2013: The Year 90% of CEOs Will Lose Faith In Marketers?

Since everyone is rolling our their predictions for 2013, here’s mine. Don’t worry, it isn’t that 2013 will be the year of mobile or Social TV, or that social media “experts” will finally figure out what R.O.I. actually means. (They won’t. They don’t want to.) I have only one prediction for you, and it’s basically this: there is a very good chance that 12 months from now, we will learn that 90% of CEOs have lost faith in marketers.

It should be said that there are tons of solid professionals in Marketing professions, and they will continue to do great work – ethical work – and kick ass. They will solve problems, innovate and teach to others what they’ve learned. Their work and real success will drive everyone forward. Look for new knowledge, new methods and new insights. Real ones. Also look for new software, platforms and products they will have helped design or improve that will help you get more done. You already know who these people are. Even if you’ve never met them, you know who they are inside of five minutes when you hear them talk or watch them work. You know the real deal when you see it.

But the flip side is that the same hacks and posers who faked it all through 2012 and 2011 and 2010 and 2009 and 2008 will continue to lie and sell bullshit in 2013. Why? Because it’s easier. Because they’ve gotten a free pass so far. Because there’s good money to be made, selling bullshit. Because there’s a business model behind it and an “industry” to drive it, complete with metrics and equations and conferences and publishers all lining up to make their buck off confused senior managers with budgets to burn. There’s no incentive for any of this to stop. None. Nobody who has spent the last five years selling bullshit and building a personal brand around it is going to wake up tomorrow and have an epiphany. They know what they’re doing. They’ve been doing it long enough. If they had a conscience or an ounce of professional responsibility, they wouldn’t have chosen that path. They won’t “self-deport” from their trajectory of made-up success and industry status. Not until the speaker invitations and the money dry up. We’ll have to wait until they get fired or move on to the next scam.

So here we are then: 2013. What’s changed? Nothing. As long as there are people who want to believe that President Barack Obama’s birth certificate is fake, there will be people who will want to believe that the “I” in social media ROI stands for influence or interest or insights. As long as some people want to believe that more guns in schools will solve gun violence in schools, there will be people who will want to believe that likes and followers are legitimate measures of brand awareness. As long as some people want to believe that the Earth is only 5,000 years old and came preheated and ready-to-serve, there will be some people who will believe whatever nonsense you want to sell them. An equation. An algorithm. A methodology. A marketing religion. A measurement scheme. It won’t matter that it makes no logical sense, that it is mathematically incorrect, that it is a complete fabrication. It will still sell.

Fact is that if you are willing to lie your ass off, there are people out there who will believe you. Tons of them. Out of stupidity, out of laziness, out of sheer incompetence, it doesn’t matter. They won’t bother to fact-check. They’ll buy the lie, hook, line and sinker, because they don’t know any better, or don’t care, or just don’t want to do the work. If you can sell them something that will deliver good metrics to their bosses with minimal effort or risk from them, you will find eager clients in these people. It’s a simple business arrangement: They need to score that next bonus or promotion. The next case study they publish might even be their ticket to a better job. Sell them a product or vehicle that will make that happen and you’re in. And as long as nobody complains, everybody wins, right?

Well no. The only people who win are the hacks who betrayed the trust of those they ought not have taken advantage of in the first place. The companies that get defrauded don’t win. At all. Their CEOs sure as hell don’t win either. And that’s the rub: every time a social media director or a CMO or a digital consultant repackages a pile of bullshit into a “win” for the executive suite, the already fragile trust between marketers and CEOs further erodes.

For some insights into how bad things are and why, check out this study of the current state of social business. Here are a few takeaways: Only 5% of organizations are highly satisfied with their social media programs. Most of them don’t even have the right goals in place. Almost 40% of social media managers surveyed don’t think that measuring the success of their programs is even important. A business background is only important to 3% of organizations in considering a social media hire.

No wonder hardly anyone in social media understand the first thing about how to measure ROI properly or effectively deploy a social business program across an organization. It’s a shambles. A house of cards. I’ve never seen anything like it.

If you have the time, go to some of the big social media conferences this year and listen to all of the awesome success stories being sold there. Let yourselves be convinced that most companies out there aren’t failing miserably in the social space. Ignore the fact that most of their monitoring practices are operationally disconnected from the rest of their organization, that their “engagement” strategy has slipped into flacid 3rd party content schemes that might as well have been devised by SEO robots, that the connection between social activity and business results is still at best a muddled abstraction, that most brand managers still don’t know that a chunk of the likes and followers they paid digital agencies to acquire for them are fake, or even that the guy they just hired to run their social media program emails and DMs me three times a day to ask me questions someone getting paid what they get paid to do the job they lied about being qualified for shouldn’t be asking in the first place.

Let’s keep pretending that everything’s fine and that those of us who shake our heads at damage being done by the social media guru industry year after year are wrong for demanding more than this giant stinking heap of bullshit.

Here it is again: Only 5% of organizations are highly satisfied with their social media programs. 80% of CEOs no longer trust marketing professionals. A year ago, that number was 70%.

So welcome to 2012, part 2: Bullshit vs. the real deal. Same people on either side of that divide. The tools have gotten better but no other progress has been made. The cause behind this industry-wide fiasco will be the same in 2013 as it was in 2012, and it boils down to a simple word: choice. We all choose to either know our shit or fake it. We all choose to do the work or pretend to. We all choose to report adequately on what is working and what isn’t, or just select pointless KPIs we can easily manipulate to tell the story we want to tell. None of our choices have changed, and none of us have changed either. In spite of all of our new year’s resolutions, we’re still the same people we were in 2012, and for a lot of organizations, that’s a serious problem.

So what will happen this year? Maybe nothing. Or maybe I’m wrong and things will turn around. Maybe a bunch of social media gurus will retire or go find something else to do with their time. Maybe this will be the year when they finally start to lose traction. We’ll see. I won’t hold my breath, but we’ll see. Looking around though, I won’t be surprised if 12 months from now, a study comes out reporting that 90% of CEOs don’t trust marketers anymore. From 70% to 90% in just two years? Is that where we’re headed? There’s a good chance, yeah. And that really bothers me.

I am usually pretty full of ideas, but I have to admit that this time, I am stumped. I have no clue how to fix this.

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I’m also blogging over on the Tickr blog these days too, so if you want more stats, facts, infographics, insights and less opinion, go check it out. You won’t miss the bite, I promise.

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And as always, if you are tired of bullshit and just want straight answers to real questions about value, process, planning, measurement, management and reporting in the social business space, pick up a copy of Social Media R.O.I.: Managing and Measuring Social Media Efforts in Your Organization. The book is 300 pages of facts and proven best practices. (Go to smroi.net to sample a free chapter first, just to make sure it’s worth the money.)

And if English isn’t your first language, you can even get it in Spanish, Japanese, German, Korean and Italian now, with more international editions on the way.

CEO-Read  –  Amazon.com  –  www.smroi.net  –  Barnes & Noble  –  Que

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Brussels Marketing Summit next week (23 March) – Be there.

So I will be speaking at Fusion Marketing: Brussels – on 23 March. That’s next week.

If you work in marketing or digital and happen to be in the EU next week, I strongly recommend that you swing by the summit, attend all the sessions and come say hi, because I don’t come through Brussels very often.

Here are 6 facts about Brussels that you may not know:

1. I went to high school in Brussels.

2. The food there is pretty fly.

3. NATO has its HQ there.

4. Brussels is the capital of the European Community.

5. Brussels will be the first international city on the 2011 “Social Media ROI” book tour. (In fact, all attendees get a free copy, which I will be happy to autograph while I am there.)

6. This guy is reportedly from there (unconfirmed):

In other words, it should be a pretty solid event, if only by virtue of the fact that it is being held in Brussels.

Other speakers at #FusionMex:

Dave Chaffey – CEO, Smart Insights

Dela Quist – CEO, Alchemy Worx

Gianfranco Cuzziol – Head of eCRM, EHS 4D Group

Richard Sedley – Client Relationships, Foviance

Kath Pay – Strategic email and digital marketing consultant, DM Inbox

Joost de Valk – Yoast.com

Alfred den Besten – IT and telecom watcher

and my good friend Trey Pennington (whom I see only overseas even though we live five miles from each other).

Click here for the schedule. To register before tickets run out, click here.

I look forward to seeing many of you next week. Cheers!

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Social Media ROI: In stores now. (Click here for a sample chapter)

 

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Klout Perks Wednesday: Some thoughts about Audi, swag, packaging and impact

A little Klout Perk love, from Audi.

I dig Klout Perks. A lot. Why? Because I get free stuff. And I have to hand it to Klout: They’re figured out a clever little revenue model for their influence engine. Everybody wins in this game:

1. So-called “influencers” get free stuff.

2. Klout gets paid to help identify them for clients, reach out to them, and serve as a middle-man of sorts.

3. Brands get a deeper degree of exposure for their investment than through traditional advertising (even on social media channels). At least in theory.

This is the second Klout Perk I have received thus far. The first was a Nike golf jacket from TNT’s cop drama Southland. I don’t play golf, but it makes for a nice outer layer after a good cold weather run. It came with a nifty little card from TNT too, with flashing police lights and a police siren, and an invitation to catch the season premiere of their show. Nice touch. Somebody at TNT put a little effort into that promotion, and I have to give them props for that.

Today, what the FedEx man brought to my door was a box from Klout Perks containing some Audi swag: A ceramic coffee mug, and an aluminum LED flashlight/emergency glass-breaker. I dig them at least as much as my Nike jacket from TNT. The flashlight and the mug are both going to live in my car. The jacket is a semi-permanent addition to my gym bag. These items have already embedded themselves into my everyday life. In that, there’s a win for TNT and Audi already. And Klout Perks. And me.

