What is Marketing?

After interacting with students, businesses, and seasoned professionals over the last twenty years, it’s apparent that there are mixed definitions of marketing.  

It’s no wonder in today’s rapidly changing media landscape and the promises of one hit wonders.  Some view marketing as an advertising campaign, others social media, and a few define it as product development.   

But what’s the right view?  

All of these are correct, but none of them provide the entire picture. While each of these may help you grow sales (because at the end of the day, businesses conduct marketing in order to improve their sales), each by themselves will not return as large of a long term profit as what a holistic marketing approach could provide. 

When I started my undergrad, I thought marketing was advertising. I entered Miami University with the intent to study business. I knew I loved math and designing homes, and thus started to study accounting and architecture.  My mentors from Procter & Gamble pointed out that both skill sets of analysis and creativity were better matches with a major of marketing. 

What I learned is that marketing starts way before the commercials I loved on TV.  Marketing is creating, communicating and delivering value to consumers.  It’s solving consumer needs profitably.  It’s managing customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders.  Notice that all of these definitions of marketing mention consumers and customers. Yet, none reference the 4 P’s: product, price, promotion, and/or place (these are essential subsets of marketing that can only occur AFTER you understand your consumer).

As a marketer, your job is move your target consumer from being a stranger, to a friend, to a lifelong partnership.  Effective marketers love their consumers and the work they create.  But falling in love doesn’t happen instantaneously, it happens over time. It takes courtship and several exchanges to verify that you trust and like to be around each other.  Marketing is not a short term, quick-fix, it requires a solid strategy that takes roots early and lasts a lifetime. 

Thanks to the Internet, the power has shifted away from marketers to consumers.  Modern marketing is a welcome change from the selfish, all about me marketing, to building trust and listening to consumers.  By truly listening to your consumer’s frustrations and investing in serving that, marketers can be change agents that provide significant benefit to our culture and environment. 

MKTABC puts consumers at the heart of every marketing strategy. Using the voice of your target customers, I base recommendations on what your shopper truly wants from your business. I would love to help your company better connect with your consumers and incorporate holistic marketing!

Research to Reap the Rewards

Launching a product or business under the wrong auspices could be a disaster.  

While most entrepreneurs are excited to introduce their offering, the majority fail after the first year or two.  These businesses fail to meet sales expectations for numerous reasons, including upset or confused customers, a crowded competitive marketplace, or a negative return on investment.

It’s important to understand the current offering, which areas are entrenched, and the opportunity areas that the existing competitors are ignoring.  The barriers are just as important; there may be a reason why the other companies are avoiding certain areas or maybe you can develop a way to reduce the barrier?  Study the competition before you finalize your product features and benefits.  

A great idea is one thing, but it won’t monetize unless you can verify that the idea is a need among your target consumers and represents a white space versus the competitive offerings.  The best launches delight the target audience by being better, newer, and solving a meaningful problem for your audience. The only way to discern this is to identify and measure your target’s needs and wants, prior to launch.

Is the audience larger than your friends and family?  Can you project a target size that is interested in your product that is large enough to provide the sales necessary to cover your fixed costs and provide the profit that is warranted for your time? Then after you have validated your target size, you need to understand where your consumer wants to buy and at what price.  I’ve seen several amazing product ideas launched earlier than when consumers were ready to adopt them in their home.  

Focus on the development of the base product and not the features.   The best practice is to get a product a third of the way ready and then share and test it with your partners.  This includes three key audiences: your consumers, your distribution and retailers, and your manufacturing reps.  Your goal is to glean the most amount of insights in order to refine the product to meet all three needs.  By testing before the product is fully ready, you save time and money in the long run.

There are multiple ways to acquire the necessary insights for your business venture, and it doesn’t have to be a large scale research project.  Before you embark on your research, you need to succinctly define the problem you are trying to solve and what action you will embark post the insights.  Then you can match the insight needed with the research methodology.  Whether it’s a beta program, a quick focus group, survey, or an in person interview, make sure that you partner with someone who has market research experience. 

Once you understand the value that your business can bring to consumers, then you need to continue your research efforts as you design your messaging, marketing, and portfolio expansion.  Just because you gathered insights at the beginning, does not mean that you will have a successful business long term.  You should update your research needs and questions as you progress along your business launch. Every business finds pain points as they move along the product life cycle.  Only the successful ones continue to conduct research to ensure they are delivering a promising value and a financially feasible business for their stakeholders.

