Here are some classics:

1. We’re doing this for strategic reasons. This is a classic cover-up for a program that requires significant funds/resources but doesn’t have a chance of making the company a nickel anytime soon (eg. no ROI). It’s also questionable whether the program has any competitive rationale but someone has deemed this project as valuable.

2. ……because the CEO/COO/CMO said so. This is usually the answer you get when someone has no idea why the company wants the marketing department to develop a new product or launch a new program. It’s usually an indication that it’s a pet project for some senior executive to scratch his creative itch.

3. The strategy is to achieve more sales! Uh oh, we’re confused about what the difference is between a strategy and an objective. You hear this type of stuff when an engineer or sales person gets put in to a marketing role. Your first instinct is to run and hide but you can’t. All you can do is ask some penetrating questions like……how do we want to define “more sales”?

4. This program will reduce customer churn by 25% versus plan/budget. If I had a nickel for every time I heard a business pitch that would reduce churn, I’d be a millionaire! Some programs do help to reduce customer churn BUT trying to measure the impact a single program has on churn is extremely difficult at best. It’s a great way to try and slide a program through when there isn’t a strong business case for it.

5. What a brilliant idea! What the person is really thinking is….this program will NEVER work. You have to hand it to Steve Jobs, he was never afraid to tell people that ideas were bad or that some projects should be shut down right away. Saying no, is part of the strategic process, get used to saying it and you will save everyone a lot of wasted effort.

Happy marketing!!

Many people don’t realize that saying “no” to ideas is very much an integral part of the strategic process. It is much easier to say “yes” to ideas, projects and new initiatives because it avoids conflict, keeps employees engaged and generally requires less effort.

Executives that have developed a knack for saying “no” realize the importance of keeping the business focused on the key imperatives. Saying “yes” to a project can easily lead a company off track and consume valuable resources that could be used to support a project that is more important to the company.

So how do you avoid embracing a “yes” culture. Well, there are a few things you can do:

1) Communicate the strategic priorities of the company. Employees can’t stay on track if they don’t know what track they should be on. Small companies (<5 employees) rely on the CEO to keep things tight and focused but large companies (>100 employees) need to plan for strategic priorities to be communicated.

2) Train senior managers to effectively say “no”. Nothing can be more demotivating than having an idea shot down in a thoughtless and insensitive way. Many great ideas start out as half baked and all they need is a little more time in the incubator.

3) Challenge new ideas at the strategic/financial and competitive level. Any new idea or business case should have sound rationale or a bullet proof business case to support it. If it doesn’t then that is a good reason to send the idea back to the drawing board.

4) Ensure there is a disciplined process in place for managing new ideas. A disciplined process will help flush out good ideas from bad ideas before it gets to the go/no go stage. Adhoc reviews of projects and business cases may result in some good ideas being dismissed without completing a proper due diligence phase.

Don’t leave success to chance, plan and execute with discipline.

You’d think that with all the experience out there that marketers would have the process nailed down by now. Nope, people keep making the same mistakes and expect a different result….hey wait a second, isn’t that the definition of insanity?

Here is my top 10 list of marketing mistakes that I see repeated on a regular basis:

1. No clear definition of the target market. Having a vague notion of who your product or service is designed for is not a recipe for success. Great marketing strategy revolves around who you are targeting so the more clarity you have around the target market the more likely you are to achieve your objectives. A red flag goes up whenever someone says something like “we are targeting business users of technology”. That type of target market definition doesn’t tell me much.

2. Tactics versus strategy. Executing a marketing program without knowing why or how it supports the goals of the business or brand is like buying a new pair of jeans without knowing your waist size. Sure, you might guess right on the size but most likely you get a pair that make you look like hell, will be too tight or be completely out of fashion. Plan your shopping sprees and you’ll always get what you need.

3. Lose sight of the need for innovation. Great companies know that you always need to move forward and keep changing. To do that you need a constant flow of new ideas that can be developed to solve customer problems. Without innovation you fail to give customers a reason to keep thinking about why they need you. Companies like Tim Horton’s and Apple know this all to well. Learn from them and make innovation a cornerstone of your business.