Maybe if I ever become cool enough, I will be invited to participate in more Klout Perks promotions. Last month, some of my peers received free PSPs from Sony. Others are scoring free airline tickets and who knows what else. That sounds pretty swell to me.  Seeing that I fly a lot AND am an ardent gamer (I don’t like to admit it, but it’s true,) I should probably fit in some airline or electronics advertiser target demo somewhere, right?

Wrong. I don’t.

Don’t get me wrong: This isn’t a complaint. I am lucky to get anything for free and treat every package from Klout with the giddiness of a six-year-old on Christmas morning. But as much as I like to cast a nod of approval in the general direction of KP’s model, I can’t shake the feeling that something is amiss with the targeting.

Case in point: I don’t play golf. I’m a triathlete. The closest I ever get to a green is when I run or pedal past it. I don’t even watch it on TV. (Tiger who?) I’m also not a fan of cop shows. I haven’t watched an episode of Law & Order in 10 years. I don’t even watch CSI. Yet TNT decided to target me for their Southland promotion? Me? 1. The guy who never blogs or tweets about what he watches on TV? Am I really an “influencer” when it comes to TV shows and police dramas? 2. Someone who doesn’t play golf and doesn’t even like the sport? Thanks for the free golf jacket, but… maybe the Klout computer targeted the wrong guy for that one?

As for the Audi swag, what’s the idea? That I will blog about it? Okay, I just did. I just showed off the mug and the flashlight and mentioned the Audi brand several times. I’ll even tweet a link to this blog post in a few minutes and get Audi a few extra impressions. And it is worth mentioning that I love Audi. I drive a VW Passat now, and nothing would make me happier than to upgrade to an A8 or even an R8. (See photos below.) Every time I see those unmistakable LED headlights on the road, I wish it were me behind the wheel. But… does Audi expect that a free mug and flashlight swag combo will either accelerate or strengthen my resolve to buy an Audi in the next 4-12 months?

The thing about the Audi promotion too is that, unlike the TNT campaign – which had a little flair and what felt like a personal touch (a Klout box, a card and a little drama to the packaging) – it feels like an afterthought. The box didn’t have any Klout or Audi markings on it. There was no card or note waiting for me inside. No Audi brochure. No DVD catalog. Not even a fake personal note. No call for action. No hello. No “thanks for being a fan.” Nothing. Just bubble-wrap, a mug, and a box from a warehouse in California marked in Sharpie with a scribbled #830 on the side. I wonder if #1 through #829 feel like maybe something might be missing too?

What kind of relationship is Audi building with people like me through a promotion like this? What kind of message is it sending? That it can afford to mail off hundreds of boxes of swag on the off chance that someone will tweet about them? Okay… But then what? As much as I like the swag (thanks Audi and Klout,) Audi has missed an opportunity to say hello and pull me into its world. Even with the mug and flashlight in my sights every day, I doubt that they will influence a purchase anytime soon, or even a recommendation. (This is, after all, about word-of-mouth, isn’t it?)

And that’s too bad because done right, a promotion like this could have yielded some solid results as opposed to just a few neutral mentions of the brand on WordPress, Facebook and Twitter. There’s a lesson in this somewhere. Maybe even two:

1. Definitely use Klout Perks promotions to reach potential customers, but target your “influencers” better. Put a little effort into it. I don’t know… a little keyword analysis, maybe?

2. How you produce these promotions matters at least as much as what you send in the box. $50 worth of swag can be a complete waste of money if you forget to add the all-important $0.99 cents worth of personal touch. Like… you know, a hand-written post-it note with a Twitter account for a signature, or a postcard with a specia url, or a polaroid picture of the swag staff. It doesn’t matter. You can be as traditional or as innovative as you want, but give us something more than just bubble-wrap and wrinkled packaging paper. Delight us with a little attention. A little secret handshake. Something. Anything. Don’t just send us free stuff with your logo on it. It isn’t really the Koozie we care about. 😉

Oh, and Klout people: whatever list I need to get on to be upgraded from “swag” to “product,” (you know, like getting a free PSP or scoring a round trip to Austin) go ahead and add me to it. I still want the pens and keychains, but I’ll take the XBox games, the Kindle covers and the iPads as well. Cheers.

In fact, to help you target me better for future promotions, I’ve even put together this little list of things I like and don’t like, so you’ll have a better sense of what will yield the best results –

What I like:

Electronics – laptops, tablets, mobile devices, storage, e-readers, media players, flat screen TVs, game consoles

Automotive/Cars/motorcycles – any brand

Cheese

Triathlon, cycling, running, swimming, fitness

Bike tires, especially from Michelin.

Nutella

Travel – airlines, rental cars, hotels, restaurants

Watches and writing instruments – Bell & Ross, Panerai, Tag Huer, Mont Blanc

Fine spirits, wine, tea and coffee

Clothing – Smalto, Façonnable, H&M, Kenneth Cole, Weston, Diesel, etc.

Photography – Especially Canon, Leica and Kodak, but I won’t poop on Nikon or Minolta.

Outdoorsy stuff like skis, scuba gear, gore-tex apparel, backpacks, chainsaws… that whole thing.

Chihuahua accessories

What I don’t particularly like:

Baggy clothes

Golf

Excess sugar

Glenn Beck

Celery

Impersonal packages and promotions

Monosodium Glutamate

The bandwidth that encompasses Entertainment Tonight and American Idol

Spam

Bad grammar

Themed ties (you know, like… golf, Christmas, trains, etc.)

Paper cuts

Having said that, I’m pretty stoked to be getting anything for free (except paper cuts), so keep the perks coming, Klout. I look forward to the next promotion. (And remember: product, not just swag.)

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Bonus: In case you were wondering what the blurry bits are in the background of that photo (taken at my desk):

From left to right: My trusty Sony VAIO laptop, a Dynex flat screen monitor, my favorite Swag Club magnetic calendar (a company so badass and exclusive, they operate without a website), the Brandbuilder’s official Xbox 360, 3 pairs of KAI shears (the best scissors I’ve ever owned, bar-none), postcards I haven’t sent yet, mail from my publisher about this, a bonded black leather folio from PRCG, a red Moleskine notebook, an Ikea wall magnet “Spontan” thingamajig (301.594.56), a French desk calendar (thanks, mom), a red leather desk blotter, a stainless steel container, and a nifty little Post-It sticky tab dispenser. On the magnet thing: A well-written personal note from a relative, Post-It notes ready to serve, cab fares in Euros, Canadian and Australian dollars, and Dirhams from the UAE, and French boat/ship driver’s license in case I should ever come to need it.

#InsideLookIntoTheTBBoffice

Carry on. Nothing to see here.

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Artifacts of Influence: grassroots movements, familiar strangers and the power of the social media daisy chain.

On Grassroots and cracking the notion that power influencers drive product acceptance in the market:

“Why have Google and Apple done so well in the last [few] years? Because the grassroots love them. That’s the power root of the industry. Ideas here don’t come from the big influencers and move down. No, they start on the street and move up. Anyone miss how Google got big? Not by throwing a press conference.”

– Robert Scoble, via Johnnie Moore’s blog back in 2006.

Before I side with Robert, let me throw in a little word of caution: I know that the conversation has been geared in this direction for a few years now, but looking at cause : effect / influencer : influencee dynamics as a top-down model only seem fairly limited in scope. “Influencers” (whether they are “key” or “big” or “power” influencers) aren’t just at the top of their respective subcultural family trees. Sometimes, the masses themselves can be the power influencer.

Here is an example: When it comes to bottom-up and lateral impact, the street has always been a source of influence on culture, fashion, musical tastes, language, and political change. Urban fashions didn’t start on a runway in New York or Milan. “Gangsta” culture wasn’t designed in a Soho creative studio and then packaged and sold to rap superstars. It came from the street and was then commercialized. This same bottom-up and lateral mechanisms are true of punk rock, skateboarding, surfing, and just about every “culture” or “subculture” you can throw a cat at, from triathlon, to amateur photography to the country-club lifestyle. Influence starts at the bottom, not at the top. Top-down influence comes later and plays a very different role (touching on validation and scale).

Appealing to a grassroots base – which essentially consists of recruiting your 1-percenters to drive your campaign and influence their own lateral peer networks has always been smart. Politicians know this, which is why they are essential to the success of every campaign. Grassroots programs are militant in nature. They are infectious and viral in the true sense of the term. They feed on momentum and quasi-exponential growth. They may very-well be the most virulent form of Word-of-Mouth movements you will ever encounter. Why? Because they drive more than awareness and preference: They drive action.

If you are reading this and aren’t so sure you agree, that’s okay, but consider this: Every revolution in our history was the result of a grassroots movement. Every single one. Look at the American Revolution. The French Revolution. The fall of the Berlin Wall. More recently, thanks to the availability of cell phones, text messaging and the organic nature of social networks, the 2001 revolution in the Phillippines and the 2002 presidential elections in South Korea. Grassroots movements hold a staying power inversely proportional to the short-lived attention most marketing campaigns spend so much on.

For many of us, true influencers aren’t just celebrities or the upper stratum of a subculture. The way we become participants in the growth of a trend or the success of a product isn’t necessarily tied to product placement on The Apprentice, CSI, or whatever blockbuster is crushing the box office. We don’t necessarily buy clothes from D&G or Ray-Bans because Taylor Swift or Brad Pitt are seen sporting them in Cannes. Influencers are also our neighbors, our best friends, our co-workers, our parents, our kids. More than ever, they can also be familiar strangers on social networks, or a mob of people demanding the same thing you always wish you had the power to ask for yourself. Most of the time, these folks, NOT celebrities and so-called “thought leaders” are the true influencers in our lives.

