Mar 12, 2013 | Lean, Management, Marketing, Operations
It is often said that for successful innovation to occur, you must be prepared to” fail often, fail cheap”.
Early testing and prototyping speeds up innovation cycle times, the longer a project proceeds with issues unnoticed or unfixed, the harder they become to fix, and the remediation is more costly and complicated.
Early failure enables hypothesis testing and idea generation, which can only increase the productivity of assets, human and otherwise that are applied to a development project.
The similarity to Lean Manufacturing methodology is extreme, where small batches matched to demand lead to smaller inventory of raw materials, finished goods and WIP.
Mar 6, 2013 | Marketing, Strategy
Italian mathematician Vilfredo Pareto’s observations that resulted in what is now commonly known as the “80/20” rule, are well understood.
As a young marketer, Lord leverhulme’s wry observation that he knew half his advertising was wasted, he just wish he knew which half was which resonated with me. It also seemed to me that the balance of activity in the marketing departments I inhabited also fell into Pareto’s 80/20 rule, 80% of marketing was creative, and 20% was quantitative.
The last decade has turned that all on its head. We can now comprehensively measure the impact of our decisions, their cause and effect chains, and calculate an ROI, particularly in B2B. I venture that the balance has changed, and marketing is now 80% quantitative, 20% creative.
However, 20% of activity that is creative is more critical than ever, as it is the stuff that offers differentiation, an edge in the market, access to new customers and channels, a reason to engage.
Too many marketers I see are still avoiding the accountability offered by the analytical capabilities developed in the last decade, preferring to remain in the past. However, those who are really successful, the 20%, embrace the notion of accountability for their decisions, and track the returns on their marketing investments.
As a side benefit, effective use of marketing analytics offers greater profile to those seeking corporate advancement, the beanies who generally run the joint, love the numbers!
Mar 5, 2013 | Communication, Social Media
Ever wondered about the credibility gathered and built by the tweets, posts, and content created that then become used, and shared, and re-shared?
The opposite of the stone, the more something is shared, the more it gathers moss, the virtual credibility we all seek on the web.
Proximity to the source of information usually enhances the opportunity to assess its credibility, but the paradox is that the wider the electronic distribution of content, the more weight it seems to gather, irrespective of the intrinsic value of the content.
Mar 4, 2013 | Branding, Communication, Marketing, Social Media
Most of my networks are small businesses, and pretty much everyone I talk to who is using social media in some way consider it as a part of their sales strategy, a tool to increase sales. Many would concede it is a marketing tool first, but why do it if sales do not come, and how do you measure success other than by sales?
The marketers amongst you will shudder.
What social media is good at is raising awareness, creating engagement and advocacy, what it is not good at is being a transactional process. Social media is not transactional at all, it does not create sales, rather it creates a conversation, the environment in which sales can be made, but the sales process itself is separate.
A subtle difference perhaps, but hugely important in any consideration of the return that comes from an investment in Social Media.
Mar 1, 2013 | Branding, Communication, Social Media
I recently sat through what should have been a very interesting presentation. The proposition fascinating, the data extensive, the qualifications of the presenter exemplarity. It is a pity, but a few minutes after it was over, none of the data was remembered.
All I can now recall is the scene setter the presenter used, the story he told which in his mind was just a warm up to the real stuff, the data that made the argument.
To me, the scene setter was the whole story, the data just a way to fill in a boring 25 minutes, and almost completely dispensable.
The lesson in this is that the social interaction we experience, or that are shared with us, are powerful conveyors of a message we recall, understand, and possibly act upon.
All the data in the world cannot do more than support the case, fill in the detail, and create quantitative foundations out of qualitative hypotheses. but it will always be the stories that stick in our memories.
Feb 27, 2013 | Branding, Communication, Marketing, Social Media
Social media is a part of the marketing toolbox, an increasingly important one, so why does it so often get shuffled out to the side, assigned to the 20 year old intern, when it can have a profound impact on your customers and market?.
Marketing is all about demand generation, it is a very wide set of activities, behaviors, and attitudes that build an expectation of brand and pr0oduct performance. It covers everything from the usual promotional and advertising stuff people think about, to the little things, the cleanliness of the company logoed delivery truck, ( I always recall the shiny red Arnotts vans, to me they are a metaphor for the brand, sadly, there is not even a good photo on the web) to the way the receptionist answers the phone, and many other things. The “welcome quotient” of the brand.
We do all this stuff in the real world, but ignore much of it in the digital one, simply by ignoring the expectation that visitors want to feel as welcome digitally as they are personally.
Many websites are distinctly unwelcoming, muddled, untidy, hard to navigate and offering little encouragement to engage further. This post by Jay Baer lists 11 reasons people do not engage, and is a great list of the common problems I see, most of which are r4elatively easily addressed.
