Inclusion and Diversity

The title of this blog post is not hyperbole. These two words have become the key company employment driver and target marketing. Just watch any Netflix or Amazon production and commercial television ads; they contain many diverse couples.

Ironically, there is actually a risk of alienation, when diversity and inclusion are not fully defined. I recently reviewed a company’s "team". The 55 members did reveal ethnic diversity, but I could not detect anyone over 40. Is this considered inclusive or diverse? From a marketing perspective, Millennials rule, but GenX and Baby Boomers are still in the workforce and GenZ is now joining the workforce.

The question: Should inclusion and diversity go beyond sexual orientation and ethnicity and include all generations?

2019 The Year of Humanity

During my Holiday time, I caught up on some reading and spent time with family and friends. These two events of reading and visits one theme, which my last two blogs covered, was prevalent – humanity. Not once did I read or hear the words "disruptive" or "game-changer." Yet I saw several television commercials using these words. If people don’t really talk this way, why are they so common in the workplace and marketing? As readers of my blog know, buzzwords are one of my pet peeves. 

Truthfully, if I hear the words "game-changer" one more time, I will throw up. "Disruptive" on the other hand, is a very accurate definition of 21st Century marketing. I find all marketing disruptive, from the constant borage of spam emails and social media ‘sponsored" ads in the post feeds. Regarding television, thank God for DVR, the mute button, Amazon Video and Netflix. My ADD rarely lets me finish a broadcast show, as the last 15 minutes of the show are more commercials than content.

If you’re still reading this post, I admit, buzzwords have existed in all decades and generations, probably for millennia. We just have more media channels to inundate our receptors. Thank the Lord we don’t talk to each other personally or in the workplace with colleagues using them.

Let’s make 2019 about people wherever you interact, with humanity, and not let the business world dictate your vocabulary.

Happy New Year,

Jack

Brand Development is More Than a Marketing Plan

As a marketing process expert, let me share the steps involved in developing a brand. It’s a simple process, but requires thorough thinking to be successful.

Step One

The Marketing Plan

This contains all the product information (features, benefits, value proposition), competitive analysis, target market and market feasibility.

Step Two

The Creative Brief

A lot of people in the industry think this is part of the marketing plan. It is a secondary, and critical, document to augment the marketing plan. This is the document that prepares you for the customer approach or what used to be called Advertising. It answers the consumer’s question, “why do I want this product.” Properly executed, the creative brief can save you money when discussing the execution with your creative agency. No one knows the product as well as you.

Step Three

The Media Buy

Simply stated, how you reach your audience. There is a plethora of tools available online and with media planners to develop this plan. The challenge comes with the multitude of channels. The web has made this task very difficult. You will need to do a lot of homework to maximize your budget. Old and new media should be in your mix.

Step Four

The Financial Plan

Put your excitement about your product aside and remember your running a business. Everything should be based from a business perspective. As they say on the show Shark Tank, it’s all about “money”. A solid, and realistic, financial plan can help you secure funding and help you learn the realities of launching a new product. Most importantly, can you make money (profit)?

Step A

The Production Schedule

The entire process is driven by a schedule. Time can be your biggest asset or enemy. A production schedule will provide motivation and accountability. It should be realistic and fluid.

Branding is not one task, but a process. With due diligence, you can achieve developing a recognized brand in your category or even create a new category. These steps will also benefit the rebranding of an existing product.

Good Luck!

Do Things Really Change

As a strong advocate for change, there seems to be a cosmic force that just repurposes certain mechanisms, adapted to the current time, that we can’t deny. I read where Facebook is losing the tween and teen demographic. This makes sense, as the article explained this group doesn’t want Mom, Aunt, Grandma to see private posts to their friends. My mind immediately jumped to why this will not be a loss for Facebook.

Once this demographic jumps to whatever they find suits their social network desires, Facebook will just buy it. After all, that’s what you do when you have more money than god. You buy the competition. It’s analogous to when the big three Detroit auto makers predominated the car industry. They would buy their competition and either absorb them or shut them down (possibly this still occurs, but I have no proof; just think GM Evo). 

More closely related to our industry,  some of you may remember when a media buy consisted of several independent newspapers, radio and television stations. Then, conglomerates started buying them up and you could place your ads from one source and selecting the “media group” from the rate card. Today, this situation is now applicable to web marketing. Only the medium has changed, from print/broadcast to digital. Your ad purchase will select web or social media properties from Google, Facebook, Yahoo!, Twitter or whoever else appears with a group of digital channels.