It is human nature to seek safety, familiarity and validation both in the people we know and in numbers – which is why, from a corporate standpoint, large crowds (including virtual crowds) also tend to hold more power than a handful of so-called “influencers” conveniently picked by a marketing firm. Yet this insight into social networks (and social media on the whole) is one that a surprisingly large number of marketing, advertising and PR professionals trying to apply their trade to the social web still seem oblivious to.

We could go off on a major tangent here, but for now, consider the impact that this argument might have on the importance we attach to say… Klout, and to the “influencer” religion some marketing professionals are attempting to force into the social media discussion. (See left-hand model in the image below.) The problem, before you misunderstand me, isn’t Klout or its algorithms. I like Klout, actually. The problem lies in the worth we assign to the notion of top-down “influencers” – these magical people who, we are told, can get thousands, even millions of people to click a button, buy a pair of shoes, or go see a movie through a mere act of will… or a tweet.

Does this mean that cultural icons like Oprah Winfrey, Stephen Fry, Kanye West and even Glenn Beck are not influencers? No, it doesn’t. Top-down influencers are real. They exist. Kim Kardashian, Leighton Meester and Justin Bieber help sell whatever they get photographed wearing. Drew Barrymore and Queen Latifah sell makeup. Leonardo DiCaprio sells Tag Heuer watches. Top-down influence is scientifically documented and relevant in the world of Big Advertising and Madison Avenue. But this type of influence, racing into 2011, is now a) increasingly limited and narrow in scope, and b) not immediately relevant when applied to complex, real-time, laterally-driven social networks.

If there is a lesson here, it is this: When combining your traditional marketing activities (regardless of the medium – print, TV, radio, web, mobile, POP, billboards, etc.) with your activity in the social space, look beyond traditional marketing dogma. Think beyond top-down influence. Consider the impact of lateral networks and organic word-of-mouth. Blend vertical and lateral forces.

Who really influences you to be a Mac or a PC? Who influences you to crave a Starbucks latte in the middle of the afternoon? Who makes you decide whether to shoot Canon or Nikon SLRs? Who influences your decision to choose one restaurant over another? “I want to be like Mike” still works, but the media landscape has changed considerably in the last few years – as it will continue to change still. Influence in the mass media space no longer fits the traditional marketing and advertising model, because mass media itself is no longer a top-down model.

Practical Advice: Next time you find yourself listening to a digital strategy that approaches a “social media marketing” campaign with a predominantly top-down “influence” model, stop, regroup, and consider a more mature perspective on influence – one that involves a carefully balanced combination of top-down, botton-up and lateral mechanisms.

Cheers,

Olivier.

 

 

 

 

Pre-order Social Media ROI:  Managing and Measuring Social Media Efforts in Your Organization (Que Biz-Tech/Pearson) on Amazon.com or Barnes&Noble.com, or recommend it to someone today.

 

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How Marketing is choking the life out of social communications and social media – Part 1

Back in the day, social activity was a handshake on the sales floor. It was a beer after work. It was a cup of coffee or afternoon tea. It was a tennis match or a game of chess. It was lunch. It was a conversation at a party. It was a friendly hello on the street. None of it required a monthly subscription, a marketing firm, a guru or a content strategy.

Forget the “media” for a second and focus on the “social.” Focus on the word social.

What makes social media different from TV, radio, print and traditional web? More to the point, what is it that you as a company could do with social media that you cannot do via mass media?

Think. Think back to the way that friendly store manager made you feel about shopping there. Think about the impact that being friends with your auto mechanic has on your loyalty to his repair shop, about the degree to which positive experience, familiarity and trust impact your purchasing decisions every day. Would you rather do business with strangers or people you know? Would you rather do business with people who genuinely care about you and look after your every need, or companies whose employees couldn’t care less if you are happy with them? Think about this carefully. Do you look at Facebook and Twitter as merely new marketing channels, or as rich ecosystems where you and your customers can interact in ways that enhance your value to them and in turn helps you develop them into outspokenly loyal customers?

The companies that use social media correctly, the ones who see ROI from their activity there have already figured out that the social nature of channels like Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, Foursquare and others makes them radically different from traditional channels. Are they using social media channels for marketing purposes? Sure. But is that all they are doing? Not on your life. Check out the breadth of activity being managed by Starbucks, Ford and Best Buy, for starters. Marketing is only a small piece of the pie when it comes to the type of activities these companies engage in when it comes to the social web, and for good reason: Social media is not marketing media.

There are two things I want you to think about before we tackle Part 2 of this post. The first is this: If a company focuses its social media efforts on marketing, what is it not focusing on? Answer: Online reputation management, customer service, consumer relations, user groups, technical support, and consumer engagement, for starters. Yes, you read right. I used a social media buzzword. En-ga-ge-ment. Except that when I say it, I know what it means. I am not talking about marketing posing as engagement. I am not talking about content, contests and entertainment. I am talking about real engagement. The kind that feels like a handshake, like a conversation over coffee, the kind that develops trust, preference and loyalty in consumers. The real brick and mortar that companies can build their bridges with rather than the house of cards they are overpaying agencies to piece together for them. Social should feel like a handshake, not like a marketing message. Not like “content.” Not like a sales pitch.

The second thing I want you to think about is this: There are three clear phases in the customer life-cycle. They are acquisition, development, and retention. You’re a business and you want social media to work for you? Great. Your social media activity has to focus on all three phases, not just the first.

We know that your agency can get you lots of “likes,” follows and views. And as a company, you have paid the price for every single one. Now what? Did your digital agency, your marketing partner, your superstar consultant also factor in the rest of it? First question: What are you acquiring for all that social media spend – new followers or new transacting customers? Second question: Are you using your social media presence to develop these new customers into regular customers? Third question: Are you using your social media presence to further develop these customers into loyal customers, even ambassadors for your brand and products?

If all you are doing with your social media potential is handing it over to a marketing department, a digital department or an outside agency, you are not. All you are doing is spending money on reach and follower acquisition. Think beyond acquisition. What are you doing through social media to develop customers, to increase their frequency of purchases, the yield of their transactions? What are you doing to develop them from potential customer to new customer, from new customer to satisfied customer, from satisfied customer to repeat customer, from repeat customer to loyal customer, and from loyal customer to evangelist?

Move beyond the marketing/acquisition mentality or you will never get anywhere in this space. Later this week, in Part 2, we will dive a little deeper into what I mean by that.

To learn more about how to properly build social media programs that involve but are not limited to marketing:

Available now for pre-order on Amazon.com and BarnesAndNoble.com

 

 

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Marketing in 2009 – The e-book you might have missed

Back in January of 2009, Conversation Agent‘s Valeria Maltoni / @conversationage published a great little e-book she co-produced with a dozen of us with a simple purpose: Blow. Your. Minds.

I kid. The premise was actually this: Outline a set of Marketing imperatives for 2009, as seen by some of the industry’s thought leaders. With contributors like Beth Harte, Francois Gossieaux, Amber Naslund, Mike Wagner and myself (among others) sharing thoughts on what’s what, it’s a great little read. It’s called Marketing in 2009, and you can download it here.

Why bring it back up? Well, two reasons:

1. It’s been 8 months, so it was time to dust it off and revisit some of the topics and arguments presented in the piece. Most are still 100% relevant today, so they’re worth discussing again. Your business (or your clients’ businesses) need this kind of insight today more than ever.

2. My piece on tying Social Media to real business performance by using the F.R.Y. methodology makes a great companion to the R.O.I. presentation I delivered this week at the Social Fresh conference, and some of the early videos posted on smroi.net.

By the way, if you weren’t already aware, most of the content I publish (video, audio, presentations, interviews, etc.) about Social Media ROI automatically ends up on smroi.net. It’s a nice convenient place to send anyone with questions about Social Media ROI – much more than having to dig through this blog’s archives, anyway – so don’t be shy: Use it.  It was built for you guys. (Big, BIG props to Kristi Colvin for building that site in Tumbler for me. It’s shaping up super nicely.)

I’ve even added a little boxy thingie (below) in case you want to paste the ebook to your website. Feel free to grab it if you want:

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My ode to Nutella – Part 1

While Marketing VPs and Brand Managers are spending millions of dollars trying to craft “on brand” messages that resonate with specific demographics, consumers – empowered by digital, creative and social tools are creating their own experiences around the brands and products they love. Case in point: Ferrero’s Nutella. If you aren’t familiar with the delicious European hazelnut and cocoa spread yet, I suggest you run to the nearest grocery store and get acquainted with this chocolate-flavored nectar of the gods. (Warning: Nutella may be as addictive as crack cocaine, if not more.)

Though Nutella has garnered a pretty solid following on its Facebook fan page (over 3 million fans at last count), it still remains a fringe, slightly underground product in the United States. Squeezed between a half dozen different brands of peanut butter and a bouquet garni of jams and preserves flavors, Nutella is kind of easy to miss. Which may actually be its biggest asset: Because it isn’t widely enjoyed by everyone, Nutella lovers tend to regard their Nutellaness as special. Exclusive, even. Fans of Nutella value their passion for the unctuous chocolaty spread the way they do their love for all premium, slightly off the radar brands. So when they run into fellow fans of Nutella, sparks fly.

