Purity

December 8, 2008

There has been a lot of talk recently that Social Media has “jumped the shark”; that promoters and pitchmen have co-opted social media.  This might be the case with some industries or specific tools, but I’m not really worried about it.

The reason is simple - social media is a word-of-mouth tool.  And word-of-mouth either “purifies” the tool - or finds a new one.

When testimonials started being faked, WOM went to YouTube.

When reviews could know longer be trusted, WOM went to user/community sites.

When traditional media started re-printing press releases, WOM went to blogs.

When MySpace become a promotional tool, WOM went to Facebook.

I believe WOM will purify social media rather than just find a new medium.  This is largely due to the nature of social media; where the individual participants get to control who they talk to and how they interact.  Brands and people that use social media just as a pitch machine will be rejected by audiences; often by the very tool that was used to “communicate” with them. 

The biggest lesson that companies and marketers can learn is that this era of “new marketing” is not really about marketing at all.  It is about people talking about the things they love (or hate).  That’s why these rules of great brands are so important:

1.    They have a purpose; and this purpose inspires the people attached to the brand.
2.    They are driven by people – customers, employees, and stakeholders.
3.    They grow because of legends; stories told by the people that drive the brand.
4.    They are high-integrity organizations that are naturally transparent.
5.    They respect heritage, but embrace the future – as such, they are always relevant.

In short, if you don’t purify your brand before participating in social media, WOM will do it for you.

Posted by justin | Filed Under Branding, social media | 1 Comment 

Be Your Own Bailout

December 2, 2008

As the economy tightens, businesses have begun the belt-tightening process. They are taking a close look at all expenditures and cutting back on the non-essentials.  Branding/marketing budgets are not escaping the scrutiny - nor should they.  So what SHOULD a company allocate towards branding/marketing?  Here are 7 areas to consider:

  1. Look at your business in its entirety.  Think strategically, then tactically.  This starts first with the 3 Simple Rules of business. Take a close look at your vision for your company - has the picture in your head of success changed?  If so, then you need to re-focus your business strategy around that new vision.
  2. Take a long look at your business model.  Is your business model out of alignment with market conditions?  Do you have scalability in your processes that allows you to flex to new opportunities?  This will have big impact on how you spend branding/marketing dollars.  Keep in mind that advertising MORE doesn’t help an obsolete business model.
  3. Ask “why?” a lot.  Every marketing expenditure must be tied to a strategic reason.  There should be no marketing just for the sake of marketing.
  4. Ask “what?” a lot.  Every marketing expenditure should have provable, measurable results.  If a particular marketing tactic is not producing results, stop doing it. 
  5. Make heavy use of public relations. This is key in two areas.  1)  Media relations - most media outlets have had to cut back on reporting staff.  As such, they are hungry for non-pitchy, relevant stories.  Strongly consider using a professional PR firm to help you handle this.  They can very likely articulate your story to the media better than you can.  Also check out “Help-A-Reporter-Out”, a story request tool from PR guru Peter Shankman.  2) Be Your Own Media - if your story isn’t getting out, it is your fault.  Your web-site is a publishing outlet waiting to tell your story.  I’m a strong advocate of re-purposing all marketing tools to tell your story instead of pitching your message.  If you follow the 3 Simple Rules, you will have great stories to tell.
  6. Drive the cost out of existing marketing expenditures.  Keep in mind that almost all marketing is a commodity.  This means it often can be done faster and less expensive if you shop it carefully.  This especially true with web costs.  Take a look at what it costs to maintain your site.  If your current site doesn’t have a CMS (content management system) then you are likely wasting thousands of dollars.  Also take a look at hosting costs.  As far as out-bound marketing efforts, almost everything can be purchased less than what you are paying for now - direct mail, media placement, etc.  Finally, consider using more interns.  A college marketing student is much more likely to understand current marketing trends than a marketing person who hasn’t escaped the walls of his/her cubicle in 10 years. Interns are ideal to manage customer retention efforts (see below).
  7. This is the biggest one - focus on customer retention v. customer acquisition.   The first reason is purely financial - it is simply much less expensive to get new business and referrals from your existing customers.  However, this doesn’t mean to NOT spend money on customer retention.  Instead, re-direct funds that are currently being spent on customer acquisition (for example, mass advertising) towards customer retention tools.  These steps include:

    -  Re-purposing your web-site to be a conversation platform between you and your customers - and your customers with each other.
    -  Embracing social media as a digital word-of-mouth tool.
    -  Implementing survey and customer feedback mechanisms
    -  Investing in contact/relationship management tools like a CRM.
    -  Scrutinizing every element of the customer experience.

For B2B companies, there is an 8th step - Re-build your sales force.  The bottom line - if your product/service is good, there is no excuse for an under-performing sales person.  If you have a good salesperson, do everything to keep them.

Some of this is “tough love” that will ruffle some feathers with our fellow marketers/branders.  However, if we don’t help businesses re-focus and properly allocate marketing resources, we will end up on a ledger with a red line through our name.  For business owners and executives, you likely have been doing some version of the above for years; maybe not with marketing.  Question everything, think strategically, and expect excellence from your internal and external marketing people.

Posted by justin | Filed Under CMO, ROI | 2 Comments 

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