The media procurement process has not changed, only the channels. The old adage, “the more things change, the more they stay the same,” applies here.

Note: I know media buying groups have never faded away and still exist for all current marketing channels. My Blog comparative is directed to direct buys.

Traditional Media

For some reason, recently, I'm coming across articles concerning traditional media. This makes me happy, not because I can't accept change, on the contrary I'm a change agent. It's because we aren't driving flying cars yet. Meaning, who can really predict the future?

Many moons ago, I attended GRUPA, the International print show. It was when CD-ROMs were growing as the new media, generating software to replace printed databases. During one presentation, the speaker said, "Print is not dead." He held up a CD-ROM (presumable software) and said, "with everyone of these [disk] comes one of these," and he slammed down a 400 page printed manual. The manual was how to use the software. Fast forward in years - check Amazon for the number of books for learning software. Print is not dead, yet.

The most beneficial marketing campaign is still a mix of media channels and the best media mix reaches your customer target with an effective ROI. I still received a plethora of catalogs, this past Christmas season. There's nothing like sitting by the fireplace, looking at dreamy pictures of desirable items. It still prompts me to go online and BUY.

I firmly believe you need some forms of traditional advertising to draw people to your website. Enjoy the short article: Never Say Die.

When To Fire Your Marketing/Advertsing Agency Part II

How often do you meet with your Account Representative? Who meets with them? Do you have a feedback loop in place?

In theory, there should be some contact everyday. In practice, there should be some contact everyday. Yes, I repeated myself. Go back and read it again.

Okay, there can be some factors that preclude daily contact:
    •    It a project based relationship
    •    The project schedule has specified touch points
    •    You're very smart and already have scheduled periodic meetings
    •    Scope of relationship, including investment ($)

A standard agency practice is to provide "Call Reports". Each time someone in your company speaks with the agency, an email, or some other documentation is provided by the agency. Usually, this occurs within 24-48 hours of the contact. This report identifies the parties involved, the discussion points and action, if required.

Action is further detailed with deadline and who's responsible.

Finally, the most critical factor in good communication, I call it "Key Contact." Having a list of contacts  and responsibilities is great, but there should be a catch-all person, affectionately called the "Key Contact." Nothing is more frustrating than not being able to get someone, when you need them. Key Contacts are on both sides of the communication chain.

Oddly, our industry is communication and we seem to be just as guilty as most industries about it.

Part III will cover, "When to fire your client."

When To Fire Your Marketing/Advertising Agency Part I

Let's start with the old axiom, "Quality, Price, Time. Pick two."

The first step is to pick all three.

Second define these areas:
    •    Quality - What service are they providing? My primary reason is creative. I tell my agencies, "I buy creative. As long as they are creative, I keep buying." Feel free to replace creative with any term.
    •    Price - Are their rates competitive in your" marketplace. Rates vary by location, size of agency and level of team assigned to your account. Also, rates are only part of the equation. Are they billing reasonable number of hours per project? Rate x Hours = Cost. Rate and hours are directly related.
    •    Time - Is there a schedule at project start? Is it followed? What percent is on-time delivery? Is it their or your fault? You share responsibility in this area. Be honest.

Third, rate these areas. Be analytical. Rate each area on a scale of one to ten and take an average. If you feel one area is more important to you, use a weighted average (if you don't know how to do this, call me).

10	Tell them what a great job their doing!
8-9	Discuss concerns with agency
6-7	Put agency on review
4-5	Start agency shopping
2-3	Fire your agency
0-1	What are you thinking?

This is a simple process, but you can add areas beyond these three. The key is to communicate with your agency and they should be communicating with you. This will be the subject of "When to Fire Your Marketing/Advertising Agency, Part II.

Inbound Marketing

Reading marketing and the web related books is a constant fav of mine. I share with you one of the best books, I've come across, in a very long time.

Inbound Marketing - Brian Halligan, Dharmesh Shah; John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

The book is well written and concise. What I like the most about their writing, is the lack of ego. So many of these books are better at the authors "self-promotion" and/or opinions, than usable content. I like their balanced view on various social networking sites.

The book concludes with, "Tips from the Trenches for Startups." Although, this book is not just for startups. You could actually start reading the end first (like cheating on a good novel) and then the rest of the book. I found the SEO section the best of all my readings. And yes, it really is as easy as they say.