I have no idea if Ferrero (Nutella’s parent company) has any idea what has started to happen on twitter recently, but it’s nothing short of genius. Unprompted, Nutella fans started to discuss their love of what many affectionately call “black gold” or “chocolate heroin,” and the discussions started to snowball. Prompted by the constant Nutella discussions on Twitter, I bought a jar while at the grocery store. Evidently, others did too. Yes, you heard it right: Conversations about a product on Twitter led to an increase in sales of that product. This was completely unprompted by the Nutella product management team. This all happened purely as a peer-to-peer movement.

Not only that, but people previously unacquainted with Nutella found themselves intrigued enough by the discussions that they went out and bought their very first jars. Some (like fellow bloggers Steve Woodruff and Sonny Gill) even shared their first impressions of Nutella via video. Personally, I think that Steve’s YouTube “Nutella Newfella” idea would make a fantastic social campaign for a product like Nutella, with some pretty solid viral potential. Check it out:

Fellow Marketing honcha and blogger Kristi Colvin created a twitterface page specifically devoted to Nutella and its community of fans: www.twitterface.com/nuts-for-nutella to capture all Twitter mentions of Nutella in context . The page is even featured on twitterface’s home page. Do a google or Bing search for Nutella, and you start to find all kinds of quirky consumer-created content. Popular photo-sharing site Flickr has an extensive Nutella gallery.  This year, in honor of International Nutella Day (you bet) the Ms. Adventures to Italy blog posted 50 ways for Nutella Virgins to enjoy their first taste of the nutty nectar. And then there’s stuff like this other video posted to youtube by a Nutella fan:

Crazy? You bet. Crazy good, that is.

Interestingly, no one is being rewarded by Ferrero or Nutella for producing this kind of content. There is no contest driving this. No prize money. No vacation sweepstakes. Not even the promise of free Nutella (though Nutella does have contests). People are creating this stuff for each other. To express, share and celebrate their passion for a quirky product they feel helps define them to some extent.

When you are lucky enough to manage a brand that people around the world are that passionate about, that has garnered such a vibrant community (which generates sales and recruits new customers all on its own) and promotes your product at every turn, wouldn’t it be nice to find ways to engage that community a little bit? Maybe help it in some way? Recognize it, even?Interestingly, Nutella’s product/brand management team doesn’t seem aware that any of this is going on. Nutella’s US website gives you the opportunity to share Nutella’s site via email, and evidently, Nutella prints T-shirts, muhs and spreading knives so you can show how much you dig the stuff, to your amigos and neighbors but that’s basically it. Really? In 2009? With the fan base behind the brand? That’s it? Hello?

When your fans are doing more all on their own to promote and share your brand (and contribute to sales), maybe it’s time to revamp your Marketing strategy a little bit. Or at least… update it. Not that any of our stuff is stellar or anything (heck, it’s actually pretty awful, though in a deliciously fun way), but you can’t beat passion, peer-to-peer recommendations, and the creative energy unleashed by the social tools at our disposal today. It all works pretty well in the end… but it would work so much better if you paid attention, realized that traditional marketing  could be amplified by inspired community engagement, and… well, joined in the fun.

So come on, Nutella! We’re all having fun out here in the real world, sharing your awesome chocolaty spread with everyone we come in contact with. Are you going to join us or what? We’re ready for you. 😉

Full Disclosure: This post was fueled by several mouthfuls of Nutella.

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What Marketing Can Be

A little thought for today:

Marketing is usually there to help sell a product or brand, but when you actually have something real to say – something valuable, something authentic, something that matters – marketing simply turns into a means of celebrating your culture and sharing it with the world.

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Sales vs. Marketing

“The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself.”

– Peter Drucker

Amen. If you have to sit there and work to sell it, there’s a marketing department somewhere that’s at fault.

Read Tom Asacker’s letter to Tom Peters to find out where the whole Sales vs. Marketing thing went oh-so-wrong. (Good stuff.)

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On finally fixing Marketing’s R.O.I. Void

http://wray-mccann.com

What the heck is going on with marketing anyway?

Marketing discussions lately have been shifting lately to R.O.I. (as well they should): How to measure the R.O.I.of advertising, of PR, of Social Media, etc. And it’s about time too. Too bad it took an economic meltdown and the sudden evaporation of marketing budgets to finally put many of us on the spot, but I guess I’ll take that silver lining in whatever flavor happens to be available. At least now, those of us who liked to operate in a vacuum of responsibility are forced to give some thought to the value they bring to an organization (beyond bringing creative flair to sales brochures, catalogs and websites, that is), and this – my furry friends – is going to come in real handy come budget review time next quarter.

Make no mistake about this: Not being able to clearly understand, articulate and demonstrate your value to an organization is not a good way to establish tenure. If you can’t figure out your own value, your own impact in quantifiable ways, the powers that be sure won’t.

Okay, so as a warmup, ask yourselves if this lack of accountability might have something to do with marketing and advertising budgets always being the first to be slashed during a downturn.

Hmmmm. Coincidence? Koinkidink? (Um, no.)

All right. Now that you’ve revved up the old brain cells a bit, let’s go with the really relevant question for today: Given this lack of value (perceived) by the powers that be (Sr. management), how exactly do you intend to EVER sell them on the value of new strategies or technologies? In other words, how do you – Mr. or Mrs. “I have no idea how to measure my own R.O.I. – intend to sell “social media” or “WOMM” or “online reputation management” or PR 3.0 to an already jaded and skeptical team of managers?

Chew on that for a few minutes, and then read this little plateful of truth:

Most business leaders simply have no faith in Marketing. They don’t see it as an effective business function, they see it as an expense rather than an investment, and more often than not, marketing takes on the form of a formulaic, uninspired afterthought that barely ever ventures beyond the stale world of “marketing deliverables” like brochures, websites, mailers, press releases and print ads. Worse yet, these deliverables are often utterly ineffective in both design and purpose, adding insult to injury in the world of pragmatic, no-nonsense business execs. This is not good, and it needs to start changing immediately.

Write that down by hand, and

pin

it

to

your

wall.

Some wise words from a very smart man who says very smart things:

Okay… If you haven’t tuned out by now, welcome to the real meat of this post. You’ve done well to come this far. What comes next should be pretty helpful in helping you craft your department, agency or firm’s survival in the next year or so (and beyond). Read closely:

A few months ago, JP Voilleque over at Marketing 2.0 wrote about the generational roadblocks standing in the way of new and smart marketing being adopted by traditional or conservative companies. Here’s what JP has to say:

I have a special place in my heart for resistance to change. It is endearing, like sepia-tone photos of families in Wild West garb. But when it comes to grappling with network externalities, it loses that cuteness and becomes a real impediment to rapid adoption of effective messaging. The people who are ordering the message don’t think it “belongs” in the Web 2.0 universe except in very narrowly sliced, buzzword-laden places that are no less guaranteed to provide a return than the entire space.

[…]

We’re talking for the most part about first wave baby boomers, but in some cases we’re discussing some “silent generation” folks. So depending on circumstances, these are people who are focused on toeing the line, “team play” as art form, and (for the most part) a hierarchical model of career development, decision making, and information processes. The 1984 Apple ad was aimed at/authored by the second wave of the baby boom, the ones that came of age during the sixties, and aggressively anti-hierarchy (though no less hard-working). The roadblock is the first wave. Worse, it’s a committee of them.

Read the entire post here.

Okay… Now that you have read that, let us come back to my original points and questions to you in this post:

Facing the truth is tough. That’s why humans invented repetition:

Fact: These guys don’t believe in the value of marketing because no one has ever shown them that it indeed has any value. Too many hacks in this business are content to charge exorbitant fees for deliverables without actually ever working towards actual business and brand-building objectives. (And I won’t even touch the topic of the growing number of internal marketing departments whose staff can’t come up with a single original idea, much less write half a page of decent copy.) Many small marketing and PR firms have thus become little more than job shops where a) the talent and the creative have – over time – slipped to the bottom of the commodity ladder, and b) have completely eliminated the strategic in favor of the tactical (if you can even call it that). This may be a great way to keep paying the bills, but it is no way to inject the true value of marketing into a company that needs it. Enough firms and practitioners do this, and the entire profession soon becomes plagued with low rent hacks selling “marketing” to business folks too busy running their businesses to know any better. This is how the marketing field spent the last three decades losing all credibility and value, bringing us to where we are today: A business world in which the first thing that gets cut during tough economic times is Marketing. Bravo.

Incidentally, the one line-item in a business’ budget that should actually increase during difficult economic times is marketing. Why? Because the best time to reach out to your customers and possibly gain market share is precisely when your competitors are retreating. We’re upside-down in this scenario because for the last thirty years, hacks have been dragging this discipline down into the commodity gutter. Enough is enough. We need to get back to business now. And I mean right now, starting with the very same first wave boomers who currently have absolutely zero faith in the discipline.

To these folks, marketing is at best fluff. Pretty fluff, sometimes, but fluff nonetheless. And expensive fluff at that. They reluctantly sign off on brochures, flyers, websites, catalogs and the occasional press release (the latter usually aimed at investors and stakeholders rather than their customers) because they feel that they have to. It’s just a cost of doing business. *sigh* Aside from this expensive exercise in seemingly worthless self promotion (a concept they aren’t particularly comfortable with anyway), marketing seems to be an expense rather than a worthwhile investment. This is the biggest fundamental problem faced by marketing departments and firms today.

Another way to look at it is this: There seems to be little to no measurable ROI from most marketing campaigns or activities.

Why is Marketing turning into the red-headed stepchild of the business world?

