>baba rant - ranting & raving about stuff

From the book Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi, a quote I found interesting.

“The choice isn’t between success and failure; it’s between choosing risk and striving for greatness, or risking nothing and being certain of mediocrity.”

 This totally rings true to me.  Not a thing is gained if you don't take a risk.  That's how you learn, grow and succeed.  Who wants to be the average.  Strive and push yourself. 

The first mate is in denial. The crew is telling itself it’s only a small scratch along the keel. The communications officer is certain there’s another ship within a day’s reach. In the meantime, the rats are huddled together with the life jackets. The sharks are circling, wearing lobster bibs. And then, while trying to stand at a 45-degree angle as the water-line pushes up to your knees, you see the sun setting on the horizon…and a shadowy figure in the distance… the captain… in a lifeboat…. rowing like an Olympian and not looking back. Is it now you ask yourself: is this maybe the right time to jump ship?

You can continue to bail water with coffee cans even while the ocean is dumping 55-gallon drumloads onto the deck by the second. You can continue to try and convince your friends on the crew that this 45-degree list is all part of a deft banking manuever that will allow you to eventually dive under the iceberg. You can continue to watch the deck officers disappear…one by one…and pretend you don’t notice the growing flotilla of lifeboats following the captain farther out to sea.

You will soon come to the realization that there are no lily pads in the ocean. That the last of the lifeboats have pushed off with an accountant and three lawyers at the helm. That you might sink before the sun does. That your only hope may be a massive split that creates a large enough piece of driftwood to cling to. That the foam on the water isn’t ice crystals. That the sharks will find someone else more to their liking. That you wish you had done better at the YMCA drownproofing class your mom made you take when you were six. 

Is it time to jump?  I’ll take suggestions, a helicopter lift…. let me know.  Soon.

Just when brands and products need marketing the most — in a downturn — many budgets are cut. This is an age-old problem, about which Barry Silverstein elaborates in the March 24 issue of brandchannel.com. He writes, in part: “A recession can weed out weaker brands of lower quality and therefore make category leaders even stronger. At the same time, value-based brands can increase brand strength because they present the consumer with a familiar name at a reasonable price. Also, during a sluggish economy trusted store brands can appeal to budgeting consumers who previously purchased a more expensive brand name product… A brand marketing paradox is that expenditures are often slashed in recessionary times, so brands risk becoming less visible. This is not the best strategy. Harvard Business School professor John Quelch… says: ‘Instead of cutting the market research budget, you need to know more than ever how consumers are redefining value and responding to the recession.’ Quelch also points out: ‘It is well documented that brands that increase advertising during a recession, when competitors are cutting back, can improve market share and return on investment at lower cost than during good economic times.’ Of course, a company’s management must have a strong enough stomach to follow a contrarian’s strategy and invest funds in brand marketing when other expenses must be controlled.”

http://www.brandchannel.com

The challenge for most b-to-b companies is to elevate and transform the brand into a true competitive advantage. In developing a strategy for b-to-b brand building, there are five key steps to keep in mind:

• Structure your brand for a clear, unified expression. Many companies allow far too many departments, such as human resources, investor relations, public relations and marketing, to express their brands. The result is inconsistent, conflicting expressions of a brand that muddle the competitive landscape. To avoid the noise and confusion and to create a disciplined, broad approach to brand building, coordinate its expression through an on-staff brand champion. This person’s task is to make sure all the company’s uses and expressions of a brand agree, generating an unstoppable cumulative impact and a clear difference in customers’ minds.
• Strip away confusing elements in your brand. Over time, a brand’s external impression can sprout new benefits and features tacked on by individual sales representatives. You need to take a hard look at the impression your brand makes, decide on one or two things to stand for, and throw the others out.
• Find a meaningful difference, not demands that a clear, simple differentiation be articulated. Brands that stand for something have a huge advantage in attention and conversion.
• Mine your current customer base. Let your most committed customers show you what that essential differentiation is. Effective b-to-b branding demands that you capture what’s setting you apart for them. Get close to them, pick their brains and research the causes of a high level of satisfaction. You will identify assets you never knew you had that are working hard for you every day; all you have to do is find inspiring ways to communicate them.
• Embrace the future of your brand. Each massive change in the b-to-b sales environment creates unprecedented opportunities. 