Enjoy and good luck.

Company Reputation

Who represents your company? Is it your PR department, Marketing, the C-suite?

You might be surprised at the answer, although it shouldn't. Just as you search the Internet about a prospective employee, a diligent  candidate will search the Internet on your company. What will they find out about you? Have you checked this yourself? You better.

There are multiple sites, where company information can be gleaned, including opinions/ratings. People will use their social networks to inquire about your company or post information, if they currently work for you. They know people are not shy about expressing their feelings, using their social networks. Social networking is fast and powerful. Any, let me repeat, ANY, contact, inside and outside, reflects on your company. If you're consumer based, this reflection is amplified.

Given that over 80% of the current workforce, would quit their job, if the economy was better. How will this effect you, when the economy gets better?

Think about the next time you tell one of your associates, "you're lucky to have a job" or you interview a candidate for the third time and never follow up with them, how this will impact on your company. This impact may be now or later, but will affect you.

Did you answer the question correctly?

Would you hire this company?

Recently, I was in discussion with an advertising agency, ready to double in size. They professed on their website, they only handle clients that are willing to change. Great start, I thought, as I am a "change agent" for marketing and advertising agencies, whether corporate in-house or external.

After a few weeks into how I can bring a lot to their company operationally, they leaped forward, and hired a lead person. Without further details, to protect the agency, this quick decision represents a business model that is 60 years old in the advertising industry.

Would you hire a company that wants you to change and operates their own company under an antiquated business model? I speak with authority, as I have never seen this operational structure succeed.

My favorite line in the movie Wayne's World, is when Garth says, "I fear change." Does anyone see a contradiction in this scenario? I want to say, "practice what you preach" or "lead by example". Remember all is exposed in the 21st Century www world.

The lesson.
Be careful what you say verses how you act and as exciting as explosive growth may be, proceed with calculated progress. Look before you leap.

From Silly to Absurd

The economy has redefined many job descriptions and I've written about position consolidation before. This one takes the cake. I spoke with a recruiter yesterday looking for the following  skill sets in one person.

Account Executive
Industrial Engineer
Brand and Marketing
Digital Pre-Press
Consumer Products
Graphic Design
[Discipline] Engineer

I'm afraid to ask, "how many more disciplines can you get in one person?" Okay, I can't resist. They forgot plumber and physical therapist. Now it's complete.

BuZZZZZ

Below is an actual job posting job description. I personally, have never seen so many buzz words crammed into a single paragraph in my life.

No wonder the marketing industry is having an identity crisis. With Social Networking the hottest channel for marketing, how can this language still be relevant. I've never seen this verbosity on FaceBook.

Translating the differentiated Brand DNA and product news into program messaging and components
Aligning and executing programs to resonate with the lifestyle of our target audience
Building shrewd marketing strategies and tactics reflective of the evolving competitive landscape
Leverage company-wide and outside partnerships and assets

Here's my translation, "We need someone who understands our customer, works well with others and can help us make our business grow."

Award-winning marketing strategist, best-selling author, conference speaker and seminar leader, David Meerman Scott, calls this language "gobbledygook". He explains this in his book
The New Rules of Marketing & PR.

How can a marketing hire whose language is "corp-speak", communicate effectively to the customer? Unless your customer is corporate pencil-necks (which this example is not BTW).

Chief Experience Officer

Here is a great concept for companies to consider. The role of a Chief Experience Officer (CXO) is prime for today. One voice, internal and external, producing a much overlooked need for a consistent brand across the entire organization, which can only be accomplished with this "Brand Czar", the CXO!

http://www.cxostaffing.com/CXOBlog

ROI

There seems to be a strong missing element in today's marketing – ROI.

To succeed as a entrepreneur, you just need to develop mass, without regard to monetization. "Build a social network site and they will come." But what if you're on the other side of the equation, as a marketer?

I've asked this question, as a consultant, to many clients who have joined the social networking marketing bandwagon, "What is the ROI on your investment?" and "Can you break it down per website?"

One client's answer was actually, "I'm afraid to find out."

What are your measurements? What is the ROI on each of your media channels? Basically, "What is working and what is not?"

Marketing/Advertising budgets are tight; choose wisely and measure the results.

Side note: since the "ad"vention of marketing, many claim you cannot measure advertising results with any degree of quantification. Social networking is just another channel. ROI can simply be "Did using this channel bring additional sales/recognition/(insert your goal here)?"