4. Poor execution. The old adage is that it is better to execute a weak strategy really well than do a weak job on a great strategy. Once a direction has been set then all available resources should be allocated to the project to ensure it is executed well. If you’re going to do something then do the best damn job you can otherwise don’t do it. Often companies want projects completed but don’t assemble the right resources to do the job well.

5. No program post-mortems. Learning from mistakes is a great way to develop a better team and better results in the future. Assessing your programs for what worked and didn’t work provides a great way to zero in on where to focus your efforts. Not all programs need to have a post-mortem but certainly the large ones that consume major resources should. How else can a company get better if it doesn’t assess itself?

6. Focusing on the feature versus the benefit. Consumers and businesses buy benefits they don’t by features. Communication should be focused around the benefit a product or service delivers not the feature that it has. Consumers and businesses have a problem and they need to know how your product or service helps them solve it. Defining the product or service benefit can take some time but well worth the effort in terms of the clarity it brings to the strategy.

7. No clear point of difference or unique selling proposition (USP). If you (the marketer) can’t define how you’re better than the competition then how can you expect the customer to? A strong and compelling/relevant point of difference is the essence of business strategy and not easily developed.  Spending the time to really understand and develop a clear USP will make the difference between success & failure.

8. Product versus Brand focus. This is a common mistake for technology companies because they are typically engineering driven which means they like to invent new products and figure out who will buy them after. This usually leads to valuable resources being spent on projects that have limited market opportunity. To avoid this trap a company should focus on developing products that meet customer needs and serve the overall brand/company strategy.

9. Lack of internal alignment to the marketing plan. Marketing can’t operate in a vacuum. Marketing must be partners with the other functional groups in the organization to deliver customer value. To do that the marketing group must share its plans with the other functional groups and get support BEFORE they go to market. Nothing causes more customer confusion than a program that goes to market when only half the company knows about it.

10. Embracing Social Media Marketing before a marketing plan is in place. Social Media is a tactic not a strategy and can lead a company in to areas they aren’t prepared for. Developing a marketing plan first, with an understanding of the role social media will play in overall marketing mix, will help ensure a strategic fit and focus the overall effort.

Definition of Insanity – Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result

Social Media is tool, like public relations or advertising, to communicate a message to the intended audience. As such it should be done within the context of a strategic framework in order to be effective in building a brand.

Where I think marketers get in to trouble in managing social media is they don’t see themselves as brand or customer advocates but rather program managers. This disconnect seems to be a function of a shift from “strategic” to a more “tactical” business management approach for companies. Increased competition, deteriorating economic factors and technological changes have shortened the time horizon for return on investment for companies.

Managing social media in isolation of the marketing function is a recipe for disaster. To be effective in building a brand ALL communication elements need to be tightly coordinated to ensure there is a consistent message being delivered. Allowing a group that is not tightly aligned with the marketing function to manage and control a key customer facing tool, like social media, can dilute overall brand building effectiveness.

Strong brands have a tightly aligned and consistent message across all aspects of the business. Having different functions in an organization, that aren’t aligned with the brand promise, communicating with customers can easily send conflicting messages to the market and dilute marketing effectiveness.

It takes discipline and a long term perspective to extract the maximum value from tools like social media. Build your marketing plan and simply carve out a section on Internet Marketing or SMM and outline your strategy & tactics. This way you’ll know whether it supports your brand/business strategy or not.

One way around that and to also ensure there is continuity of learning is to conduct a business review. Except for very large companies, most small and mid sized companies don’t have the resources/people to conduct a business review but they can be invaluable to the learning process.

1. Provides a rich and deep analysis of the business
2. Uncovers issues & problems that may not have been apparent before the process started
3. Serves as a mechanism to assess the state of the business
4. Is a benchmark for future performance measurement
5. Provides an opportunity to assess performance of past marketing programs…….what’s working & not working?

Business reviews are an opportunity to look at all aspects of the business to assess their relative strengths and weaknesses. This includes:

1. Financial Performance
2. Operations – service delivery, customer service, technical performance etc
3. Competitors
4. Economic/Political/Social & Technical environment
5. Brand
6. Industry trends

These areas cover the key forces that impact your business and could have major affects if left unattended to. Companies like RIM, Blockbuster and Corel could have avoided major changes to their business had they kept a firm eye on the review mirror while also looking forward.