Chances are that if you are dealing with a CEO who has little faith in marketing, it is because no one has ever shown them the link that exists between real marketing (which reaches far deeper than just messaging), and something as simple as F.R.Y. measurements (Frequency, Yield and Reach), for starters. Forget brand valuation for the first couple of quarters. Don’t even bring it up. Just show them how great marketing can increase their sales through an increase in interactions between their company and its customers, a positive change in the average order size, and/or an increase in net new customers. This is something they understand. This is something that puts food on the table, therefore it is tangible. This is how marketing stops being fluff and starts being valuable. This is how cost becomes benefit. This is how risky expense becomes worthwhile investment.

In order to enable this transition, we need to connect the dots by demonstrating clearly and objectively that marketing drives business growth in a measurable, quantifiable way. Not only that, but your efforts have to show that the return outweighs the investment. Not through bullshit metrics but through measurables that actually show up on the P&L.

You aren’t going to turn the older boomers to pay any attention to quests and archetypes (unless they happen to work at Nike or Jaguar or Starbucks), but you can take these concepts and turn them into what they understand: ROI. Simple Business 101. Common sense cost-benefit data. Period.

Does this put marketing practitioners on the spot? You bet. And it’s about time too.

How do we begin to fix it? Well, for starters, by rebooting what Marketing’s purpose actually is:

The shift that needs to occur is simply this: Marketing practitioners need to a) stop behaving like commodities salesmen, and b) (to borrow a phrase from the presidential campaign trail) stop slapping lipstick on a pig.

Our job is not to sell deliverables like websites, catalogs, print ads and clever copy (and especially not the mediocre kind). Our job is to help folks who already spend over 80% of their time running the day to day operations of their business connect that business with the outside world in an effective and extraordinary way.

More to the point, our job is to help drive sales, create net new customers, and increase the number of positive interactions between the companies we serve and their growing customer base.

Our job is to help delight customers so that they will become a) repeat customers and b) brand ambassadors. Our job is to bring context to products, services and companies’ identities in specific cultural subsets.

Our job is to bring companies and “markets” together, which is really to say companies and people.

Summed up, our job is to develop all of the strategies and tactics that help companies find their audience, facilitate the first handshake, and develop lasting, delightful, fiercely loyal relationships with as many great people as possible.

Our job is to do this in a remarkable, memorable, delightful way. Our job, if anything, is to inspire our clients and the people they serve to engage in a relationship which benefits both parties equally, and somehow improves their collective condition in the process. Our job is nothing short of ensuring that the marriage between between them is a great and lasting one.

This is not the sort of thing you entrust to just anyone. Yet too many companies do just that – most of the time because they may not be aware that they have other, better options.

I say enough. Seriously. Enough with uninspired, ineffective mediocrity. Enough with chop-shop marketing. Enough with nonexistent (upside-down) R.O.I. Enough with the slimy marketing snake oil bullshit.

Enough.

Not until that first wave of boomer execs start to see that Marketing is as vital to their growth and as worthwhile an investment as an acquisition or product innovation will they be able to connect the dots between marketing activity and simple, bottom-line, black-on-white R.O.I. (Which will be the topic of an upcoming post.)

It’s time to start cleaning up our industry once and for all, one company at a time. If that’s what it takes, then so be it.

I hope you’ll join me in this quest, assuming you aren’t fighting the good fight already. If so, reach out to me so we can start helping each other better.

Have a great Tuesday, everyone. 😉

image by Chris Wray-McCann

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The Functions of a Marketing department

Via BrandXpress –

Rob Engelman was recently asked what a Marketing Department should be responsible for. His answer came as a list:

1. Focus on the Customer
2. Monitor the Competition
3. Own the Brand.
4. Find & Direct Outside Vendors.
5. Create New Ideas.
6. Communicate Internally.
7. Manage a Budget.
8. Understand the ROI.
9. Set the Strategy, Plan the Attack, and Execute.

Because we like to focus on brand stuff, here’s what Rob has to say about #3:

“The perceptions and feelings formed about an organization, its products / services, and its performance is what is known as its “brand.” The Marketing Department is responsible for creating meaningful messages through words, ideas, images, and names that deliver upon the promises / benefits an organization wishes to make with its customers. Furthermore, the Marketing Department is responsible for ensuring that messages and images are delivered consistently, by every member of the organization.”

Not a bad start. And for the most part, yes, he is right.

Read the rest of Rob’s points here.

Rob’s list is a great first step for any marketing department that finds itself needing to define its functions clearly. Let’s take it one step further though, with this second list, which should best serve marketing departments that have already accomplished all nine of Rob’s recommendations and are looking for the next step in their evolution:

1. Befriend your customers.
2. Become your market. (Don’t just monitor the competition. Rewrite the rules. Set the pace. Lead. Outdistance your competition. Make them copy you. Force them to up their game.)
3. Breathe your brand.
4. Recruit and direct outside vendors.
5. Foster Innovation.
6. Simplify your internal communications. Then simplify them again. And again. And again.
7. Strategize as if your budget had been slashed in half. Deliver as if your budget had been twice what it actually is.
8. Make your ROI completely clear to your clients and everyone in your organization.
9. Observe, adapt, strategize, anticipate, plan, execute. … and be ready to improvise at a moment’s notice.

If you can truly make this your list for 2009, you will probably blow away your competition. (Recession? What recession? … Exactly.)

Now get to work!

Have a great Wednesday, everyone.

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The best business e-book so far this year.

I’ll give you 10 simple reasons why you should take a few minutes each day for the next week or so to read this killer (and 100% free) e-book:

1. Valeria Maltoni (of Conversation Agent, Marketing Profs and FastCompany.com fame) was the mastermind behind the project.

2. Matt DICKMAN, Fleishman-Hillard (contributor)

3. Francois Gossieaux and Lois Kelly, Beeline Labs (contributors)

4. Beth Harte, Harte Marketing & Communications (contributor)

5. Amber Naslund, Altitude Branding and Radian6 (contributor)

6. Mike Wagner, White Rabbit Group (contributor)

7. Christina Kerley, CK Epiphany Marketing (contributor)

8. Mike Fruchter, Connie Reece, Alan Wolk (rock star contributors)

9. Jennifer Laylock, Search Engine Guide (contributor)

10. Yours truly (contributor)

Some quick little bites to get your apetite going:

“The foundation and core of what social media is, consists of the five C’s. Conversation, community, commenting, collaboration and contribution” – Mike Fruchter

“With social media as a platform for participation, people can behave the way they were hardwired to behave in the first place – humanly, tribally” – Francois Gossieaux

“Social media enhances marketing efforts as an additional indirect communication channel” – Beth Harte

“Companies with greater social intelligence have stronger bonds with employees and customers, and that translates into revenue” – Lois Kelly

“Social media isn’t causing problems, but it is revealing them. And the problems aren’t new; they’ve been around for a while” – Mike Wagner

“The secret of success in social media is a product or a service that people actually like and use” – Alan Wolk

“For all the talk of measuring “engagement” and “brand valuation,” the value of any tool (social media or otherwise) to a classically trained MBA boils down to a simple question: “How does this impact my P&L?” In other words, “how will this impact my business? Please answer in terms of dollars.” Fact: Until you can demonstrate that Social Media tools can yield some type of measurable impact on the health of a business, you won’t be getting much traction.

[…]

“In order for engagement to be truly measurable in terms of effectiveness, you have to be able to tie that engagement to an impact on sales. (Yes, the almighty sale is still king in the world of business. Tie anything to sales, and you will get even the most old fashioned CEO’s attention.) Measuring Social Media’s impact on sales isn’t what I would call simple, but it isn’t brain surgery either.” Read more…

– Olivier Blanchard

Download the book, print it, read it, make copies for your colleagues (or even your boss), forward it to friends… but most importantly, give what we shared with you some thought… and try to find at least one thing to act upon today. Your customers will thank you for it!

On a personal note, very VERY special thanks to Valeria for giving me an opportunity to have my name printed next to such brilliant marketing thought leaders. Pretty cool stuff.

Have a great Wednesday everyone. 🙂

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What really makes A-list brands different – and recession-proof.

The difference between winning and just being in the game – Thinking about ‘NEXT’ instead of just ‘NOW’:

Some words of wisdom from Tom Asacker:

“When they asked Wayne Gretsky, arguably the greatest hockey player of all time, what made him more successful than other players, he replied, Most players tend to play where the puck is, whereas I play where the puck is going to be. Or as the professional trend-spotter may explain, Gretsky smartly followed the “drift” or “general course” of the puck. Now, to anyone who has played a game in which hitting or catching a moving object is essential, Gretsky’s insight is absurdly obvious.

And to anyone who has developed a successful business from the ground floor up, so is trend-spotting customer behavior (regardless of the fact that major corporations spend a ton of money to frequently have it done for them). Because the truth about trends – and staying ahead – is that it has nothing to do with the future. It’s about being intimately involved with your audience today! Being part of the dynamics of change now!”

This is something that I have found profoundly lacking in Corporate America, with, of course, some notable exceptions. That elite club of A-list brands seems to always be the same: Apple. Whole Foods. Starbucks. Virgin. Volkswagen. Canon. Target. Nike. Pixar. Disney. On a smaller scale, you can probably find local, regional, and niche brands that seem to always be a step ahead of the game. Pioneers. Innovators. Trend diviners.

Interestingly, the only difference between companies which, like Wayne Gretzky, focus on where the puck is going to be instead of where the puck is now is frame of mind. Actually, no. Let me rephrase that. The difference is twofold:

1. These companies’ leaders makes a conscious decision to be forward looking. To be where the puck will be. (As Microsoft’s Rob Moyer told me earlier this year, “we live in 2008, but we’re already thinking about 2018.” Perhaps not the greatest example in light of Vista’s less than stellar year, but Rob was talking about “the cloud,” which is a completely different thing.) Being where the puck is going to be requires a conscious and deliberate decision to be there, not as an occasional thing (quarterly planning sessions and whatnot) but 24/7/365.

