Along comes digital marketing with its highly measurable qualities. All of a sudden, companies realize that it is, in fact, possible to know what type of return they are getting on their advertising investment. Click-through rates, open rates, etc., provide invaluable insight into the performance of their online campaigns. Now, if only there was a way to apply that type of accountability to broader-reaching, “traditional” media. 

There is. And no, I’m not talking about those “direct response” campaigns that we’ve all seen. You know, the ones where screaming hosts tout products that slice-and-dice; toll-free numbers are flashed on the screen repeatedly; and prices keep dropping throughout the commercial, until finally, if you wait long enough, you can get two sets for just $19.99 – plus shipping and handling. While those campaigns are incredibly successful when it comes to selling particular products, they are certainly not right for brand-conscious companies looking to “make the sale” while being true to the brand.

I’m talking about a campaign that is built to align directly with your business goals. 

We call this approach “Accountable Campaigns.” The campaigns themselves can take many forms, but they all have one thing in common: success is measured by evaluating performance against specific, clearly defined goals. 

This approach is not rocket science. But it does require discipline, flexibility and ongoing campaign management to ensure success.

How can you hold your campaign accountable?

1. Establish clearly defined goals. What does your campaign need to achieve to be considered a success? What are the tangible, measurable expectations of the campaign?
2. Avoid long-term contracts. Don’t lock yourself into deals, or you won’t be able to adjust later.
3. Test, test, test. Testing leads to improved efficiency. Test creative executions, media mix and other variables to determine the most cost-effective means of achieving your goals.
4. Develop metrics and benchmarks. Ongoing measurement throughout the execution of the campaign allows you to identify issues while there is still time to address them.
5. Make adjustments. Be prepared to make adjustments based on the learning. This means your campaign will require more attention, but it should also lead to greater success.

The end result is not only achievement of your business goals, but also a model that can be used – and improved upon – in future campaigns. 

And, when somebody asks “So, what did that campaign do for us, anyway?” you’ll know exactly how to answer.

Let’s assume that you, like many people, already have a Facebook account and you have a profile on LinkedIn. The identity you project in each of these is probably very different. On LinkedIn, you are the buttoned-up professional who is well-positioned for the next client project. Your Facebook identity on the other hand … well, let’s just say that you may have appeared in some photos where you let your hair down a bit. Are these two versions of your identity the right ones to help you promote your business? Well, yes and no.

Business or Pleasure? Once you make the decision that you are going to use social media as a marketing tool for your organization, you have just raised the stakes and moved from personal dabbling to professional use and you are now going to have to be more disciplined about the identity you project.

Define Your Personal Brand: If you are beginning to use social media as a marketing tool for yourself or your firm, it’s time to ask yourself “what is my personal brand position?” For example, if you are an attorney, you may be selling knowledge and competence. If you run a catering business, you may be offering style and taste. And if you are the president of a business, you may be known for vision and leadership. How do you project and reinforce your identity?

Target Your Communication by Audience: Where are the best places to build awareness of your identity and how should you communicate within each channel? Here are a few to consider.

• Twitter offers you an opportunity to become a part of a community of people who are talking about issues that interest you. You may follow someone because they provide interesting points of view in your field. They will want to follow you for the same reason – not because they care about the last cup of coffee you drank. So stick to tweets that are relevant to your field. 
• LinkedIn places you in a community of professionals who want to network with other professionals. If LinkedIn were a place, you’d want to dress up a bit before going there. Make sure that past experiences you feature there relate to the current area you’re promoting.
• Facebook is a casual place where you meet friends. You may decide to keep this channel separate from the ones where you talk business. That makes sense, but even if you do, remember that everything you say online may be found by others later – and not just by friends.

Reinforce Your Brand: Once you define your personal brand, be consistent in portraying and reinforcing that position wherever you are online. This does not mean that you do not assume variations on your personality in different online venues (just like you do in real life), but it does mean that all of those personalities should reinforce, or at the very least, not contradict, the personal brand position that you have established. Where this can be most difficult is on Facebook, where many of us mix business and personal contacts and conversations.