Don’t get caught blind sided. Make Business Reviews an annual or bi-annual process for your organization.

If these questions are answered honestly and in a timely fashion they can help you uncover where your weaknesses are. Lets start with the basics.

1. Do you have a marketing plan? If the answer is no, then stop right here. Throwing tactics and programs at the market without a clear sense of direction is wasted effort. Remember…….strategy without tactics is a slow route to victory but tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat!

2. Has the CEO articulated a clear set of business goals or priorities for the next 3 to 5 years? If the answer is no, then it’s time for some strategic planning not marketing planning.

3. Does the CEO or management team meet on a regular/frequent basis to review business performance? Most companies do but they don’t review key performance metrics for marketing. Which leads to the next question…….

4. Does your company have a set of Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) or metrics to measure marketing success against? You’d be surprised to learn how many (undisciplined) companies operated without them. It’s the old adage…what gets measured gets managed!

5. Is there someone with the clear accountability for marketing activity/programs? Someone (ideally an experienced marketing person) in the company needs to have responsibility for marketing with a clear set of objectives. If not, you aren’t doing marketing you’re doing sales administration.

Asking and answering these simple questions will help identify gaps in your organization that can easily be fixed with a little attention. Once the gaps have been addressed you should see a marked improvement in customer activity.

As a previous senior executive for a couple of large companies I’ve seen my share of both good and bad business cases. The bad ones are easy to spot because they are built around a flawed business idea and therefore get shot down pretty quickly. But a few great ideas don’t make it out of the boardroom because the presenter or manager making the pitch has failed to make three key points during the presentation or in the business case.

Every business case should have these 3 fundamental elements:

1. What is the financial benefit?

2. How does this project/idea support the strategic focus of the company?

3. How does it improve our competitive position or what is the sustainable competitive point of difference for this initiative?

Unless you address these 3 questions you haven’t prepared a solid business case that will stand up to scrutiny or detailed questions by your board or management team. A solid business will address all three and present a compelling story for each. A weak business case will obviously not. Some business cases will try to argue a “strategic” benefit for the company which usually means it’s a money loser for several years and will likely die a long slow death.

Many managers also fail to link their initiative to the strategic priorities of the company so what may look like a financially viable or attractive idea would commit a company to a direction they have not prioritized. As a result, the company ends up in a new market or business that drains resources away from its core business where it has strength.

Saying “no” to a business case requires just as much strategic thought as saying ‘yes’. The key difference being that one will get you to your stated objectives a lot faster.

COMPETITIVE|STRATEGIC|FINANCIAL = Business Success

One of the ways to engage your target market more effectively is to create communities of interest where you draw your customers into groups with other like minded people that share an interest. For example, if your a wine supply business, some of the things you can do is offer wine tasting events or classes on premise where you charge a nominal fee or even do it at no cost. Assuming your target market is the wine enthusiast that wants to learn more about wine, this can be a great way to establish a closer relationship with these customers. It’s also a great way to position your company as an expert in the field.

By offering customers these secondary services you create several new opportunities:

1. Reason to communicate with your customer base. Offering new services is a great way to say something new and different about your brand. Keeping your brand fresh and interesting is key to remaining top of mind when customers are ready to make a purchase decision.
2. Draws your customer closer to your brand. Engaging with customers in an atmosphere where they are open to new things and where you can add value builds brand equity. It reinforces your point of differentiation versus the other competitive alternatives.
3. Communities of interest build loyalty. Making your brand or service part of a customers lifestyle or personal activity will engender loyalty because you create higher switching costs for that customer. They will find it harder to give up your brand versus another that doesn’t offer the same ‘extra’ services.
4. Creates new sales opportunities. Bringing customers closer to your product or service will stimulate sales if you have limited distribution. Making it easier to buy your product or putting it where your customers are engaging in related activities will stimulate sales. Think of a winery tour……who doesn’t walk away from one of those events without at least one bottle.

LuLu Lemon is great example of this marketing activity by offering and conducting yoga classes at their stores. The Running Room also does this effectively with their running courses that get people out on the road and engaged in the sport.

Building strong brands requires marketers to think about their customers lifestyle and how they can become part of it. Those that do reap the rewards long-term.