ANA Marketing Maestros

How to Beat the Innovation Failure Odds

By Michael Palmer

A good innovation exercise begins with diagnostics. That means assembling the right combination of customer needs (preferably the unmet kind) with competitive insights, those actions being taken by other players in your industry; plus an understanding of your company's own capabilities, all integrated with clear step-by-step protocols.

So to be successful you have to understand your customer, your competition, and your own capabilities then have a process for changing that information into real action.  Marketers have gotten better at collecting insights (they still are not so good at codifying and disseminating those insights internally however) and understanding the competitive landscape.  However, we still need help uncovering our organization’s DNA and building a protocol for initiating innovation. 

The absence of good innovation protocols means that innovation teams often make up both what they will address and how they will address it—a prescription for failure.  As Jim Collins outlined in Good to Great, defining an organization’s purpose, its reason for being or purpose, is critical to deciding what it can be best in.  Coupling that known internal insight with tried and true best practices (knowing what works) will help you create an innovation routine that can double or triple your success rate versus suffer the current high failure rate (98%) most marketers experience currently.

Wish to learn how to become a more successful innovation organization?  Tap in ANA School of Marketing and download our most recent Innovation Webinar; ask us to bring you a ½ day innovation workshop (complimentary for ANA member companies), or have us build you an innovation seminar.  How we can help?  Visit us online.

Marketing In a Recession

By: Michael Palmer

What are the 5 most important marketing tactics now that we are in a recession? The same five we used when we weren’t in a recession. Being careful about spending your marketing funds is not new news. As marketers, that’s exactly what we should be focusing on. Sure times are tougher, and each of us will have to find new ways to drive increased value into our products or services because our customers are spending their dollars more judiciously. But those of us who have just woken up, CFO's will be asking us why we have had their heads in the sand, why are you spending marketing dollars at all, why are you spending them on TV, why are you spending them on the Super Bowl, why are your commercials so expensive, why, why, why?  That’s their job, to understand what is the best way to invest the company’s money.  If we marketers cannot stand the heat, we ought to get out of the kitchen.

So what are the top five ways to ensure that your marketing effort is most effective?

1. Insights – Know your customer better than anyone else in your organization.  Understand their unarticulated needs, those they cannot tell you about, but formulate how they act, or would act.  To discover these hidden gems requires living with your customers, seeing how they act and react.  Knowing your customer is the key to making everything else happen.
2. Be a Growth Champion – Elevate the role of marketing; be the force within your organization that turns marketing into a profit generator. Innovate. Find new revenue streams building both top and bottom lines. Marketing has the innate ability to create revenue, but it takes a big idea to do so.  And that takes guts, determination and a desire to lead, not just serve.  Finally, make sure you are on the same page as your CEO.  Too many marketers are still doing stuff versus providing their management with the ideas that will drive the company’s agenda.  Be strategic, not tactical.  No one gets rewarded today for having completed a number of projects.  Did the action you took drive shareholder value, build brand equity, or create a new stream of revenue?  If not, don’t do those things any more. 
3. Segment – You cannot be everything to everyone.  Focus on who your target is, what is your brand DNA, and how your brand can satisfy the target you’ve chosen better than your competitors. 
4. Market Internally – Partnerships are critical. Marketers today must bring internal and external teams together.  The sum is greater than the whole.  First, other team members not only have great ideas, but they also make executing ideas easier if they are on board.  Secondly, every member of your organization is in marketing.  From the phone operator to the delivery team – if anyone does not put the customer first, then all else will eventually fail. 
5. Measure – knowing what’s working and what's not is the only way to ensure we continually put our resources (both money and people) against the right objectives.  If you cannot measure your results or are not going to change your direction when you receive feedback, don’t take any action.  Only do what you can prove will work.  Not sure?  Then adopt a test, fail, expand methodology.    

Now you’re ready to market in a recession – and should you need help honing your own or your team’s skills – the ANA School of Marketing can help.  Check out our offerings http://www.ana.net/careers/content/careers.

