tJP

There is a range of activities and marketing programmes you can run to communicate your product messages in the market. The are like all good marketing models two dimensional. Below is one that I have used for many years and it needs a revamp, its needs social media like blogs, twitter etc. SO where to they go?

Click on the image and then comment.

The diagram shows 10 possible tools/techniques. One scale measures impact - so a sales call should have more impact than general PR, and the other scale is reach or the number of people you can reach, so PR can reach many more people than a sales guy attending meetings.

Original tweet: Marketing is how your business interacts with customers everyone is in marketing – the marketing department just happens to handle some of the stuff

A company’s brand and its reputation are a couple of the most valuable INTANGIBLE assets it has. These are often a high percentage of a total enterprise’s value - 37% of Google, 16% of Vodafone, 39% of Qantas and 20% of Woolworth’s according to Brand Finance.

A good brand and reputation can make many things easier, the obvious being finding and keeping customers but also finding partners and suppliers which helps to improve cash-flow and reduce transaction costs. In essence any part of a business that ‘touches’ someone outside the company is an ambassador for the brand and the company - everyone is therefore in marketing!

But how often do you have a ‘bad’ experience with a supplier, provider of something? One where the adverts press all the right buttons, the company of product comes into your consideration set, you buy the product. Then something goes wrong, the product breaks, the billing goes awry and the experience from there on sours the relationship?

Why would this happen? I think its because only one group may carry the KPI called “customer satisfaction” or that its not clear to all that everyone is in marketing.

This is not a land grab for the marketing department - but more a call to action for everyone in the business to realise that they have an impact on the brand and repution of the business.

Summary - So what can you do in your business - basically remind everyone that that they represent the company, to be considerate and sometimes wonder whether your policies are making it easy for people to do business with you.

Marketing is NOT advertising

Marketing is not sales

Marketing is a process

The Marketing process is a cyclical one that continues to monitor a market and adjust over time as the the market devlops and matures. A  favourite diagramme for this is Malcolm McDonald’s.

 Selling is not marketing, selling usually has much shorter time horizons of interest, days, weeks, months, quarters( as a rule)or a whole year if its a capital expenditure. Marketing on the other hand thinks about time horizons - now to drive people to consider the brand as store traffic, website traffic or leads to sales. Mid-term for initiatives, products and programmes to improve the value delivered, long-term to understand where the market will by in 2 years or more and what the company needs to do to meet the changes.

Advertising is part of the communications mix that relays the messages to the customer or potential customer about what the company does. Its just one of the techniques but quite often the most visible.

In many respects both Selling and Advertising are the same, they are communications between the company and the buyer, but the impact and audience reach are very different. At the end of the day all the other elements of the marketing process need to be well done for either of these to be successful.

This is the expansion of some previous activity on Twitter. Plan is to expand the Tweets.

Original Tweet: Marketing Should understand customers value select segments increase customers perception of value champion customer reqs passion 4 service

Let’s start with a definition of Value:

Value = Quality + Price

Where Quality is broken down:

Quality = Product + Customer Service

So

Value = Product + Customer Service+ Price

But Value in this case is not an absolute its a relative scale where some parts of the market want high product functionality, high touch customer service and high price to deliver a high value. Others place high value on low price, low functionality and limited service. eg compare high service first class air travel with budget airlines.

Understand Customer Value

Marketing should be the area of the business that understand the relative importance of the Value equation to different groups of customers. They should also understand the things that make up product, customer service, price etc.

On the other side of the coin Marketing should also understand the Value of the client to the business, in this case the revenues, loyalty and profitability they deliver.

Select Segments

Within a market there will be a range of segments and marketing are responsible for identifying which segments to target and participate in, both from a strategic perspective and from a tactical or campaign delivery perspective. eg both to target ‘high net worth individuals’ and also the message to be delivered in a direct mail.

The key is obviously to try and participate in segments where you have an advantage on the value equation.

Increase Customers Perception of Value

The key here is to both adjust the elements of the value equation to meet the needs of the market and also to define, describe and promote the Value Proposition and to delivers that as promotional elements.

As customers come on board you show that the value provided is what they were expecting( or higher) and to communicate relevant messages.