2. These companies’ leaders make sure that the companies they run atually operate in a forward-looking manner. Take Apple for example. Did Steve Jobs create a business culture that simply waited to see what competitors were going to make before releasing an “i-” version of it? Nope. Apple forged ahead with brand new products or entirely new interpretations of existing products they decided to push through a radical evolution. i-Pod. i-Phone. Apple looked 5-10 years into their own future, saw what types of products they thought people would want to own and play with, and they designed them. Whole new concepts, whole new interfaces, whole new hardware, software, accessories, etc.

How lackluster management can (and will) destroy a brand, while inspired leadership creates market icons:

So to recap, the difference between brands that always seem to dominate markets and those which struggle to remain competitive is simply this: They attract and empower a certain type of leadership – Visionaries. Pioneers. Innovators. Folks who, like Wayne Gretzky, look at business as an organic, fluid entity. Folks who seek new ideas. New points of view. New ways of transforming their business into tomorrow’s indispensible brand, not just today’s.

Struggling or slow growth companies instead tend to rely almost exclusively on the health of their P&L to make strategic decisions. They tend to hire people with exactly the same type of experience everyone else in their organization already has instead of cross-pollinating their culture with insight from other industries. They also mostly live in a frenzied cubicle version of Groundhog Day, where every day blends into the next and very little ever truly changes. At every level, risk-adverse managers (not leaders) talk about “incremental growth” instead of shooting for game-changing growth.

And without a game-changing growth frame of mind, you are setting yourself up for failure. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but someday. And that someday may be a lot closer than you realize.

I was reminded of this yesterday, as “the big three” automakers were on Capitol Hill, begging for help from taxpayers. The question that bounced around in my head was simple: How did we get here? How did it come to this?

The question, of course, was rhetorical. The problem comes down to leadership. What is Apple without Jobs? What is Virgin without Branson? What is Ralph Lauren without Lauren?

Who drives the vision of a company? Of a brand?

Who creates the company culture that either forges ahead with innovation and genius (like Apple) or decides to play it safe?

Who watches trends, invites customers to participate in the product ideation process, and decides to lead the way? (Or conversely, who decides to ignore serious global energy and environmental challenges for years and puts all of their baskets in ever-larger gas guzzling SUVs?)

Who decides to pump out product after product that no one really cares about?

Let me tell you something: Put someone in a car for ten minutes and they’ll tell you everything they love and hate about it: The seats feel weird. The dashboard is too busy. The reading light is in the wrong place. If I buy this truck, I’m going to spend more on fuel each month than on my mortgage. There’s no mp3 plug-in. The interior is too plain. There’s no place for my daughter to stow her toys. The seats won’t last with my two labs. I can’t put a bike rack on the roof because of the way the trunk opens. There’s no room in the trunk for my guitar. Where the hell are the cup holders?

We’re talking about simple anthropology here: Who are you building this product for? A demographic? A set of statistics? Or maybe… people? People with hobbies and lifestyles and passions? People who look to your product to fit into their lives like the perfect puzzle piece. The kind that blends style, utility, value, and awesomeness? (Yes, “awesomeness” is a word here.) Are you just building products because you need to produce something that fits in a specific category, or are you building products that people will crave and want to show off because they complement their lifestyles so damn well?

Translating all of this to Detroit – How the American auto industry could have saved itself every day for the last five years:

Since we’re on the subject of American automakers, here’s a bit from a post I wrote earlier this year, long before the credit collapse on Wall Street:

There is a clear absence of imagination in the auto industry, at least in the US. derivative designs create an “also-in” design culture that offers no clear value to anyone. Sure, I can get excited about Aston Martin or Bugati’s latest supercars, but when I look at cars I can actually afford – the middle of the bell curve – what am I left with? Where is the sexy, smart, well designed sub-$20K car with great gas mileage and suite of electronic interfaces I have been asking for? Where are my power outlets for laptops and media player recharges? (Real outlets, not cigarette lighter outlets.) Where is my built-in hands-free system for my phone? Where is my media player plug-in?

Identity development needs to become part of every new car design – not just at the brand level (a BMW is a BMW /a Mercedes is a Mercedes) but at the level of the individual model. Scion has adopted the concept 100%, but its designs look like someone got a hold of ten-year-old early concept drafts from 2-3 automakers and actually turned them into production cars without making any changes. (Right idea: Unique models for unique uses, but horrible execution: Not a whole lot of curb appeal, and heinously derivative designs – most still look like Korean knockoffs of competitor’s designs.)

Invent something smarter than a cool cup holder. Like a built-in passive cabin ventilation system for really hot summer days. Or a slot for a portable hard drive inside the dashboard. Or a fully insulated trunk compartment for laptops, cameras and other electronics. Or accessible + concealable storage compartments for passengers. Or a new seat adjustment interface. Or yeah… a better cup holder.

Think, guys. Dream a little. Invent something that brings value to the market. More importantly, make your brand, your designs and your every conversation with us, the people who should be dreaming about driving your cars, stand for something. Give us something to desire and crave and get excited about.

This really isn’t brain surgery. If you want to be the kind of company that seems to score more often than everyone else, you have to commit to doing things differently. You have to commit to understanding where the puck is going to go next so you can be there to hit it first.

You have to be willing to be that company. You have to be willing to both recruit and empower innovative, visionary talent. You have to get out from behind your four walls and actually reach out to the world outside. The more time you spend in your office doing the same thing over and over again, the less opportunity you have to discover what will make your company great next quarter. Next year. In the next decade.

And please, do us all a favor and stop blaming the “economic crisis” on Wall Street for every business failure. The big three were already losing ground last spring, long before the Wall Street meltdown several weeks ago. Why? 1) Rising gas prices, 2) uncertainty about the future (buying a car is a big investment), and 3) for the most part, boring, uninspired design. Check out this interesting little US auto industry time capsule from back in April to understand how we really got here. (Again: Don’t blame Wall Street for poor leadership.)

For automakers, being where the puck was going to be instead of where they thought it was wasn’t too much of a stretch: Climate Change + Rising energy costs + seeing the beginning of the end of oil = START FOCUSING ON FUEL EFFICIENT VEHICLES. This would have meant opportunities for new mechanical design, opportunities for new aesthetic design, opportunities for new user interface design, and yes, an opportunity for automakers to redefine their brands for the next decade plus – all things they desperately needed. Surprisingly, some of the most highly paid executives in the world couldn’t do something as simple as that.

To be fair, Japanese automakers in the US market haven’t been doing too hot either. (Even fuel efficiency can’t make up for bland design and an absence of ca-ching value, but at least they get the fuel efficiency part.)

Still don’t believe me? Let the numbers speak for themselves: Even as every American Automaker was experiencing a frightening drop in sales, some foreign brands which focus on design and value were doing extremely well:

BMW: The highest-volume luxury-car seller in the U.S. market managed to generate an increase of nearly 10 percent in April sales of its BMW and Mini brands. The company said that a raft of new products launched this spring – BMW M3, X6 and 1 Series, and the Mini Clubman – helped its April results.

Mercedes-Benz: C-Class models posted a 34 percent gain for April and a 38 percent jump for the year to date. Mercedes-Benz also bucked trends and posted increases for its SUVs, both the M-Class and GL-Class models.

Subaru reported record sales for April (a gain of 22 percent over year-earlier levels).

Mazda North American Operations (MNAO) reported a double-digit increase in sales for April with 23,760 units sold in the U.S., a 12.8 percent increase over previous year.

Meanwhile, most American automakers were looking at double-digit declines in sales back in April compared to same month sales a year before. (Chrysler: -23%. GM: -16%. Ford: -12%.) The only American models with growth were either those which offered superior fuel efficiency or those which offered very clear value.

Simple.

Yet…

Alan Mulally, Ford president and chief executive officer, whose total compensation in 2007 was $21,670,674 (salary, bonuses, the Company-recognized expense for stock options and other stock-based awards, as well as all other compensation) couldn’t figure out what most ten-year-olds in the US could clearly figure out from either riding in a Ford or just… you know… being part of the conversation. -12% already back in April

General Motors’ Chief Executive Rick Wagoner’s salary and other compensation rose 64 percent in 2007 to about $15.7 million. The GM compensation committee cited significant progress over the past few years in reducing the automaker’s health care cost burden, increasing growth internationally and improvements in its cars and trucks in the 2007 awards to executives. -16% already back in April

Robert Nardelli, Chrysler’s current CEO (you may remember him from his days at Home Depot, from which he managed to very publicly walk away with a $210M exit package) hasn’t discussed his compensation package for 2007, but we can infer from the 10,000 jobs he cut in his first year that it must have been hefty. -23% already back in April

My point: These guys couldn’t read the writing on the wall? Really? They couldn’t figure out what anyone behind the wheel of a car – let alone someone with a modicum of marketing savvy – could plainly see?

They couldn’t, for one instant, even try to play where the puck was going to be? Or at least hire someone who could help them play there?

At that level in the game?

Watching them begging for cash on Capitol Hill is just sad. And scary. How many companies today are run by executives with the same myopic management style? The same lack of vision? The same absence of insight? And the same looming problems? Executives who, in spite of every tool at their disposal still won’t take the necessary steps to redefine their markets and ensure their companies’ success through the next decade or two?

Leadership matters.

The choices companies make (or choose not to make) matter.

The right combination of vision, focus and drive matters.

Now more than ever.