Technorati tags: recession marketing consumer insights internal branding ANA career development target audience

What do customers really want

By: Michael Palmer

What is marketing?

Marketing today according to a recent ANA study is less about pushing messages at consumers and more about co-creating experiences with consumers. Okay, but what does this mean?

We need to know more about our customers than ever before.  We need to clearly understand their unarticulated needs so that we can offer them a product or a suite of products/services that will satisfy a need none of our competitors will.  Too often marketers ask their customers what they want.  They can’t tell you that.  Henry Ford aptly said that if I asked my customers what they wanted, they would have said a faster horse.

Finding unarticulated needs is not easy.  It takes digging through reams of data.  It takes not just talking, but living with people.  Procter & Gamble has become a master at understanding their customers–and it shows.  They now have a stable of billion dollar brands, all because they were able to offer innovations that their customers were ready for, willing and able to buy, but could not specify.  By spending time with customers, in their homes, at their place of work, or where they play is the only way to experience what they have and want to have.  Have you changed your method of extracting customer data or are you still using the antiquated focus group method? Putting people in a sterile environment and asking them what they want is no way to be on the leading edge today.

Want to learn a new approach, turn to the ANA School of Marketing.  We’ll introduce you to “Precision Research™”. Just as a doctor diagnoses patients, Precision Research™ upends the classical research process to sync better with today’s consumer in a more logical and productive process. Companies such as Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, Vizio, Pep Boys, The Ritz-Carlton and others have used Precision Research™ to gain important insights to build their business.  Here’s a link to ANA School of Marketing’s Web site–check out the many ways you can get yourself ready for tomorrow’s marketing challenges today.

Survival

By: Michael Palmer

Is that the theme for marketers in 2009?  Should we be just hunkering down and hope that we can survive this economic downturn?  Some suggest spending more because there is a real opportunity to take advantage of competitors who will cut back to save.  Right – go ahead, march into your CEO or CFO’s office and tell them you want to increase your marketing budget 10% - with all the bad news facing us every day, no way if you value your job.

I’ve also read a number of articles that suggest the top ten things to do in this challenging economy – they include: pay attention to your customer, analyze the competitive landscape, make every dollar count, experiment, don’t cut your product quality, target, etc.  These are things you should be doing already if you are a smart marketer.  Who wouldn’t pay attention to their customer, or find out more about their customer’s needs, desires; better understand the role your brand plays in their lives?

So what are the smartest marketers going to do?  I think they will focus on one big idea.  They will work tirelessly to understand the unmet needs of their targeted customers or consumers and work to create a marketing program that blows their socks off rather than try and surround their customers with many programs.  They will make a difference, not incrementalize.  While Kaizen has its place and is an important aspect of improving, its now time to reach for the stars.  iPod is a great example of a breakthrough.  Dove changed how women use soap and their impressions of themselves.  Axe brand gave young men permission to believe they too can get the girl.  Nike offers every sports enthusiast an opportunity to design, build, and indiviualize their own shoes – and they make more margin providing this customized service than they do selling mass marketed shoes.  Zappos offers the greatest customer service – they’ve turned this need into a real growth business – in Tony Hsieh’s own words - "We're a service company that just happens to sell shoes."  Well 948% growth ain’t bad Tony – congratulations

What’s your big idea for your brand – you’ll find it by first clearly understanding what you know and don’t know about your customers.  Take an inventory.  Then spend the time to first think about what you can do with that information that your competitors cannot.  The issue of course is that this step requires thinking and talking time, not doing stuff time.  So you may have to do some of this fun stuff on your time so someone won’t ask you – what are you doing, why aren’t to getting all these projects off your plate?  Second you will have to spend time with, yes with not just talking to your customers.  Watch they way they use your brand, how it helps improve their lives.  A.G. Lafley in “Game Changer” discusses the house P&G built just so the brand team can in a natural setting connect with and interact with their customers.  How will you do this?