Striving for a Strategy Mindset among your Staff

In my consulting, I have often hear:

“How do I get my employees to be more strategic?”

“Can you train my team to be more strategic?”

“Why are they not offering strategic solutions, even after I provide the time to do so?”

First, it’s important that we define strategy.  A strategy is not a plan and vice versa.  Strategy is a framework to help you make decisions and is a higher arching view of how you will win in the marketplace.  But a strategy does not answer all of the minute details about how you execute the strategy.  A plan is made up of tactical decisions and timelines that equate to the implementation of the strategy. 

You have to have some level of leadership ability and responsibility in order to assume strategic responsibility, whether this is a council to a senior leader (often in the case of strategic consultants) or a senior role within the organization. Strategies are typically only changed every few years, while there are multiple plans in place every year.  Most companies want their employees to develop plans, not strategies.  

From a skill set standpoint, most employees have the ability to generate ideas, but not everyone knows the steps to ensure these ideas are profitable.  Great strategists know how to do the research to validate the unique positioning of the idea versus the competitive and company strengths and weaknesses.  It is vital that they have an outside perspective; your employees need access to thinking beyond your organization.  This is often why consultants are hired. Another important skill set is the ability to write these ideas down into a structured plan that makes sense for the organizational capabilities.

In order to request strategies and plans, we need to understand that some of the responsibility lies in our employees’ abilities, and an equal amount on the internal culture we have created.  I love to develop strategies for my clients, whether it’s a new direction, process, products, and / or positioning, and have been heralded by most of having a great strategic mindset. However, I have also had prior leaders who have questioned my strategic ability.  This is not because I didn’t have the skills necessary to formulate new strategies and plans, but instead was largely due to the limiting culture the leadership created.

Leaders are failing to motivate their employees to commit themselves to change.  Employees are not expending discretionary effort for the betterment of the organization, but instead are withdrawing their full abilities and self and are merely fulfilling their specific job requirements.  As managers, we have to ask why would our employees WANT to exert extra effort in supporting or creating organizational strategic change?  More than a skill set gap, It’s typically due to a knowing-wanting gap, from three fundamental reasons:

1. psychological contract violation

2. not feeling valued and understood

3. not seeing the value in the resulting impacts of the change

A  psychologic contract is a set of beliefs and perceptions in regards to the promises and responsibilities between the employee and the organization.  It is a give and a get. Employees give their energies in return for getting financial rewards, benefits, development, and recognition.  When the equation is balanced, we can expect our employees to do more for the company; but when it is not, we can only expect our employees to withdraw.  

A few years. back I was hired to take over the Vice President’s role, however, no matter how many times I asked, there was no exact plan or milestone in how we could transition and take over the responsibilities.  Instead my job was in limbo and the job description did not match the actual demands of the job.   I was promised more than the organization could offer and thus I withdrew my full self to focus on the needs of my community.

Fairness and trust are essential components in order for employees to bring their full abilities and self.  The more erroneous your promise and obligations, the greater decline in how your employees view you as being fair.   On the flip side, if they perceive that you have been honest, they will increase their organizational commitment and be more willing to institute the needed strategic change in the company.  

Earlier in my career, I was the only working mom in a team of all fathers who had stay at home wives. The President asked me often on how I could balance both the demands of my family and the demands of the job, although I never missed a deadline and more than met the job description. Because he didn’t understand me and treated me differently than the men on the team, I questioned my future within the organization.  This questioning resulted in less effort for any strategic change efforts.

Another management error that results in a lack of strategic planning is poor communication.  How can we expect a strategic mindset when the majority of employees have become physically uninvolved in tasks?   Strategies become significant only when leaders are able to help individual employees answer the following questions about the recommended change: (1) how will this change affect each employee, (2) how can your employees contribute to make a difference, and (3) why should they care.  After implementing new directions with my clients, I spend time with their affected team so that they can understand how the change impacts their role and what they can do to help.

You can empower your team to be more strategic and to implement sound plans, as long as you are honest with yourself about the cause for the inability and the steps necessary to change for the better.  Managers should seriously evaluate the current balance between ask and reward, whether they are making their employees feel valued and understood, and ensuring clear communication on how the requested change will affect their employees.  Then, once the culture is conducive to a positive workforce environment, you can train your team to employ the right strategic skill sets.  

NURTURE YOUR LOYALISTS

Most marketers yearn to connect with consumers by spending heavily on traditional and digital marketing.  

