, but will put many impediments in the way.
Are you ready for the ride?
Dec 17, 2009 | Change, Management
In today’s cross functional organisations, “Internal Marketing ” has taken on a whole new meaning.
In the past, functional battles were waged at the senior management level where the resource allocation decisions were made. Now, with cross functional teams and matrix structures having a much larger role, gaining the support of colleagues of differing levels and functional affiliation has become profoundly important. This means that persuasion, or internal marketing has a whole new role to play.
A couple of tips for building support.
- The old Scratch his back, scratch mine comes it the fore. If you support someone else, by speaking in favor, supplying information, or assisting in some way, the sense of reciprocity can be invoked when you need support.
- Invoking an individuals previously stated opinion or activity can swing support your way, as the individual has a degree of credibility invested in their stated positions.
Be careful however, as overt use of either of these strategies can be counter productive. Like anything, common sense and fair play are important.
Dec 15, 2009 | Management, Marketing
Too often marketing is seen as an expense, to be cut when things are tough. Often this is an outcome of a lack of accountability for results emerging from the investment made in marketing.
It is in the interests of marketers to pro-actively take responsibility for their expenditures, figuring out ways to turn the qualitative into traceable quantitative data.
Advertising on the Box will give you a TARP level, essentially reach and frequency against a target audience, printed media will do a similar job, but after 2 generations bred to filter out unwanted advertising, how effective is that?.
By contrast, the quantitative tools embedded in other sorts of expenditures can be accounted for by the behavior generated.
Coupons in the US started in this manner, but have evolved into simply a discount. Direct response advertising can be accountable, but not all of us are up late enough to see the steak knife ads.
The web is starting to offer tools to count the behavior generated by the ads, click through, and purchase, which have changed advertising media choices forever, it is just that most have not realized it yet.
Dec 10, 2009 | Management, Sales
You would not build a house without a plan, so why would you set out to manage your major customers without some sort of plan.
For most businesses, their key customer base is the core of their commercial sustainability, so it is worth investing a few resources to ensure you are able to deliver an optimum experience to them when dealing with you.
Engaging the customer in your planning sessions for their business is sometimes a counter-intuitive, but very worthwhile activity, after all, who knows them better, what they need, how they see the future, the internal hurdles they face, than one of their key employees?
Dec 7, 2009 | Management, Strategy
Currently I am involved in a portfolio management exercise that covers brands, products, and projects on the books for a modest sized but rapidly growing business. A pretty standard exercise that most thoughtful businesses go through on a regular basis as a part of their strategic processes.
However, it occurred to me that the information, and mindset we were using reflected either an internal view of the piece we were looking at, often driven by what had worked in the past, or by industry trend data, that again, reflected an extrapolation of what had happened in the past, the underlying assumption that the past would repeat itself.
We know that the old saying “those who do not understand the past are destined to repeat it” is true, but what of the flip side, deliberately ignoring the past, to envision the possibilities, and using that to inform your portfolio management decisions.
We tried it, and whilst the process is incomplete, it is certain that the outcome has been altered substantially to what it may have been. We have also concluded that looking from the outside in should be a discipline we impose on ourselves, as that is how the markets, competitors, and innovative insights that can be very “left field” will look at us.
