Canadian Marketing Blog

Why can’t we be friends?

I’ve sat on both sides of the fence and really don’t get it. Why is their friction (and not just friction, unproductive friction i.e. finger pointing) between marketing and sales in a relatively high percentage of organizations? It comes down to a difference of opinion.

Marketing’s perspective: Why can’t sales close the leads we give them?

Sale’s perspective: Why can’t marketing give us some decent leads we can close?

In good times this attitude will slow you down, in tough economic times it will kill you. Let’s face it, there’s enough external competition without having internal competition - that’s a recipe for disaster that will get you nowhere fast.

So what’s a sales and marketing leader to do? First of all call a truce. Admit that in the past you haven’t always seen eye-to-eye and going forward that needs to change. If you need to purge to get past it, do it in your own time and space. Write down every frustrating experience you’ve had with your former “enemy” and make a vow to forgive and forget.

Next, schedule a half-day off-site – just the two of you (and perhaps your CEO/President) to get clarity AND alignment on your goals, values and strategy. Consider bringing in a third party to facilitate to provide fresh eyes and a perspective that helps to bridge the gap. Here are some ideas on how to structure the session:

Goals: Identify both short term (1 year) and long term (5 year) goals i.e. revenue targets for your organization. Use SMART goal setting techniques (Specific, Measurable, Action Oriented Realistic and Time Bound) to ensure you’ve covered all of the bases. Here’s why goal setting works – 98% of what we do is ruled by our unconscious brain. When we consciously set a goal our unconscious brain kicks into action doing everything it can to make that goal a reality.

Values: What is it that you stand for, what are your core beliefs (for a list of values right click on this link www.wemeanbusiness.com/values.xls and choose save as).This serves as your foundation, your pillar or rock that remains strong in a sea of change, in even the stormiest waters. Great things can be achieved when people are coming from the same place. Where are the two of you coming from? What are the commonalities? What is it you value and how do you live it day in and day out? Having this kind of insight into yourself and others helps to bridge communication gaps that inhibit results.

Strategy: What is your go to market strategy? Where is your path of least resistance? How can you focus your efforts to maximize your return? A good way to narrow your focus is with The Big Easy. Take a piece of paper, draw a quadrant table. Put Big on the top of the first quadrant, Small on the top the second quadrant. Along the side put easy on the first quadrant and difficult on the second quadrant (for the Big Easy Table click on this link www.wemeanbusiness.com/bigeasy.xls and choose save as).Having accomplished this, list everything you can do that is easy and provides a big return. Do not even entertain doing anything in any other quadrant until all of these activities are completed. This makes sure you are quite literally on the same page and focusing on what matters most. Simple and effective.

Now that you’ve kissed and made up (not literally of course) it’s time to present a united front to your teams. Host a joint meeting sharing your new found insights and invite your teams to brainstorm tactics and ideas as to how you’re going to get there.

Here’s the secret to achieving your goals – you need to do it yourself AND you can’t do it alone. Very wise words from speaker and writer John Assaraf. With summer here, it’s an ideal time to retrench so you’re ready to hit the ground running come September and achieve, or hey who knows, surpass your goals.

Are You Galvanized or Paralyzed?

These are uncertain times. Many people and companies are facing hardship. This is a world of great economic turbulence. This turbulence has two effects on people - it can paralyze them so they do nothing and simply retreat into their shell and "complain" how harsh the world is to them. In others, it galvanizes them to take action.

The current conditions just are. Accept them. Use the harshness to create energy and action.

Not all actions are the right actions but taking some action is much healthier than not. This is a good time to "Fail Often, Fail Fast, Fail Cheap". Try new things. Some will work, others might not. To fail is not to be a failure, to not try is to be a failure.

The current economy (which I beleive is actually getting better) is the same condition everyone and every company has to deal with. Many of your competitors will be paralyzed. This can work in your favour.

My brother, Glen's company, Skygeneration, owns a number of wind turbines. He is an environmentalist who is saving the world. He is constantly harrassed by NIMBY's (Not In My BackYard). This causes these 2 reactions. It wears him down first but then he uses that to energize himself to act. He chooses to be Galvanized to action. In his case he literally uses the adversity to create energy and power.