Corporate Culture As A Marketing Tool

In a conversation with a close friend of mine, regarding employer/employee relations, she questioned why other companies' products were preferred over theirs.

To answer the question, the companies' cultures give us some insight.

At my friend's company, employees are called to 5 AM meetings, sometimes an additional hour's drive from their normal workplace. They are still expected to complete their workday around or after 6 PM. My friend is so "burned out" when she arrives home, she can only muster a small bite to eat and head to bed. Sometimes this scenario repeats the very next day.

The competition, in this example, does not work over 40 hours/week, has fewer employees and benefits to make you happy to be alive.

You can see the answer is very clear:
Corporate culture is directly related to product quality.

But is this correlation clear? Unfortunately in the U.S., this scenario is very prevalent in today's economy. It follows the "be thankful you have a job" mentality adopted by this and many employers.

Where do you fit into this scenario?

From the marketing perspective, can you see a competitive advantage?

Thinking Outside the Box

This is not just a cliché or esoteric business strategy, it's a practice.

If you read my blogs, it is fairly clear, I'm all about change. Here are two situations where "outside-the-box" thinking was successful when applied to hiring.

Maintaining my philosophy, "If the people grow, the company will grow," I needed a manager who could apply this principle. It took quite a bit of time and I actually when through two previous hires, before landing someone with the right blend of qualifications.

Did he come from the marketing/advertising industry? No. I hired a professor. A person with all the industry skill sets and the added punch of knowing how to convey this knowledge. He could also motivate. He built on the staff's current strengths and taught them new skills. On the management team, he brought a broad perspective.
It worked.

Next, I needed a Business Manager. A prevalent practice of mine, when building organizational structures.

Did she come from the marketing/advertising industry? No. I hired a financial analyst from the banking industry. I needed a number cruncher. She brought not only accounting skills, but helped me set up productivity metrics. On the management team, she brought an outside-the-industry perspective. It worked.

This philosophy can be applied in any position. Don't look for the candidate that matches every detailed bullet point in the job description. If you do find such a person, you will get what you don't need–change or new thinking. Look for skill sets. Skill sets that can be applied to your real needs. These skill sets are referred as – transferable.

Examine your job postings. Do they represent functional duties or skill sets? If you require help determining your needs or examining this subject matter, hire a consultant (like me). Consultants bring an unbiased "out-your-box" viewpoint, as well as their broad experiences.

Smart Hiring

This blog post is a partial addendum to my last post Organizational Structure and to offer some direction.

The job postings I recently viewed, have exacerbated the job blending phenomenon. They expanded the Operations/Creative/Sales singular position to include IT. I realize IT is a vital function in all agency or department efforts, but blend them with all the other functions? Where does one get this background?

The new MBA program will have to include, i.e. blend, all these functions to satisfy many companies' expectations. What I believe will suffer is leadership. MBA already eludes to "My Best Achievement", emphasizing the latest CEO's compensation greed.

Leadership is comprised of three main qualities:

• Experience
• Vision
• Risk

A leader can possess any singular or duplicity of the functional capacities, but it would be rare to possess anymore. Otherwise, the three main qualities become diluted. The agency or department head should have a "working" knowledge of all the functional areas, in order to best communicate with these leaders.

At the turn of the Millennium, a popular trend to flatten organizational structures took hold. I believe this is a good corporate posture. It allows strong functional leaders to specialize in their trade and it forms a forum for the diversity of ideas in a leadership meeting. With a strong meeting facilitation role, the agency or department head can create an effective problem solving environment. I have conducted and witnessed this successful meeting climate.

How do you implement this strategy?

• Take a hard look at your current structure and leader's skill sets. Do they align with my blog posts?
• Are you blending functions? Where? Does this make sense?
• Take a hard look at your leader(s) compensation. Is their parity? This is a critical step, especially with the current compensation scrutiny, driving economic correction. I will devote my next blog on the parity subject.

Building an effective team is still key to success.

Job blending is contrary to building an effective team, brainstorming, creativity and problem solving.

Defining the Team Leader's qualities, ensures this success.

Organizational Structure

As I continue to consult on advertising agency organizational structures and interview for full -time operational positions for corporate in-house divisions, I'm learning mindsets have not changed. Business is changing at light-speed, but the way of doing business is not.