If you own or manage a business, the choice is simple: Either learn to play where the puck is going to be (and choose to be there), or follow thousands of other lackluster companies down the path of obsolescence and failure. That’s it. Those are your only two options in today’s economy.

If the latter doesn’t appeal to you (and it shouldn’t) but you don’t know how to transform your business into a forward-looking one, find someone who can help you. More often than not, you probably have a small group of talented people inside your organization who can give you guidance and help you make the best out of the current reality. If you don’t, hire someone with the right blend of talents and skills. (I know a few, so get in touch and we’ll get you hooked up pronto.)

Before I move on to my projects for the day, let me leave you with one last thought to tie all of this together (again courtesy of Tom Asacker):

“Easy times are the enemy, they put us to sleep. Adversity is our friend, it wakes us up.”
– The Dalai Lama

Time to wake up. (Hey, better late than never.) Have a great Thursday, everyone. 😉

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On Selling Marketing Short: Fixing the R.O.I. void

http://wray-mccann.com

Interesting post by JP Voilleque over at Marketing 2.0 this week about the use of mythology and archetypes when creating narratives for brands, but also (and more importantly) the generational roadblocks standing in the way of smart marketing being adopted by conservative companies.

Both of these topics are dear to my heart: The first because tapping into hard-coded symbolism and archetypes we project onto our various mythologies to make sense of the world can be the difference between an organization becoming little more than a company with a logo and that same company becoming a global lifestyle brand. The game here being one of identity and purpose, if a brand can tap into the collective need for a particular archetype, it can become a vessel for a culture’s very specific aspirations.

Nike is a perfect example of this type of exercise, from its choice of name to the way its brand is communicated via its many marketing channels. (Tell me Nike ads aren’t designed specifically to inspire the champion in you.)

The second is also crucial, especially in this economy, because it strikes the heart of Marketing’s Achilles’ heel: The seeming absence of R.O.I. (Return On Investment) at least in the minds of so many first wave baby-boomer executives. I have run into this my entire career, and I have to confess that has been one of the most frustrating of hurdles: Most business leaders simply have no faith in Marketing. They don’t see it as an effective business function, they see it as an expense rather than an investment, and more often than not, marketing takes on the form of a formulaic, uninspired afterthought that barely ever ventures beyond the stale world of “marketing deliverables” like brochures, websites, mailers and print ads. Worse yet, these deliverables are often utterly ineffective in both design and purpose, adding insult to injury in the world of pragmatic, no-nonsense business execs. This is not good, and it needs to start changing immediately.

Here’s what JP has to say:

I have a special place in my heart for resistance to change. It is endearing, like sepia-tone photos of families in Wild West garb. But when it comes to grappling with network externalities, it loses that cuteness and becomes a real impediment to rapid adoption of effective messaging. The people who are ordering the message don’t think it “belongs” in the Web 2.0 universe except in very narrowly sliced, buzzword-laden places that are no less guaranteed to provide a return than the entire space.

[…]

We’re talking for the most part about first wave baby boomers, but in some cases we’re discussing some “silent generation” folks. So depending on circumstances, these are people who are focused on toeing the line, “team play” as art form, and (for the most part) a hierarchical model of career development, decision making, and information processes. The 1984 Apple ad was aimed at/authored by the second wave of the baby boom, the ones that came of age during the sixties, and aggressively anti-hierarchy (though no less hard-working). The roadblock is the first wave. Worse, it’s a committee of them.

Read the entire post here.

Anytime someone talks about archetypes, metaphors and marketing all in the same paragraph, they have my undivided attention. There isn’t enough of this kind of thinking in our industry, and it’s a damn shame because it holds so much power. Unfortunately, the silent generation doesn’t always have time for archetypes, Jungian psychology or for peeling back the layers of mythology-inspired metaphor.

Fact: These guys don’t believe in the value of marketing because no one has ever shown them that it indeed has any value. Too many hacks in this business are content to charge exorbitant fees for deliverables without actually ever working towards actual business and brand-building objectives. (And I won’t even touch the topic of the growing number of internal marketing departments whose staff can’t come up with a single original idea, much less write half a page of decent copy.) Many small marketing and PR firms have thus become little more than job shops where a) the talent and the creative have – over time – slipped to the bottom of the commodity ladder, and b) have completely eliminated the strategic in favor of the tactical (if you can even call it that). This may be a great way to keep paying the bills, but it is no way to inject the true value of marketing into a company that needs it. Enough firms and practitioners do this, and the entire profession soon becomes plagued with low rent hacks selling “marketing” to business folks too busy running their businesses to know any better. This is how the marketing field spent the last three decades losing all credibility and value, bringing us to where we are today: A business world in which the first thing that gets cut during tough economic times is marketing. Bravo.

Incidentally, the one line-item in a business’ budget that should actually increase during difficult economic times is marketing. Why? Because the best time to reach out to your customers and possibly gain market share is precisely when your competitors are retreating. We’re upside-down in this scenario because for the last thirty years, hacks have been dragging this discipline down into the commodity gutter. Enough is enough. We need to get back to business now. And I mean right now, starting with the very same first wave boomers who currently have absolutely zero faith in the discipline.

To these folks, marketing is at best fluff. Pretty fluff, sometimes, but fluff nonetheless. And expensive fluff at that. They reluctantly sign off on brochures, flyers, websites, catalogs and the occasional press release (the latter usually aimed at investors and stakeholders rather than their customers) because they feel that they have to. It’s just a cost of doing business. *sigh* Aside from this expensive exercise in seemingly worthless self promotion (a concept they aren’t particularly comfortable with anyway), marketing seems to be an expense rather than a worthwhile investment. This is the biggest fundamental problem faced by marketing departments and firms today.

Another way to look at it is this: There seems to be little to no measurable ROI from most marketing campaigns or activities.

Chances are that if you are dealing with a CEO who has little faith in marketing, it is because no one has ever shown them the link that exists between real marketing (which reaches far deeper than just messaging), and something as simple as F.R.Y. measurements (Frequency, Yield and Reach), for starters. Forget brand valuation for the first couple of quarters. Don’t even bring it up. Just show them how great marketing can increase their sales through an increase in interactions between their company and its customers, a positive change in the average order size, and/or an increase in net new customers. This is something they understand. This is something that puts food on the table, therefore it is tangible. This is how marketing stops being fluff and starts being valuable. This is how cost becomes benefit. This is how risky expense becomes worthwhile investment.

In order to enable this transition, we need to connect the dots by demonstrating clearly and objectively that marketing drives business growth in a measurable, quantifiable way. Not only that, but your efforts have to show that the return outweighs the investment. Not through bullshit metrics but through measurables that actually show up on the P&L.

You aren’t going to turn the older boomers to pay any attention to quests and archetypes (unless they happen to work at Nike or Jaguar or Starbucks), but you can take these concepts and turn them into what they understand: ROI. Simple Business 101. Common sense cost-benefit data. Period.

Does this put marketing practitioners on the spot? You bet. And it’s about time too.

The shift that needs to occur is simply this: Marketing practitioners need to a) stop behaving like commodities salesmen, and b) (to borrow a phrase from the presidential campaign trail) stop slapping lipstick on a pig.

Our job is not to sell deliverables like websites, catalogs, print ads and clever copy (and especially not the mediocre kind). Our job is to help folks who already spend over 80% of their time running the day to day operations of their business connect that business with the outside world in an effective and extraordinary way. More to the point, our job is to help drive sales, create net new customers, and increase the number of positive interactions between the companies we serve and their growing customer base. Our job is to help delight customers so that they will become a) repeat customers and b) brand ambassadors. Our job is to bring context to products, services and companies’ identities in specific cultural subsets. Our job is to bring companies and “markets” together, which is really to say companies and people.

Summed up, our job is to develop all of the strategies and tactics that help companies find their audience, facilitate the first handshake, and develop lasting, delightful, fiercely loyal relationships with as many great people as possible.

Our job is to do this in a remarkable, memorable, delightful way. Our job, if anything, is to inspire our clients and the people they serve to engage in a relationship which benefits both parties equally, and somehow improves their collective condition in the process. Our job is nothing short of ensuring that the marriage between between them is a great and lasting one.

This is not the sort of thing you entrust to just anyone. Yet too many companies do just that – most of the time because they may not be aware that they have other, better options.

I say enough. Seriously. Enough with uninspired, ineffective mediocrity. Enough with chop-shop marketing. Enough with inexistent (upside-down) R.O.I. Enough with the snake oil bullshit.

Enough.

Not until that first wave of boomer execs start to see that Marketing is as vital to their growth and as worthwhile an investment as an acquisition or product innovation will they be able to connect the dots between marketing activity and simple, bottom-line, black-on-white R.O.I.

It’s time to start cleaning up our industry once and for all, one company at a time. If that’s what it takes, then so be it. I hope you’ll join me in this quest, assuming you aren’t fighting the good fight already.

Have a great Thursday, everyone. 😉

image by Chris Wray-McCann

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Tom Fishburne’s Marketing Mix: Just add dough.

I hate to feature the same thought leader twice in one week, but this cartoon was just too good to pass up. Instant classic!

And another reason why Tom Fisburne is sure to be a fixture on the brandbuilder blogroll for a long, long time:

I’ve worked with large traditional brands and small challenger brands, and I started thinking about marketing planning for each. I played around with cooking as a metaphor, and this cartoon idea popped out.

In traditional marketing planning, I think far too often there’s a product that isn’t that differentiated but that you try to save with heavy media spending. With so much advertising clutter, media spending is becoming less and less effective. So, it’s harder and harder to save a mediocre product and lackluster ideas just with media spending alone.