Related to Facebook, here are some rules I follow:

• I do mix business and personal contacts on Facebook because some clients and coworkers are friends.
• I do feed my blog posts to Facebook. It’s a way of extending my personal brand there, and I have friends on Facebook who might be interested.
• While I do have fun, casual conversations about frivolous stuff, I do not say anything that I would not want a client, or my children for that matter, to read.

So who are you really online? You are a combination of the person who shares part of their personal life through Facebook and the competent professional who Tweets about industry trends. From a marketing standpoint, both parts of your personality are valuable because these multiple versions of your identity provide a fuller picture of who you are than any press release used to do. Prospective customers may want to know you – not just how you appear in meetings, but also what you do on weekends. Just remember though, in the world of social media, the distance between your personal and business identities is only one click.

There are only so many ways companies can stand apart as the “lowest cost,” “highest quality,” or “best customer service” provider. Is your organization really different in any of these areas? Do these words really connect to your customers’ needs? Do they enable the organization to stand out from the clutter?

Differentiation is only half the story.

There is more to differentiation than simply being “different” or saying the same things differently. You need to be “relevant” to your customers’ needs. Standing out from your competitors in a meaningful way is how differentiation becomes memorable. It’s when your customers take notice, connect and become brand advocates.

Before searching for the best descriptors to position your brand, take the time to strategically understand your audience’s expectations, opportunities and challenges. Gain the important insights you need to build a brand that is relevant to your targeted audiences’ specific needs.

Take the required time to:

• Research your competitors to find their important positioning points.
• Research your target audience to understand their needs and what they value.
• Research your own organization to find what you can promise your customers every day.

Your organization’s brand should be built for the long haul. Brand longevity is possible when you establish and deliver on a promise that is unique and meaningful – a promise that turns first-time customers into long-term brand advocates.

In this post-recession environment, we’ve all become more selective about what we buy. Even the way we think about consumption has changed.

According to Dr. Kim Yarrow, in a recent issue of Psychology Today, “Insights acquired during the recession will crystallize a notion that Americans have been nursing for years … Many Americans are frankly relieved to have a little less expected of them and will live by a new mantra, ‘good enough is good enough.’”

However, Professor Yarrow continues, “While American values may have shifted toward simplicity and self-reliance … what [consumers] want are feelings of self-sufficiency, control and caring for others – and they’ll buy products that help them get there within the time and constraints of modern life.”

What this tells us – and it’s supported by consumer research in the McKinsey Quarterly – is that people are willing to spend money. But they only want products that meet their needs. They’re less likely to spend money on luxuries or status symbols.

There’s even a growing consumer movement toward simplicity in Japan. Muji is the brand that eschews brand. The no-style style. Their clothes don’t even have labels. Muji strives to provide “good enough.” Not cheap, not over-designed nor under-designed. Just simple, clear and functional: the “deliberate pursuit of the pure and the ordinary.”

In this post-recession economy, consumers want proof of value. They don’t mind paying a fair price for what they need, but the days of mindless consumption are gone. This trend will not end with economic recovery. Serious downturns have proven to shape long-term buying habits. Like children of the Great Depression, our patterns of consumption will bear the scars of this recession for many years.

So what does this mean for smart marketers? As the recession loosens its grip and consumers open their wallets, products with the right positioning can get a faster start. According to the Harvard Business Review (July/August 2009), “A new thriftiness and desire for simplicity will combine with pent-up demand to shape buying behavior.” There’s opportunity out there, although it has limits.

The opportunity begins with product development. As marketers, we must pay attention to this new consumer mindset from conceptualization through design, positioning and communication.

Simply put, we need to show product benefits clearly and directly. Focus on satisfying basic emotional needs, such as comfort, self-sufficiency, control and helping others. Don’t pile on the features and avoid messages that promote consumption and status.