There is a certain sense of irony in the organizational structure paradigm (oh, that word), especially in the creative environment. Whatever you call it, Creative Services, Advertising, Marketing, Branding, Graphics or Sales Support, the company looks to your area for creative solutions for their lack of revenue. Your department/agency is to solve everything, by producing effective materials. Yet, with the plethora of talent, you can't seem to get a project out, on-time, on-budget. Take a deep look at your division/department structure. Who's running the show?

Most Senior managers of creative areas, and typically all levels above, think having a super creative leading the pack will result in producing the materials they seek. When the area fails to deliver to their expectations, they replace the creative lead. This cycle is repetitive. The next questions is, "why can't we find a good creative lead?"

Let's define lead. Lead what? The creative approach? The creative process? The creative area? Nine times out of ten, it's the entire area. As my pastor would shout, when he wants your attention and wants to get an important point across, "Listen".

Listen:
- Creative people are creative. That's why you hired them.
- Creative people should not manage - process or people, i.e. the area.
- Stop replacing the good ones.
- Change the structure.

There are plenty of industries that develop right/left brain people: architecture, photography, musicians. All these industries require both sides of the brain. Each involve math and vision. Our industry, is no different. Leaders can come from our different disciplines, Account Services, Production, and yes, sometimes Creative. Your job is to recruit and screen for this balance, not "get me another creative person." In the event, this person is not easily found, get two people to complete the required balance. Don't scream, "I can't hire two people for one job."

Listen:
- Change the structure.

Companies has been successful at reducing overhead, increasing creative quality and processes, when they have the right people in the right disciplines in the right structure.

Quit blaming the Creative Director for not producing their best work, when you hired them to run the entire area/department/agency. They were made to be creative, not lead large teams and crunch numbers. Our job as leaders is to give our associates the tools they need to succeed.

Listen:
If you don't know how to do this, get help.

New Management Style

During the evolution of my career, I have seen the continuous corrosion of employee/management trust. This lack of trust peaked with egregious top management wealth resulting in the current corporate corruption fallout. Now everyone is paying a high price with record unemployment.

The next Jim Collins or Stephen Covey will be the genius who, like them, can come up with an innovative "corporate management style "du jour" or as I like to call it "de l'année", because the corporate process takes years to implement, if they ever implement at all.

In order to receive a doctorate degree, usually one must write a book on management. Here's my doctoral hypothesis, based on my area of expertise – marketing and operations.
- Operations is not Marketing
- Marketing is not Sales
- Sales is not Advertising

You can apply transitive relationships to this hypothesis. The current economic climate is exacerbating the blurring, of not only these terms, but their functions. Corporations are attempting to hire candidates with any combination of these skill sets (and sometimes one who possesses all of them). Their goal is to save precious payroll expenses. They do not understand these competencies are wholly segregate functional areas, requiring discriminate expertise.

A close friend of mine calls today's management style, "mushroom management." He is referring to their managing in the dark. Top tier managers are so far removed from the line personnel, they have lost focus on who signs their paychecks. I believe this same loss of contact refers to the customer. I have another connotation for "mushroom management", top heavy. There are too many executives at the top, drawing big salaries, again without regard to who actually signs their paychecks, be it employees or customers.

There are some great successful business methodologies that came from W. Edward Demming, Jack Welch, and my favorite, Peter Drucker. Where did we lose touch and where are the business pioneers today?

First Lesson

My first class, Advertising 101 (not a joke; literally ADV 101), was held in an 300 student auditorium. What seemed to be a mile away, the gray-haired professor stood at the podium and exalted, "You have choosen a great field. When the economy is bad, businesses must advertise to draw customers. When the economy is good, businesses must advertise to beat the competition." What he didn't extol was, "Get used to unemployment."

Marketing and Advertising is a very unstable career. When the economy is bad, companies cut their marketing and advertising budgets. When the economy is good, companies may bulk up on staffing for a temporary ride. In the 21st Century, lean operations is the norm. I read in "48 Days to the Work You Love", by Dan Miller, the average job lasts 3.2 years. Advertising Age indicates the average CMO position lasts 18 months.

Don't be discourageed, by these stats. Marketing and Advertising can be a fun career, if you like a fast-paced, changing environments. During one of my unemployment stints, I received company sponsored out-placement services. This service teaches you how to "transfer" your skill sets. I didn't want to "transfer" my skill sets. I enjoyed my industry. Working at several companies can really broaden your skills, as well as provide steady growth. The key to survival is tolerance and tenacity. Your company turnover should not be too high, unless you're really unfortunate to pick companies with short life spans.