The answer isn’t too add more dough, of course. It’s to start with something worth sharing and not to skimp on the yeast. I think that brands that have a remarkable product and a remarkable message get shared no matter what they’re spending.

Amen.

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Marketing vs. Advertising vs. PR vs. Branding

In a nutshell.

Hat tip to Francois Gossieaux, who grabbed the baton from Digital Demystified.

Update: Spike over at Brains on Fire just pointed out that the original source is Marty Neumeier’s ZAG.

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The stories we tell.

Again from Seth Godin, here’s a great little post on Marketing. (It’s good to hear it from the horse’s mouth:)

Very rarely do we come to meetings and say, “well, here’s our cool new PBX for Fortune 1000 companies. It’s exactly the same as the last model, except the phones are designed by frog design so they’re cooler and more approachable and people are more likely to invest a few minutes in learning how to use them, so customer satisfaction will go up and we’ll sell more, even though it’s precisely the same technology we were selling yesterday.”

Very rarely do vodka marketers tell the truth and say, “here’s our new vodka, which we buy in bulk from the same distillery that produces vodka for $8 a bottle. Ours is going to cost $35 a bottle and come in a really, really nice bottle and our ads will persuade laddies that this will help them in the dating department… nudge, nudge, know what I mean, nudge, nudge…”

It would be surprising to meet a monk or a talmudic scholar or a minister who would say, “yes, we burn the incense or turn down the lights or ring these bells or light these candles as a way of creating a room where people are more likely to believe in their prayers,” but of course that’s exactly what they’re doing. (and you know what? there’s nothing wrong with that.)

It’s easier to get people to come to a meeting about clock speed and warranty failure analysis than it is to have a session about storytelling.

We don’t like to admit that we tell stories, that we’re in the placebo business. Instead, we tell ourselves about features and benefits as a way to rationalize our desire to to help our customers by allowing them to lie to themselves.

The design of your blog or your package or your outfit is nothing but an affect designed to create the placebo effect. The sound Dasani water makes when you open the bottle is more of the same. It’s all storytelling. It’s all lies.

Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

In fact, your marketplace insists on it.

To find out how that post got started, click here.

My point for the last decade or so has been this: Marketing isn’t all about the “message”. Brands aren’t about fresh coats of paint and cool logos and expensive advertising. No matter how many time brand shops will tell you otherwise, brands aren’t about creative or media buying – which is why ad agencies are the last place any business should look for advice when trying to ‘develop’ a brand.

Bleh.

People, listen to me: Design a better PBX. Develop a tastier vodka. Don’t just tell stories. Design products, services and experiences for your users that will make them talk about you.That’s how you build strong brands. That’s the foundation upon which you build your marketing and branding practices.

As a marketer, if you are only in the business of telling stories, you are in the business of charging a pile of money to deliver a whole lot of hot air. Regardless of how many awards you win for your brilliant work, you aren’t contributing much to your clients’ brands.

Food for thought.

Have a great Tuesday, everyone. 😉

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Tom Asacker on Clarity

Here’s another reason why Tom Asacker has been one of my favorite bloggers these last few years:

“I’ve never experienced so much noise and so little signal as I do in the present field of marketing. Marketing is a mess. Marketing is broken! Half of marketers are on autopilot creating award-winning, irrelevant media noise, web nonsense and events. The other half is paralyzed – measuring everything to death and covering their collective butts. Clarity: Marketing’s New Task.”

If the truth hurts, well… sorry.

Click here to read his 2-page mini-manifesto.

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iPod finds its way into the world of Haute Couture: Vomit ensues.

Here’s some context for you (and some culture too, while we’re at it):

The Years of Cristobal Balenciaga

1918 saw the founding of Cristobal Balenciaga’s first haute couture house in San Sébastian, Spain. Local admiration for his designs was so strong that a second haute couture house was opened in Madrid and a third in Barcelona. In 1937, 10, Avenue George V became the Parisian home of Cristobal Balenciaga’s creative influence. Balenciaga’s Paris flagship store is still located at this address.

Balenciaga soon came to embody Parisian elegance. Cristobal Balenciaga was hailed as ‘The Couturier of Couturiers’ and ‘The Master of us all’’ by designer Christian Dior.

In 1946, the House of Balenciaga launched its first perfume, ‘Le Dix’, aptly named after its first atelier, 10, Avenue George V. ‘Le Dix’ attracted the same acclaim as the famous Balenciaga couture pieces, and the perfume soon even rivalled that of Coco Chanel herself. In 1968, Balenciaga closed his couture house, to the deep dismay of his favourite clients. Countess Mona Bismarck lamented the event by locking herself indoors for three days.

Transitional Times

Cristobal Balenciaga died in his home country of Spain in 1972. His nephews then took the helm of the business. In 1978, control of the House of Balenciaga, including the important fragrance business, passed to Hoechst and then to Groupe Jacques Bogart in 1986.

In 1995, Nicolas Ghesquière was hired by the House, initially as a designer for the licensed products activity. He became creative director for the House’s own ready-to-wear and accessories collection in 1997.

Balenciaga Today

In 2001, Gucci Group, in partnership with Nicolas Ghesquière as creative director, acquired the House of Balenciaga, now well on its way towards recreating the influence and respect that the house commanded in its former heydays.

Today, the House of Balenciaga creates women’s and men’s ready-to-wear, shoes and accessories, sold worldwide.

Years ago, when famed couturier Yves Saint Laurent was asked how many true Haute Couture houses there were, answered “only two: Balenciaga, and Chanel.”

It’s safe to say that Yves Saint Laurent and Dior have now added to that count. At any rate, it’s pretty much a given that the house that Balenciaga built is still the house of houses when it comes to the world of Haute Couture.

Perhaps Cristobal would scoff at the idea of creating accessories for a techno culture icon like the iPod were he still around today, but… here we are: Balenciaga is now selling iPod cases.

Are we seeing the bastardization of once proud couture houses, (catering to a new breed of customers) or is this simply another illustration of the impact that iPod has had on our culture? I’ll let you decide.

My two cents: Relevance by association may sometimes be a good strategy to attract new clients/customers, but in the case of very high level luxury brands, the trade-off can be dire. A house like Balenciaga was never about attracting the spoiled offspring of the super rich. It was about class and exclusivity, not selling out to a fickle crowd with money to burn.

This is how great brands choke and die.

Balenciaga “execs,” here is my advice to you: More haute couture and less marketing. Your brand is about design and quality, not gimmicks and gateway products.

*sigh*

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And now for some constructive advice…

Okay, so our last post was a bit harsh. I understand. Feathers were ruffled, egos were bruised, and some agencies were called out. I feel your pain. Really, I do. So as a gesture of good faith (and to balance the cosmic scales a bit), I thought it wouldn’t hurt to pass along this great constructive advice from David Polinchock over at the aptly named Brand Experience Lab (which was named 2006 Agency of the Year by Media Post Publications by the way). These guys obviously get it… and already have a head-start on most of their “contemporaries” (that means you) so pay attention. Some of the insights in this piece are pure gold, so I hope they will inspire you to take your agency/firm/PSF to a whole new level:

What should an agency of the year look like? In my eyes–in this era of the rising “you”–an agency must embody ten critical attributes and capabilities:

1. Foremost, agency staffers must be passionate about acting in the interest of consumers as much as they are in the interest of paying clients. You must do good things in the world and reciprocate with others. Tolerance for anything else is waning.

2. The agency must drop tactical communications from its core positioning and instead embody the value of creating great experiences, with tactics following. (Emphasis mine. This is something that we’ve been saying to agencies since we started the Lab and something I’ve been preaching since the mid-90’s. Maybe now people will start listening! DBP)

3. The agency must embrace a world where paid media placements lose overall traction, and instead master the new currency of word-of-mouth, where reputation and propensity to recommend are earned. These latter factors increasingly determine your ability to communicate and be noticed; they are the new media pipeline.

4. The firm must strive for everlasting client partnerships, not because of insatiable desire for ongoing revenues, but because it understands that programs which achieve deep, ongoing customer experiences and loyalty are incompatible with a start-peak-end model. It’s all about a transition from campaign to platform mentality.

5. An agency of the year should be one that first evaluates the client’s internal processes and culture, to ensure those dimensions optimize opportunities for greatness, not hamper potential.

6. The agency must gain expertise in areas of innovation, product and customer service–versus solely on marketing communications. When the client fails to deliver those fundamentals, the agency must recognize that any advertising or marketing communications will only threaten or erode the client’s brand, or simply waste money. Yes, sometimes the client’s baby is ugly, and it needs help beyond advertising or marketing communications. (Again, something that we’ve been saying since day one. It’s why we created the Experience Audit, so companies can see whether or not they’re actually delivering on their messages. It’s also why we created our university program, to help explore the innovations that will be driving our storytelling in the future. Of course, it goes without saying that we always explore those innovations from the consumer side first! DBP)

7. The firm will value institutional customer-listening as a core competency far more than institutional speaking.

8. Enterprise creativity will stem not from a creative department, but collectively from a group of staffers with diverse disciplines, each with the ability to think creatively, abstractly and from different vantage points. These passionate staffers will often have backgrounds in digital, science and algorithms, multimedia, social sciences, history, arts, culture and more.

9. The agency may get out of the advertising business, for the most part, and perhaps outsource the more tactical aspects.

10. The agency increasingly will recognize and organize around you, the individual.

And that’s how the Brand Experience Lab got to be Agency of the Year in 2006. Welcome to a whole new world of possibilities. Spike, I invite your comments on this one.

Have a great weekend (errr… Tuesday – thanks for your cunning, Spike), everyone. 🙂

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