There are consumers out there ready to buy. Our job is to simplify their decision-making process.

The truth is, people are already out there talking about your brand, whether negative or positive.  You can be observers or participants when it comes to the crowded social media marketplace, but by joining the conversation, you can set the record straight and reward your most dedicated brand loyalists.

The most valuable resources to share firsthand the value of your brand are your employees. However, the connection between digital marketing and social media participation by employees is not an obvious one for many companies.  Employees can be your most informed and dedicated promoters.  However, many of them do not use their relationships on social networking sites like blogs, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and dozens of others to effectively promote the success of their company.

Sharlyn Lauby writes about 10 easy ways for your employees and key stakeholders to engage in intentional, effective social networking around your company. It’s called a “social media policy.” For your staff and stakeholders, it provides clear guidance on how to strategically and effectively use the social media space.  The key is for employees to understand the vision for engagement in this space and how, by participating in the conversation, you are empowering them to become brand advocates. Here are a few concepts to remember:

• Social media policies and guidelines are not meant to be documents that provide all the “don’ts” to social media engagement; they are meant to empower employees to be part of the conversation about your company, product, or service. 
• The policy should focus on encouraging employees to engage others in the social media space and provide them with the tools to do so in a way that protects both the company and the employee.
• Allow employees to share their enthusiasm for the brand. Encourage creativity and tap into what “makes them tick.”
• The policy should be intuitive and easy to understand for employees.  You don’t want employees to have to reference a document every time they want to dialogue about the company in the social space.
• Create policies within your marketing and human resource departments to openly share topics that employees can discuss within their social environments. 
• Most of all, provide them with the tools to be brand evangelists. Give them quality inside information that is appropriate to share with others. Help them see the big picture about your brand, and engage them regularly in dialogues about your strategic approach to the marketplace.

So, while having a social media policy in place will certainly mitigate your risk in venturing into the social media space, the policy is only one component of your company’s overall social media efforts.  Before thinking about putting together your policy, you must first have a solid social media strategy in place.

Have you adopted a social media policy? Was it successful or are you encountering problems? Did you develop the policy as part of a larger strategy? Let us know what you’ve experienced.

Definition
For those unfamiliar with the term, here’s how Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO defines it:

“Design thinking is an approach that uses the designer’s sensibility and methods for problem solving to meet people’s needs in a technologically feasible and commercially viable way. In other words, design thinking is human-centered innovation.”

It involves taking a holistic approach to solving business needs by combining rationality, creativity and empathy. Business needs could range from new product development to creating efficiencies in process.

Looking to the future – imagining what could be – by generating ideas collaboratively and in volume. Being open-minded about all ideas brought to the table. It implies some risk but ultimately fosters new thinking – new possibilities.

Design thinking can benefit corporate structures because shaking things up can be helpful – keeping things fresh. I’ve seen first-hand how beneficial implementation can be. How members of the team encourage each other, build on each other’s ideas and open their minds to new perspectives.

Anyone out there considering integrating or have integrated design thinking as the method of solving business needs?  I’m interested to hear your experiences and thoughts.

Next time, we’ll explore what it means to be a design thinker.

Innovation is good, but from a marketing standpoint, it represents a unique challenge.In 1995, Geoffrey A. Moore, a leading consultant at Hewlett-Packard and principle of The Chasm Group Marketing Consultants, developed a framework to describe the adoption of new technology and innovation into the marketplace. The technology adoption life cycle has become a popular tool used by business strategists at high-technology firms.

The Technology Adoption Life Cycle

The original technology adoption life cycle model was developed in 1957 by Joe M. Bohlen, George M. Beal and Everett M. Rogers at Iowa State College. They built their model on earlier research conducted there by Neal C. Gross and Bryce Ryan, whose original purpose was to track the purchase patterns of hybrid seed corn by farmers (”Technology Adoption Life Cycle,” 2009).