Yet most are forgetting about their free resource: their biggest fans. 

Word of mouth has always been the best marketing, both before and after the digital age.   These loyal fans already believe and espouse in your services. They brag and recommend your business to others without prompting.  And they would love to be recognized.  

The great thing about these fans is that you don’t have to convince them to love you, they already do!  They are just as excited about your brand objective and will share the benefits and help you grow your audience beyond what you could do on your own.  And while this group is easier to work with than most other groups, it is not one to be forgotten and abused.     

If you want a healthy relationship with your brand community, you should consciously work at it.  Your partnership with your most loyal fans are vital to your organization just as your personal partner is vital to your happiness.   Adhere to these six steps, recommended by leading marriage therapists, to ensure your brand ambassadors are feeling your love: 

1.  Seek advocates who share similar values. The best brand ambassadors are those that are recommending products not because of monetary gain, but because they truly believe in the value that your product brings to them. You want to connect with consumer groups who already love your products.  It’s okay, and actually more profitable, to not target every consumer. Just like dating, you need to pass on several mates who are not a great fit; you need to find your perfect match.  

2.  Listen to your partners. Provide an open door mechanism that allows them to share their comments (whether it’s social media or a brand community page) in the means and timing that is most convenient for your loyalists.  Listen to your brand advocates with an open heart. Don’t just ask about your product and service, but also query on the likes and dislikes of your competitive set. You may be inclined to only listen to the positive praise, but the complaints are where the great insights lie. Remind them often that you love to hear from them.   

3.  Speak their ‘love’ language. Shift your marketing from a content-centric to an audience-centric approach. How your loyalists define your product / service are often different than the ‘corporate’ terms you use to market your business.  You need to use their ‘voice’ in order to resonate with your target audience.  And who better to speak on your behalf and in words that compel your target than your actual user?  

4.  Work together. Most businesses take their loyalists for granted; your consumers need to be catered to as well. Make sure that there is a reason for your brand to not only exist, but to truly delight their functional and emotional wants.  Reward your loyalists with gifts they would appreciate. Provide your fans early access to your new products; they will be delighted to have an exclusive first access, and will be more inclined to send feedback and tout the product.  Similar to reviewing your ideas with your spouse before executing them, you should vet your new products and marketing campaigns with your loyalists first before releasing it to the world.   

5.  Grow Together or Not. Your partner is not a static object; their needs change; the same goes for your brand ambassadors.  Expecting both to remain the same is unrealistic and unfair. While your loyalists bought your product in the beginning due to a hope that you would serve their need, you can’t assume that need state will stay the same. Ask clarifying questions to ensure you understand the reason for their negative comments and show your consumer that you are acting on their recommendations. As each of you grow, you may need a new relationship status, whether that means elevating their status to speak on your behalf or severing ties.   

6.  Take care of yourself. Make sure that your needs are being met as well. You can’t take care of your loyalists, if you are not happy and don’t grow yourself.  You will have dissatisfied consumers and ones that you will not be able to appease.  While some like cash incentives, most are happy with occasional product samples and other perks.  Don’t break your spirit or bank account by trying to appease every consumer.  Take a break from your advocates occasionally. Any type of relationship takes work to ensure both parties are happy.  But by consciously working on this list, just as you do with your personal relationship, you should be able to mutually build your brand objectives.  Nurture your relationship with your consumer and they will help you in return!  

MKTABC was created to bridge consumer needs and wants with company objectives.  Our advisory firm helps you get to the heart of your target and align your product and marketing to what’s profitable and efficient for both parties. Email me anytime at janelle@mktabc.com; I look forward to helping your relationship grow!

Procuring and Managing the Right Marketing Agency for Your Business

Are you getting everything that you need out of your creative vendors?  

Are your current agencies changing with the demands of the market and your target consumer?  

Are you sourcing other agencies that can better meet your needs? 

While traditional procurement focuses on evaluating cost, the better sourcing strategy involves reviewing overall effectiveness for the cost.  

The best sourcing managers do the following 4 things to ensure they are getting the most out of their creative partners:

1.    UNDERSTAND THE MARKET. Sourcing managers are charged with obtaining real value for the money proposals, but this isn’t feasible without doing your research upfront and finding out as much information as possible, before the RFP and / or creative briefs are written and sent out.  In order to source and monitor the success of your advertising and marketing vendors and agencies, it’s important to have a clear understanding of not only your internal marketing needs, but also the capabilities of your vendors.  This requires going beyond just reading the latest creative brief and meeting regularly with the CMO, account executives and creative directors, as well as keeping abreast of industry trends with involvement in organizations like the AMA (American Marketing Association) and / or ANA (Association of National Advertisers). 