So next time you are hit with some adversity, choose to be galvanized. Think about harnessing the energy positively.

Be Galvanized not Paralyzed.

The Evolution of Public Relations

In a world of rapidly increasing costs and diminishing return for what seems like everything marketing, there is one word that should always be top of mind for senior b-to-b executives: Leverage. The notion of spending once and deriving value multiple times not only stretches limited budget dollars, but begins to link what were previously disparate efforts into a cohesive, impactful strategy that drives results. Exhibit A of the all-too-common lack of leverage within b-to-b marketing is public relations. Despite both its importance and potential power, this function’s lack of integration into other marketing – and sales – activities significantly reduces its leverage, and thus its impact.

There is a wide chasm between those that apply a PR strategy purely as a general communications vehicle, and those that begin to weave it into the rest of the sales and marketing mix. The key variables that work together to form this chasm include:

Functional Alignment. While the role of acting as the liaison for senior management will not go away, impacting the revenue generating support capabilities of marketing will require PR to branch out beyond its historical comfort zone.

Functional Approach. Best-practice PR functions cultivate a sense of back-and-forth community with their audiences, enabling them to not only drive awareness and support demand creation programs on a regular basis, but to also become a more credible source of information in the face of negative concerns that can quickly manifest into reputation-damaging events.

Deployment. True PR leverage is gained by driving systematic awareness and reinforcement of positions throughout the buying cycle, rather than one-and-done message campaigns that do little to engage customers or prospects.

Metrics. A large number of PR functions continue to rely only on legacy metrics that include total impressions, brand awareness, clip counts and positioning versus the competition; the measurement of newer social media tactics tend to revolve around quantifiable Web activity metrics and analytics.

Technology and Services. The ability to measure the integration and impact of PR on other marketing and sales functions means a reliance on more than traditional media technologies and service providers.

When PR is merely the mouthpiece for an organization, its ability to demonstrate value is limited. While broadcasting press releases was once the key component of driving awareness, it now only serves to point out just how out of touch an organization can be. Leveraging the social media world by simply using it as another channel to push your message out is not the way to evolve the PR function; instead, fitting PR efforts into a highly integrated strategy that leverages its activities into the overall focus of sales and marketing is the surest path to success.

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Insights from the Home-Owning Consumer

A home means different things to different people. For marketers seeking insights into homeowners’ purchasing decisions, it’s a telling tale of consumer habits.

The home represents a big part of a consumer’s life, from initial acquisition to the many significant purchases made to create a home. These important consumer decisions offer a magnifying glass through which we can examine some more general consumer behaviours. The following three insights demonstrate what a microcosm a homeowner’s purchase habits can be as a reflection of the consumer economy.

Honey, I Shrunk the House

The size of new homes has decreased by 11 per cent in the last half of 2008, from 2,343 sq ft to 2,629 sq ft. This trend started before the economic crisis hit North American households. Builders quickly learned to adapt the size of houses to meet consumers’ current financial possibilities and immediate day-to-day needs. In this context, it’s no surprise that consumers aren’t biting to purchase 10 cans of Campbell’s Soup for $10. Consumers are managing day-to-day decisions about purchases in the same way they handle major purchases, like homes.

Birds of a Feather Don’t Always Flock Together

Despite what one may think, not all products within a category behave the same way. An April 2009 survey released by Pew Research Center looked at the difference in consumer habits between purchasing luxuries and necessities. Take appliances, for example. A dishwasher, contrary to the opinion of many busy parents, is considered a luxury, versus a clothes dryer, which is considered a necessity (21 per cent versus 63 per cent, respectively, called each a necessity). The forecast for the industry shows that laundry washers and dryers will not decline in sales as much as dishwashers and even ranges. Likewise, consumer goods companies should expect line extensions to suffer more than their core products, because these extensions are considered a luxury by consumers. Special K, for example, will sell better than Special K with the addition of strawberries and vanilla, because the latter is more expensive and therefore considered unnecessary. Consumer packaged goods companies need to invest in the core of their brands, to ensure they do not lose consumers for their franchise.

To Buy, or Not to Buy? Or to Scale Down?