Many business plans are based on this traditional model, a smooth bell curve of high-tech customers, progressing from Innovators, Early Adopters, Early Majority, Late Majority and finally Laggards. Known as Rogers’ Bell Curve, this model implies that the way to develop a market is to work the curve from left to right, progressively winning each group of users, using each “captured” group as a reference for the next.

Geoffrey A. Moore adapted this model to high-tech marketing and demonstrated that there are cracks in the curve between each phase of the cycle representing a disconnect between any two groups. He demonstrated that each group would have difficulty accepting the new product if it was marketed the same way as it was to the previous group. The largest crack, which he referred to as the chasm, is between the Early Adopters and the Early Majority. Many high-tech innovations fail trying to make it across this chasm.
Marketing Strategies for Technology Adoption Life Cycle

Marketers who are aware of this framework can use it to their advantage. One strategy that they can use to sell innovations is to make sure that the Innovators get to use them as soon as possible. While they typically do not have the resources to purchase the product themselves, their opinions about the product are influential to other members of the organization. The goal of the marketer is to ensure that the product is accepted by the majority of users. The challenges that marketers face are meeting the needs of the innovators, getting over “the chasm” and achieving adoption by the mass market.

Crossing the Chasm

Moore advocates that a company focus on a single specific market or a “beachhead” and use it as a springboard to adjacent extended markets. In his book, Crossing the Chasm, Moore relates the marketing of the technology adoption life cycle to that of a planned battle. First, target the point of attack by identifying the primary target customers, the compelling reasons to buy and the competition, and the secondary market factors such as partners, distribution, pricing and positioning. Next, assemble an invasion force. Create the whole product by thinking through the customer’s problems and defining solutions. Once you have done this entirely, you can define the battle. Marketers can do this by creating competition, defining positioning, and developing a messaging strategy and marketing communications. Finally, a marketer can launch the invasion which includes distribution and pricing of the product (Moore, 1999).

The Technology Adoption Life Cycle Today

With the advent of the Internet and high-speed communication, the time frame of the technology adoption life cycle has become much faster. It took radio 38 years to reach 50 million users. It took television 13 years to reach 50 million users; the Internet four years; the iPod three years; Facebook added more than 100 million users in nine months; and Twitter added 50 million new users in just over three months (United Nations Cyberschoolbus, 2009). The application of the technology adoption life cycle can be used to help illustrate how new ideas and technologies spread so quickly in today’s digital culture.

Today with open source development, companies can provide outside developers, technology enthusiasts and innovators with the opportunity to test new products well before they reach the market (Tsai, 2009). With instant communication tools and marketing channels such as social networking, marketers can cross the chasm much easier and find the profit opportunity much sooner before hitting the mass market. Although marketers can reach the Early Majority much faster, it will still take some time to reach the Late Majority and the Laggards. If marketers are not careful, this increased speed can produce increased failures, missed opportunities and negative brand awareness and sentiment – especially when applying these new technologies to B2B marketing.

The Technology Adoption Life Cycle can be applied to many marketing initiatives and has proven to be a successful strategy when managing and marketing innovative products, services and ideas.

References

Hutt, Michael D., & Speh, Thomas W. (2007) Business Marketing
Management: b2b. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.

Moore, Geoffrey A. (1999) Crossing the Chasm, Marketing and Selling High-Tech Products to
Mainstream Customer, HarperCollins Publishing Inc., New York.
Retrieved image: “The Chasm” graphic

Technology Adoption Life Cycle. (2009, September 18) In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Retrieved October 3, 2009 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technology_adoption_lifecycle

Tsai, Eric (2009, September 10).  When to Adopt Social Media for Your Business.
Retrieved October 3, 2009 from http://designdamage.com/blog/index.php/200909/when-
to-adopt-social-media-for-your-business/
Retrieved image: Roger’s Bell curve graphic

United Nations Cyberschoolbus. Information and Communications Technology.

http://www0.un.org/cyberschoolbus/briefing/technology/tech.pdf.  Retrieved on 2009-08-08.