Survival marketing won’t be surround marketing – now is “the Big Idea” time.  Find one great concept – a new advertising campaign like Geico, a better way to engage your customer like American Express and their ability to provide card holders unique access and premium experiences that drive card members' passions and pursuits – and make it important to your target.  Focus your efforts, make your brand the most important brand in your target’s mind and you will be able to take some of the hope out of your 2009 marketing equation.

And, if you need any help – don’t hesitate to give us (ANA) a call, we have a number of ways we can help (I know I’m shameless, but we can and will help).

Only the Growth Champions will Survive

By: Michael Palmer

If we are to survive this economic challenge in front of us, marketers take note – we have to start leading our organizations towards the light at the end of the tunnel.  What does it take to be that kind of marketing leader?  How can marketing assume a leadership role when it is still viewed as a cost versus an investment in many organizations?

ANA studies have found that you can categorize marketing into six organizational roles, each with its own view as to their responsibilities within the company. While each group has its own relevance within an organization, there is a performance difference based on the role the marketing team plays.  Growth Champions are 20 percent more likely than their industry peers to exhibit superior revenue growth and profitability.  Why?

Very simple; Growth Champions, who currently represent about 10% of all marketing teams, are more connected to their company’s strategic agenda. A survey of 370 corporate marketers from 100 companies in nine industries revealed a significant disconnect between CEOs’ agendas and marketing teams’ activities. Forty-six percent of marketers in the study named driving growth as a priority while over 85% of CEOs indicated that “sustained and steady top-line growth” was their top priority.  More alarmingly, only 37 percent of the marketing respondents said “driving the CEO agenda” was an essential objective of the marketing team

So what does it take to become a Growth Champion?  An ability to seek commonalities across markets in which your company has a presence, both to find efficiencies and to clearly identify where customized communications or marketing operations are required. Look beyond customer satisfaction to how customers use your brand and what problems they are trying to solve, and then collaborate with sales and product-development teams to develop and deploy products that solve these problems.

Most important, growth champions excel at collaborating across multifunction’s - R&D, finance, sales, and etc. - to more quickly bring products to market. And they have standardized methodologies and metrics that allow them to calculate return on investment (ROI), and to demonstrate their accountability for the entire organization’s results.

What should you do now?  In conjunction with Booze & Co., we have developed a marketing profiler survey.  It will tell you what role your marketing team currently plays within your organization (we would recommend that several of your team take this survey, then compare the results – does your own team agree on the role you are currently serving, it would be interesting to find out).  Once you agree on the role you now serve, should you wish to move up the ladder towards the Growth Champion rung, the ANA School of Marketing has a host of ways to help you and your team.  Let us know how we can build the right program for you.  We understand you are time-starved and budget challenge, no problem we are flexible.

Becoming a Growth Champion – the key to driving relevance into marketing

By: Michael Palmer

Marketers are the Rodney Dangerfield of business – they just don’t get no respect.  Seventy percent of marketers say they are second guessed when they make decisions.  What’s behind this lack of respect?  Two things: too great a focus on getting stuff done, too little ability to demonstrate to management the results of their efforts.

Marketers in general have been focused on getting projects accomplished.  While important, the projects we spend most of our time on are less likely to be strategic in nature.  We worry about brand logos, packaging graphics, commercials and brand awareness when we should be concerned with developing big new ideals that drive both top and bottom line growth.  Spending more time on customer insights – both the collection of the data/information that leads to customer insights and the translation of that insight data into actionable steps that will make our brand revenues growth.  Too often marketers do not translate insight into action.  They do not find ways to imbed their customer knowledge into new strategic initiatives that drive competitive initiatives.  In the end, this is what senior management really wants.  Business is in business to make money.  Marketing should be the engine that drives that growth.  Focusing on tactical elements is important, but it is not what in the end will help management accomplish their goals.