A recent survey asked 400 consumers about their purchase intent for televisions, appliances and furniture. The results were striking. They highlighted that a significant decline in purchase intent was expected over the next six to 12 months. Meanwhile for those who do intend to purchase, research showed they will not scale down significantly. Consumers are looking around more and doing more of their own research to find deals. However, they will not buy a product that does not fulfill their needs. For example, if they want a stainless steel fridge, they will not buy a white one, even if it is priced lower. What does this mean? Marketers should not advertise only the opening price point or low-cost products just because the economy is weak. Value still resonates with consumers.

Authored by Philippe Meyersohn, GM - Brand, GE Appliances / Mabe Canada.

From Pop Culture to Peep Culture

What does the behavioural trend mean for marketing strategies?

We are moving from a pop culture to a peep culture. In pop culture, we turn on the TV and watch our celebrities entertain us with their performances. In peep culture, we turn on the computer, we move through people’s lives on blogs, face book and Youtube. Instead of getting our entertainment from scripted performances, we get our entertainment from unscripted, supposedly spontaneous peeping into other people’s lives. It can be friends and family. It’s just as likely to be people we have never met around the world.

Susan Boyle became an overnight celebrity because of peep culture. The entire world was staring at her after her transformation from a resident of a small town Scottish town to a global celebrity. We like the story and the peep into her life. In many ways, the breakdown and her struggle will keep her story going.

We have entered the age of "peep culture": a tell-all, show-all, know-all digital phenomenon that is dramatically altering notions of privacy, individuality, security, and even humanity. Peep culture is reality TV, YouTube, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, blogs, chat rooms, amateur porn, surveillance technology, cell phone and more. Can Facebook and Myspace be a cure for loneliness? It’s not the ultimate solution. That’s the irony. We are trying to look for community by moving in solitude into these technologies. You are more likely to see people in a social environment immersed in their PDAs instead of communicating with people in the room. The name of the game is the number of followers. It becomes a narcissistic obsession.

As a society we have become incredibly fast paced without really being aware of these seismic changes in our lives. Today’s generation is the most photographed generation. We are moving into a time where our virtual personality is going to be more important than our actual physical presence. It’s going to be more important what we have online vs. what we do offline. We are going to be judged by our virtual portfolios, socially and professionally. We are not having a substantive debate about this trend in society. What we need to think about is what privacy means to each individual - politically, ethically and socially. We are a highly atomized and fairly lonely society.

In the age of peep, core values and rights we once took for granted are rapidly being renegotiated, often without our even noticing. Author Hal Niedzviecki on his new project, the Peep Diaries says the more we reveal about ourselves, the more attention we seem to get. So what happens next? Does privacy matter anymore? Can we be too connected? Is there anything we won’t put out there? Suddenly we’re spending all of our time tracking other people. And we’re inviting them to watch us! People reveal themselves to get attention and to feel like they are part of a community.

Peep culture is intersecting with pop culture and is evolving it and coming to replace it. For example, we see reality TV as the primary entertainment mode on TV. The phenomenon continues to grow. Game shows from the 1950 are more like pop culture. Peep culture is more like Trading Spouses, John and Kate plus 8 which had 10 Million people watch the debut episode in North America. US Weekly had 5 covers in a row of John and Kate plus 8. That is peep culture.

This has never happened before, where we have turned the spot light on random regular people. It’s an ongoing fascination. It’s really about how underground cultures are changing people’s lives. The biggest problem is what happens when we turn our lives reflexively, without thinking about it, into entertainment product. We are seeing a clash of values of people who are facebooking, blogging, youtubing and being encouraged to do so by an overall entertainment culture that says more attention is better. In contrast, we see a traditional society that says that a very active online persona may not be a good fit with a job or university.

People are being turned into celebrity product. Popular culture is encouraging people to move forward with even less scrutiny with what they are doing. There aren’t any secrets anymore. The notion of private life has changed. First of all, people want private moments to reflect. But they have redefined the meaning of privacy. The problem is we are alone most of the time- in our houses, in front of our computers, in our cars, at work in our cubicles or offices. The fact is human beings are hard wired to be social. We are descendents of apes who spend 80% of their day picking nits out of each others hair.