Ladies and gentlemen, the urge to merge is returning.

I worked for a global private equity firm for eight years and led marketing and communications on 45 transactions during that time. I fully understand the adage, “It’s easier to buy, rather than build.” Mergers and acquisitions can be game changers. Companies with healthy balance sheets acquire businesses that add operational bandwidth, expertise, blue-chip customers, and valuable competitive advantage. It can be a beautiful thing.

As companies plan for a transaction, the focus centers on financials, legal requirements, operational issues, and integration. But there’s one other business element that should not be overlooked:  communications—in announcing the transaction, in managing the transition, and in building the business longer-term.

A merger or acquisition brings significant change. It can be an uncertain time, and when that uncertainty is not addressed proactively:

• Productivity declines. Employees become anxious and distracted and spend hours at work speculating about their futures.
• Employees depart. It begins with “the stars,” the organization’s best employees. They start looking for new opportunities. They can no longer see a clear direction and career path with the company.
• Customers defect. They are no longer confident in the company’s ability to meet their needs, and competitors are knocking on their doors, anxious to capitalize on the organization’s perceived vulnerability.

Communication is the great stabilizer in a merger or acquisition.

It prevents erosion within the business. It eliminates uncertainty, improves productivity, provides clarity and understanding, and mobilizes support.

The goal is to proactively engage key stakeholders – the audiences that affect the success of your business internally and externally. Communicate with them early and often, providing information that addresses their concerns and is consistent and strategically aligned. Communications should articulate the reasons behind the deal, showcase the business value, reveal timing for key actions, and be candid about what is known and what is unknown.

M&A communications begins with a strategic communications plan and requires flawless execution. This is not the time to “wing it.” Develop a thought-though strategy that details stakeholders and messaging, carefully choreographs tactical execution of the announcement, and sets a roadmap for sustained communications about the transaction, from announcement through post-close transition.

This is an incredible opportunity for you. Bring your “A” game. There is no margin for error.

M&A communications is all about first impressions. This is when credibility and brand loyalty are built. The messages you convey, and how you communicate during the transaction process, will be remembered for a long time – by employees, customers, partners, suppliers, the news media, industry analysts, financial analysts, and pretty much everyone who has a hand in the success of your business.

When you nail it, you articulate the value of the transaction, anticipate and address stakeholders concerns, and deploy and sustain communications with precision.  You put the transaction on stable ground and give it momentum for success.  You build powerful trust with your stakeholders and mobilize valuable support for your business and its direction.

The keys to success in M&A communications are founded in the fundamentals. Good communications practice applies regardless of deal dynamics. Here are some things that have worked for me:

• Form a communications team. Surround yourself with professionals who have a deep understanding of your stakeholders. If there are multiple entities in the deal, get the right people involved from each organization.  Consider this your “discovery” phase. Listen to your team and leverage their experience to define stakeholder audiences, identify issues and top-of-mind concerns, develop relevant messages, and outline the tactical elements that will engage each audience.
• Develop a plan. I can’t say this enough: begin with strategic communications planning. Focus on creating a plan that will put your stakeholders at ease and give them peace of mind so they continue doing what stakeholders do – buying, selling, producing, investing and positively influencing the success of your organization. Your communications plan should be created during due diligence, the period before the contract is signed and the deal finalized. I typically map out the plan in two phases, announcement of the transaction and post close – the 100-day transition period that follows the initial announcement. It should include all transaction-related communication activities. Think “integrated communications.”
• Choreograph the announcement. Day One should be planned out hour-by-hour, and I usually detail the first week of communications, as well. The transaction should be announced to each stakeholder audience at an established time. It must be tightly choreographed and executed with precision. Day One events are symbolic. They set a tone, and they are remembered. Ideally, I start with the management team, then employees, followed by key customers, targeted media and industry analysts. Of course, if you’re working in a publicly traded environment, you need to structure the announcement to meet disclosure requirements.
• Involve executives and the management team. And put them out there with face-to-face communications. Your leadership team should be a part of the communications plan. When announcement day arrives, and throughout the transition process, use your organizational leaders to “tell the story” internally and externally. They should be in front of employees on announcement day – and beyond. Additionally, your leaders should be deployed into the field immediately after the announcement to meet with key customers. And it should not stop there. Involve managers and supervisors, as well. They are on the front line, and employees will always rely on their immediate leaders for the “real story.” Be sure to arm managers with the information they need to confidently explain what is happening and why.
• Keep it real. Be as honest as you can, don’t make things up, and don’t over promise. Remember, credibility is on the line. It’s much better to say you don’t know, rather than provide an answer that is later perceived as misleading.
• Focus on customers. Establishing a dialogue with customers during the transaction is key. In fact, a merger or acquisition is actually an opportunity to deepen your relationship with the customer. Know this: your top customers will be hounded by your competitors right after the transaction is announced, so it’s important to move fast and aggressively. Immediately engage your customers and tell a compelling value story related to the transaction, and articulate the new competitive advantage of the deal. You should reassure customers of a seamless transition with no disruption in service and address any concerns they have.
• Sustain communications. Make sure it doesn’t stop after the announcement. Communications related to the integration of cultures, and the changes of leadership, systems, structures and processes must be delivered progressively as decisions unfold.  Remain agile. Listen to your stakeholder audiences and respond to issues with clear, thought-through communications.

Do not go it alone. I’ve outlined some initial things to think about, but there’s so much more to consider. Experience is a big advantage in this communications discipline. If you’ve never done this before, get some help.

These words of wisdom were imparted to me by a supervisor early in my marketing career. It was in response to one of those client disagreements in which young, inexperienced account executives sometimes find themselves involved. You know, the ones that go something like this:

“I think green is better.”

“Well, I think blue is better.”

Not exactly a productive discussion. Not great for client relations either.

Luckily, young account executives grow up (at least most of them do). And somewhere along the way, they figure out that facts carry a lot more credibility than opinions.

Turn the subjective to objective.

Research is a way to change “I think” to “I know.” It eliminates subjective, opinion-laden arguments. And when used properly, it serves to unite teams, rather than divide them.    

Recently, as part of a brand development process for a higher education client, I had the opportunity to deliver the findings of our research. We pulled together a group of “Brand Champions” that represented the various functional areas in the organization and walked them through the results of our intense analysis of the target, competition, marketplace and industry.

As I prepared for the meeting, I wondered how the information would be received. Would members of the audience tune out because they didn’t agree with what I was saying? Would they feel threatened by the facts?

As I read their faces, I realized that my concerns were unfounded. This group was very engaged and seemed to be soaking up the information. Why? Because the research answered questions that had been longstanding sources of debate within the institution. Now, rather than investing time speculating, the team was able to point to unbiased, objective facts, and move forward together. It was as though a weight had been lifted, and it didn’t matter who was “right” or “wrong.” All that mattered was that now they had facts, not opinions.

Research isn’t a project; it’s a foundation.  

Research can answer many questions. It can provide clarity where there was once confusion. However, answering the questions is just the beginning.

Once the research is complete, it becomes a tool that can and should be referenced time and time again.  We encourage our clients to post the research summaries by their desks, bring them to meetings and really become comfortable and familiar with the content. Then, when decisions are being made, the research is there, in black and white, to provide guidance. Does the report support the direction? Does the research indicate that the target will respond to the message?

There is nothing more rewarding than being in a meeting with a client and hearing them say, “Well, the research tells us…” when there is a topic being debated. When research is called on to turn the subjective into objective, to change a debate about opinions into a discussion of facts, that’s when “I think” becomes “I know.”