Marketing accountability is confusing and difficult, but not impossible.  There is a way to take hope out of the marketing equation and put accountability in.  Companies like Enterprise

Rent-A-Car won’t do a marketing program they cannot measure.  They therefore find a way to determine the value of a program before they invest.  You can too.

ANA School of Marketing offers those marketers who wish to become “Marketing Growth Champions” the opportunity.  Our marketing curriculum can help an individual elevate their knowledge and performance, our right learning process will help teams become more effective and efficient growth drivers.  Interestingly we have discovered via our research that most companies fall short in two areas – customer centric marketing and integrated marketing – the ANA School of Marketing therefore has comprehensive programs ranging from ½ day speed sessions to full 3-5 day boot camps covering these areas.  Let us know what we can do to help you all achieve “Growth Champion” status.

Marketing Training - Never has there been a better time to train

By Michael Palmer:

If you believe in people, investing in them should be as essential as breathing….

Yet how often do we say – no time; no budget; training has to wait.  Wait for what?

Mark Addicks, General Mills, CMO sends his team to a five day internal marketing boot camp.  This type of investment – taking the team away from their desks for five continuous days - is substantial, both for Mark and his team.   But Mark does not question his decision or this investment, in fact he teaches much of the course himself--a demonstration to the team of how important he feels training is.

And he doesn’t stop there.  First, a monthly program occurs on Wednesdays where outside speakers come to share new insights, trends, concepts, and marketing ideas.  This “Lunch and Learn” program is very different than most; however, it works.  People attend, they listen (not play with blackberries) and they learn.  Why? Because Mark attends, listens, and learns.  He shows the team that he cares about them, and that he wants them to continuously grow, gain new skills, and become more valuable members of the General Mills team.

If you are an ANA member company, marketing training is part of your membership.  ANA members are offered complimentary ½ day marketing training courses. This provides you with a way to overcome both excuses – no time, no budget.  Without cost, and for only a half-a-day time investment, you too, can elevate the marketing skills of your organization.  Call (212 455-8054) or email me (mpalmer@ana.net) and we’ll help you demonstrate to your team that investing in them is a priority for you.

Win the Hearts, Minds and Wallets of Shoppers

By: Michael Palmer

Shopper Marketing – what is it?  It’s a way to capture shopper’s minds, hearts and wallets.   With so many of shopper’s decisions being made at the shelf (up to 70% some research reports) and on impulse (up to 68%) it is critical to use the retail market as a channel to connect with consumers.  There is an opportunity to both drive consumption and build brand equity.

But what is Shopper Marketing – all marketing stimuli, developed based on a deep understanding of shopper behavior, designed to build brand equity, engage the shopper (i.e., a consumer in ‘shopping mode’), and lead him/her to make a purchase …this definition is from Deloitte, working in conjunction with the GMA.

But does shopper marketing work?  It sure does.  American Eagle stores in a study conducted by Indiana University’s Kelley Business School found that they could drive sales of men’s clothing up 23% without spending a dime.

Studying men, AE discovered that they were uncomfortable picking up and interacting with merchandise because they were afraid they would not be able to refold it nicely and put it back on the shelf.  So AE started displaying men’s clothing in piles, not neatly folded.  Men now feeling comfortable picking up items did so regularly. 

Men also have trouble deciding what goes well together, so AE place a number of manikins dressed in different clothing combinations next to the merchandise they were trying to move.  And pow, deciding what to buy was no longer a mystery. 

The insight here – understand your customer, learn how they shop, then make that experience more comfortable, enjoyable, easier.  AE did all three and were rewarded with a tremendous same store sales increase without having to spend any marketing dollars.  What can you do to make shopping for your brand more fun, easier, or faster?

Technorati tags: shopper marketing retail marketing American Eagle store

Reaching Your Peak Performance II

By: Michael Palmer

In my last blog I likened marketing training to athletic training in that marketers like professional athletes need a fitness program to move from being average to outstanding performers.  I stated that without a fitness plan you cannot increase your athletic prowess, nor can you elevate your marketing proficiency.  Nike has spurred us all on with their “Just Do It” advertising, showing us that even everyday athletes can improve their performance with the right attitude and a PLAN.