There are two issues. We have moved in the spectrum of community all the way to the end of gated fences, SUVs and tinted windows, into the belief that the fantasy celebrity lifestyle of having your own limo, private island, bodyguard, and having every appointment vetted by your people is the way to live. That is the fantasy that we have, we think we want. But for most of us, the further we get along that spectrum the more alone we are. So then we move to the other spectrum which is constant flow of details about your life, your blog, and your status updates. That’s what community used to be. There is this flow of information from other human beings that connects us together, which makes us feel more intrinsically human and less like we need to constantly be proving ourselves.

The Fallacy of Return on Investment in Marketing

Return on investment in marketing cannot be measured accurately. We are fooling ourselves if we think it can. The main reason ROI in marketing is virtually impossible to measure is that most actions from marketing are not instant and many actions from marketing are caused by a cummulation of impact over a period of time.

Do you buy a Nike shoes because it is on the billboard; because you saw the ad on television; because you saw the billboard; because you like the Just Do It slogan; or because the store clerk suggested them? Was it the ad this month or last? Or was it the ad you saw when you were 12? Or is it the recommendation of a friend who had been impacted by Nike marketing?

The answer is - you probably don't know exactly why you buy the shoes at the particular time that you do. It is a combination of all these factors that make up marketing that cause the consumer to take action.Most likely the purchase was made due to a combination of factors. That is why all marketers preach multiple medias and multiple frequencies. Marketing effect happens over time.

Marketing is the battle for perception. Good marketing can create the perception needed to cause purchasers to buy. It can also create the warm feeling towards the company or product that prompts the purchase.

The only type of product that can have an instant return on investment in marketing is something that is truly commoditized.

If you are selling water and there is no perception that your water is any different than anyone else's water, then if you do a marketing campaign or a promotion or a price reduction, you can shift share from a competitor. Most manufacturers should actually be spending their marketing dollars differentiating their product. It is much easier to sell "Clean Glacier" water over "bottled city" water if Clean Glacier can sell the refreshment and health benefits of their brand. Even water is not a commodity.

The only companies that should want to commoditize their markets are ones that are truly the lowest cost to produce (not to be confused with lowest price). To sell at the lowest price without the lowest cost is a recipe for failure.

Because of the difficulty in measuring ROI, some companies will just stop marketing. This is great news for those that keep marketing. In time share will shift to those that continue to invest.

Just because ROI in marketing is impossible to measure accurately does not mean marketing has no value. Just because we desperately want to know how to measure ROI in marketing does not mean it can be done. And just because the measurement is not accurate does not mean we should not try to measure it.

B2B Trends -- What a Difference a Year Makes

The financial crisis has had a big impact on marketing and advertising resulting in a realignment of priorities – a point emphasized by the ISBM in a recent presentation by their Executive Director. The Institute has monitored business marketing (and research) trends since the 1990’s and projects out 2 to 3 years – but the ISBM recently re-visited and revised the 2008 study – resulting in the emergence of new priorities (and downgrading of others).

What's hot now (keeping both your short and long term focus and compiling the right customer profile)

-Keeping tomorrow in mind – the advice is to build and enable an organization capability to stay focused on current issues and but don’t forget about investing in the future.
- Discerning the right customer profile for your organization – making the hard choices and identifying the “value” versus “price" versus "commodity buyers" versus the “pigs” (the latter being comprised of the high maintenance/low profit guys). This involves making hard choices about your customers. Marketers may also have to segment customers (and related offerings) more aggressively.

Still hot, kind of (the need to better understand and measure customer needs)

-Understanding and translating needs – getting at those special “insights” that will provide true competitive advantage (if only market researchers would use the right tools).
- Better measurement – defining and documenting “value” in business markets (from the customer’s point of view) and constructing better B2B marketing metrics to achieve more accountability.

Not so hot anymore (three issues have dropped off the radar)

-Competing globally (especially with China)
-Improving the rate and speed of new product offerings.
-Selling the “C-Suite” (making the case for marketing with top management).

Observations and comment

The ISBM B2B trend analysis is something that many B2B marketers and researchers follow religiously but there are some nagging questions which come up consistently over time.