Branding is a way of articulating the core values of a corporation and marketers need to focus on the way a brand gets brought to life tangibly, where it really lives.

Take a look around. What do you see?  What are your values and are you marketing them and bringing them to life? 

Don’t just push the envelope; throw it off the table.  Start with your story (Is it compelling?), modify your packaging (Is it different?), reconsider your brand name (Is it memorable?), adjust your attitude (Seemingly rare?) and experience (Like none other?).  These are just a few places to look. Creativity will land your brand. Conformity will kill it.Always protect the integrity of who your brand is, but then build relationships by creatively expressing your essence (purpose, position, personality, promise) and then create lasting loyalty with your confident distinction. 

Five steps to get it right:

• If it scares you, get excited. 
• If peers say, “Are you out of your mind?” say, “Yes!” 
• If your industry starts gossiping, send them a thank-you note. 
• If no one’s done it before, move faster. 
• If you think your brand distinction is your quality product or extra caring staff, read this article again.

A friend of mine just got a new marketing job.  New company.  New industry.  So now what?  Where the heck do you start?  I gave the following advice:

• Identify the organization structure and architecture 
• What are the different segments the company plays in?
• What are the primary and secondary audiences for each segment?
• Messaging - what is it and what has it been for each segment?
• Brand - any data?  Who/what are you?  How are you perceived?  Any idea of current marketshare?
• Image library - got one?  If not, start assembling one and organizing by product (high and low res).  Get these digital assets in order.
• Literature/sales tool audit - gather a sample of each and every piece.  Talk to sales.  Do they work?  Why or why not?
• Visual analysis - What’s the look and feel?  Consistent?  Not? 
• Agency/Resource review - Have them prepare a history of the work they’ve done with the company.  Have them provide samples of creative/strategy and how they’ve evolved over time.  Then have them give you a presentation of how they currently see the messaging and strategy moving forward.  From there you can analyze (after more education from leadership and sales/distribution) if this is truly the right direction or if it needs some adjustment. 

Here’s something that I have tacked on my wall in my home office.  I apologize for not giving credit to the author, but honestly, I can’t remember and have no record of it.

Harnessing (or choking off) Creativity

Companies may identify fresh thinking as a core value, but this doesn’t square with a corporate strategy in which minimising risk is seen as a virtue. How can an organization adapt its culture to embrace innovation?

TWELVE THINGS PEOPLE SAY TO KILL GOOD IDEAS

It’s too risky/unpredictable. (In the Gold Rush of 1849, people made money through the creative production of commodity shovels, not from 

stab-in-the-dust exploration.)

Best to be a fast follower, not a first mover. 

It will cannibalise sales of our existing products and services, in which we’ve made a large investment. You can’t just write that off.

We haven’t got a budget for that/we’ll have to cut money from other departments in order to find the funds.

Engineering/Human Resources/Legal/Ethics/shareholder activists say it can’t or shouldn’t be done.

We’re too big and cumbersome to make the most of this and other ideas. We need to form partnerships with SMEs, government labs and universities, or set up an autonomous unit.

We/somebody else did that before and it failed.

Our suppliers will never rise to the challenge.

The punters are so dumb they will never buy it/will snap up every one we’ve got.

Punters and sales staff will be too slow to grasp how it works. Anyway, they don’t need to know that and, apart from a few geeks, aren’t usually interested.

We need to protect our intellectual property and our brand at all costs: diverting resources into this innovation doesn’t help in that.

It’s impossible to forecast the market for this innovation.

Have you avoided killing ideas today?