What’s keep most of us from developing and executing a marketing training plan?  Four things actually:

1. We don’t think we have the time.
2. We don’t know where to turn.
3. We don’t understand what is the best Learning Process.
4. We are unsure how to apply our new skills to make a difference.

Let’s deal with the time issue here.  I would suggest that training should be as important and natural as breathing.  No professional team or athlete would dare enter a contest without the proper preparation.  Championships are won in the gym, not in the ring, arena, stadium or on the court.  Where as football training used to start with training camp, it is now a twelve month process.  Football players have to get themselves into top notch condition, on their own, arriving at training camp ready to learn the system, not get in shape.

Why aren’t we as marketing professionals thinking the same way?  Why aren’t we consistently stretching our own boundaries, our own abilities through training so that when we are on the job, we are not worrying about getting in shape, but learning the system, the process that will propel our brand forward?

Lack of time should not be an excuse.  If we don’t take the time necessary to keep in top marketing shape, we cannot be the star our team, our company needs.  I would suggest that not taking the time to retrain, refresh, and reinvigorate is doing a disservice to your ability to reach your career goals.  Getting away from the grind, finding a new perspective, understanding what new techniques are available is critical.  Just stepping away from the day to day activity and looking at your job with fresh eyes will be of great value.  When a baseball pitcher or batter is in a tight jam, they will step off the pitchers’ mound or get out of the batter’s box just to refocus.  As marketers we need to step back as well and remember that our ability to perform is based on how well we have put together and executed a fitness plan.  Take the time, put your plan together and give yourself the time to execute your plan – you and your career will be glad you did.

We will address the other barriers to training is subsequent blogs.  And if you have an interesting training story or can share ways to elevate your marketing proficiency, please pass them along – I will then share them with the readers of this blog.

Reaching Your Peak Performance

By: Michael Palmer

Athletes in every sport participate in a fitness program – it doesn’t matter whether they are pro football players or after work joggers – you simply won’t progress without a fitness plan. Are there any secrets for achieving peak performance as a marketer – what can we learn from athletes that will make us better able to accomplish our performance goals and reach our peak performance?

Yes there are secrets – well they're not really so secret, but we often need reminding of the simple methods for driving performance.  First you need a personalized program – you have to find what works for you.  Do you learn best by taking courses, reading on your own, being mentored, or going back to school full time?  When you decide how best to gain your new marketing knowledge, you then need to determine what to learn.  What are your marketing knowledge gaps?  A self assessment can often uncover areas of weakness or inexperience – or you can take a marketing knowledge assessment (ANA offers one – let me know if you’d like to use it to help you).  You can also turn to coworkers, a boss or mentor to help you assess where you are in your career.  It doesn’t matter what avenue you take, just take one, doing nothing today is no longer an option. 

Marketing is in a transformational period and if marketers stand still – keep from honing their skills - they will quickly find themselves actually going backwards.  It is no surprise that CPA, physicians, accountants, even real estate and insurance agents are required to keep their skills current.  What was right yesterday may not fit tomorrow’s need.  Marketing is rapidly changing and only those willing to elevate their skills will gain ability to do the job required as the role of marketing changes from tactical to driving new revenue streams.

Need help finding the right program, course, or direction for you – don’t hesitate to tap into ANA.  We’ve been helping marketers elevate their skills for more than 50 years and we are adding new programs and learning methods everyday.  Give us a call and get on your personal growth path – don’t let a lack of learning keep you from getting the raise or promotion you deserve.

We'll keep providing you tips for elevating your skill or the skill of our department.  If you have a successful learning story - please share with me and I will share it with the ANA community of marketers.  Look forward to hearing from you all.

Technorati tags: marketing training marketing skills marketing career