Value, value, value
This term first appeared in business marketing research about 15 years ago; everybody wanted to define and understand the meaning of "value”. Some academic researchers have even reduced “value” to an equation. In the B2B world “value” can be an overused term and is often confused with costs and pricing. In reality “value” is just a code word for “benefits” - a much simpler concept that is relevant to business target audiences.

Tool, tools, tools
There is always pressure on researchers to use better “tools” – and get better insight, to understand, to identify, etc, etc. There is no doubt that B2B marketers should borrow more from the B2C world in this respect – but the emphasis is wrong. There needs to be more emphasis on the “what” than the “how” we evaluate – on organizational (versus individual) needs; on the strength of the corporate profile; on the needs and associated benefits of various target audiences; on business objectives and priorities.

Insight, insight and more insight
There is also a consistent demand for more "insight” into business thinking. It’s actually more about how to deal with the realities of business marketing: where one company dominates and everyone else is fighting for survival; where even the market leaders have poorly defined images and profiles; where marketers are more worried about the size of the sales force than the strength of the brand.

What I did over my summer vacation

Who says learning about business can’t be fun?

The folks over at DeGroote School of Business believe they may have just the right mix of business and pleasure – at their summer camp programs beginning later this month. There are streams for students both in grades 7 to 12 (the 3rd year being offered) & university students (new this summer).

High school students get a real-world introduction to business practices, learn life skills for success – that will likely lead to a heightened interest in pursuing post-secondary studies. Activities like interviewing successfully, managing money, negotiating conflict, developing business and marketing plans. All this on campus - with the option of getting a taste of campus life by ‘camping out’ in residence.

University students get a taste of certain courses they will take in following school year - through project work that may be similar but in a camp environment.

Degroote is serious about cultivating marketing talent. The School’s Top Ad Exec annual competition is a resounding success and a springboard for students looking to make their careers in marketing and advertising.

Imagine what this summer camp might mean to high school students?

Yes but is it personal?

In my role as a Direct Mail Specialist, I am exposed to many direct mail pieces that are created by marketers trying to talk one-to-one to their customers or prospects. Too often I find marketers are still only taking advantage of minimal information that is available in their databases, and are not taking advantage of the technologies available to them.

As technology has advanced, the opportunity to create better targeted mailings has increased.

When laser printing became the preferred method of personalization for direct mail letters, some marketers embraced the ability to communicate with a personalized message while others only littered the recipient’s letter with their name over and over again.

A perfect example of a company using their database to its fullest potential is an automotive manufacturer that created an ongoing “service” mailing to their customers that included a scanned watermark of their specific vehicle in the background of a letter that referenced their make and model, dealer name, address, phone number, sales and service hours of operation, Service Manager’s name, and signature, a map to locate the dealer, and a specific offer on a coupon that was selected based on the dealer’s preference, and value of the vehicle.

Since the introduction of VPOD (variable print on demand), more emphasis has been placed on variable images printed in colour that are unique to the recipient based on their segmented data group.

Our company recently sent out a self-promotional mailing that I feel is a great example of effectively using technology to create a highly personalized piece. The objective of the mailing was to generate qualified leads by driving responders to our Website to play Texas Hold’ em, for the opportunity to win a $1,000 gift certificate to a casino. This made for a relevant communication, as our audience profiling efforts proved that this was an attractive offer to our target audience.

A letter was tailored to the recipient with signature and contact information of an assigned company representative and inter-company division based on their industry segment. A fully-variable brochure was created that included the recipient’s first name, logo of the assigned division, name and image of their assigned representative, their unique Game PIN, and 2 randomly selected playing cards. Both of these personalized pieces were matched and inserted into an envelope with another brochure that was specific to the recipient’s segment using selective inserting technology.

All of the noted elements made for a highly personalized piece based on data segmentation. Will the recipients of our mailing appreciate the data variable intricacies that were involved to make this piece? Maybe not. Will they feel that the mail piece talks to them on an individual level? I’m betting on it.

The tools are there, we have the technology, let’s use it to create more relevant communications with our intended audiences.

I would love to hear your comments on how testing the level of personalization or variable images has affected your response rates.

Authored by Troy Draper, Direct Mail Specialist, Smart DM