2.    COLLABORATE ON REAL METRICS. Creative work doesn’t always provide concrete data points that are widely accepted or understood and thus a lot of agencies are evaluated strictly via qualitative, and not quantitative measures.  Complex services like design and marketing are open to a subjective level of interpretation. However, in order to manage your procurement efforts wisely, you need an agreed set of measures that define success. These metrics should utilize industry best practices alongside the unique needs of your business, outlined in clear and detailed sourcing documents (briefs, RFP’s, etc.).

3.    PRIORITIZE VALUE OVER COST  Before any advertising work begins, it’s important that you and your agency partners align on a payment schedule that relates to clear delivery milestones. These milestones should be a good balance between being attainable (reflecting the nature and duration of the task) and stretching your partner to strive for more. Your agreement should be seen as demanding, but fair, providing an incentive to your agency partners to deliver optimal value for your business.  The best agreements include a base pay that is fair and ensures the best team is committed to your initiatives, plus a performance related fee (PRF) that is tied to goals that involves shared risks.  

4.    FILL YOUR BENCH  You need to take some risks in your procurement strategy so that you can secure the best quality advertising your business needs, while spending only what it’s worth.  Relying too heavily on one or a few agencies keeps you locked into a limited selection of creative abilities and expense.  Smart sourcing managers evaluate startups and smaller agencies and commit a portion of their funding (most around 10%) to try out new vendors who can provide a different perspective, new forms of advertising, and more efficient ways of connecting with your consumers.  These ‘test’ vendors also serve as a back-up plan for your larger vendors who may need to be replaced or put on notice in the future. As a result, you have a lot more comfort with your sourcing pipeline and future ability to meet the needs of your organization.

To get the most out of your agency, your vendors should be treated like a valued relationship and not a drain of cash.  The more that you can view your creative and marketing agencies as a partner, the better the outcome of  your company objectives and return on investment (no matter what hat your wear in your organization).  If you need help in how to source or manage your agency partners, I would love to help!

YOUR BUSINESS NAME MEANS EVERYTHING

When naming your business, what you choose reveals a lot more than you think about your personality and the way you wish to handle your clients.  

I did not even consider naming my advisory firm after myself, even with the twenty years of experience that it carries with it.  I did not set up my business to highlight my merits and background; I set up my firm to help my clients.  Thus, I knew that my name had to represent the struggle of the companies that I represent: how to start something great. 

Similar to people's names, a business name carries a lot of weight and importance over the life of its existence.  Most parents spend at least half their pregnancy coming up with a name for their next of kin that honors their past while harkening on their hopes and dreams for their child.  Some parents are even going as far as hiring an agency for thousands of dollars to come up with the perfect name for their baby!

Coming up with a name for your birth (whether it be person, product or business) should not be taken lightly.  Your name can potentially affect your personality and what people think of you.  Whether noted or not, names conjure biases that either promote or detract from your mission.  Word of mouth relies heavily on what your name means to the masses; the easier it is to associate a happy definition with the name, the larger the impact your name can generate.

Here are a few recommendations to come up with a successful name:

1. Brainstorm names that contain the essence of your business and means something to your consumer

2. Cross out any names that are too similar to the competitive set, are not available with a good URL like .com and is already trademarked

3. Ensure that the name is easy to pronounce and spell; this will help increase their ability to search for your website and spread the word of your good deeds

4. Review your name with your target consumer and ask about the level of interest it arouses, be it family or your potential clientele

Even if you have had a business name for quite some time, you may need to rebrand.  Whether it is unhip or does not define your current offering, it may be time to change your name.  There are some key signs that you should alter your moniker.  

·      Are you currently embarrassed when you hand out your business card or send consumers to your website?   

·      Has a competitor launched a product that is similar and your name no longer signifies your difference?  

·      Have you expanded or moved?  

·      Is there something that happened that now invokes a negative image?  

If you have thought of any of these questions over the last year, it’s ripe to rebrand.

MKTABC can help you with your brand identity, naming, and marketing strategy.  With a focus on consumer insights, we derive the best plan that aligns your customer needs with your offering, and thus increase your sales.  Call us, a firm rooted in not focusing on ourselves, but on doing what’s best for you!