Champion Customer Requirements

As you understand customers and the market then its important that you take the things you learn and apply them to the business to either better meet the needs of current customers or to identify solutions and offers to new segments.

Have a Passion for Service

Often this area is delegated to a “Customer Service” function and its often seen as a cost but in reality its a key part of the Value equation and marketers need to be passionate about how they deliver service to the market.

In the last week came across a couple of great posts about Banks and their marketing. First came from Robin Dickinson and took the “So-what” test to a branding piece from Westpac - it is not pretty.

In a similar vein Keith Lucas a brand consultant from the UK wrote an excellent piece in the June 09 edition of”Market Leader” on the need for banks to differentiate themselves in a paper called “Resurrecting the reputation of the Banks“.

Here in Australia the nab, ANZ, Commonwealth and Westpac are pretty much the same. So if you pulled the logos and names off the adverts for the major banks you could not pick the brand. Similarly if you ran the ‘So-what’ test they would all fail and fail to be different.

The more innovative banks with High Street presence like Bank West and St George have been gobbled up and time will tell whether their differentiation will last. So the bastions of on-going difference will be the likes of ING Direct and Bendigo. The former with its online ‘only’ model which is a breath of fresh air and the community style of Bendigo.

So why is this so? In the front row of answers must be the role of marketing in the banks. They are run by bankers and not marketers - their performance is measured against the ASX and their peer group and not by typical whole of business marketing and customer satisfaction measures.The banks like many businesses are driven by the Risk/Return equation - higher risk, higher return. However the current global crisis was is part created by the banks taking on higher risk customers in the sub-prime segment.

There is another way, which would be to take the risk and be different to the competition- not just say it or as Keith Lucas says - “banking brands have been fooling themselves for years that they have become customer focused”and “the same old financial minders have been calling the shots and failing to deliver against marketing promises”

Some answers, read Simon Silvester’s paper Day of the Clones whic notes that the evils of benchmarking, best practice, best in class activities are really just copying each other. Does it matter that low differentitition is the norm in an industry - probably not is if its profiable and the perceived that barriers to entry are high. But imagine if what Google is doing to media companies happened in banking? So read how to differentiate a bank.

And finally readers imagine (and comment if you like):

If Apple ran a bank…..

If Google ran a bank….

If Microsoft ran a bank…..

If Woolworth’s ran a bank…

If JB-Hifi ran a bank…

If Harvey Norman ran a bank….

If Vodafone ran a bank….

What would they be like?

The premise of this blog is simple - a customer and a consumer are different and its important to know which one you are aiming you messages at.

In this model the customer  is the person who buys your product. The consumer is the person who uses it or consumes it. Often they are exactly the same person, but often they are not.

Why is it important to differentiate? Maybe a simple example will help. Imagine that a child wants a “Barbie” doll for a birthday and a parent is responsible for buying it. Its likely that there is a specific doll that the child has in mind and wants, so the child makes the decision and not the parent. So the consumer decides and not the customer.

If the decision is about a breakfast cereal then the child may again have strong views but a parent may look at the box contents and decide that there is too much sugar/salt etc. In this case the customer makes the decision and not the consumer.

Sometimes there are balances and so you may need to have value propositions for both the customer and the consumer  with targeting being different. One message wont fit the bill. B2B has a predominately customer led weighting, and the role of the consumer is purely to use( although they can make life difficult if usability is an issue for your product). B2B is a mix of both and as in this example, it depends on the goods and the occasion.

The customer/consumer decision point is the last in a chain that moves your product from warehouse to the consumer. Working out the junction points and their influence on the sales volume and the dollars spent is important to understand where to put your sales and marketing efforts.

Came across a great article by David Kent of international brand consultants The Right Group. Basically the message is that if you continue to invest in the brand then the long term rewards are high. Full article link below.

“Here are some simple tips to achieve positive outcomes.

1. Listen to the market, focus on customer needs

• Be sure you understand your customers — their needs, wants and expectations.
• In changing markets, the basic needs of customers do not dissipate. Customer priorities can shift, however, so you need to develop innovative ways to satisfy these needs.
• Unmet customer needs present opportunities for new product development. Rather than pull back on innovation in new products, examine different ways to create and launch new ideas.

2. Manage your brand across all touchpoints

• In challenging times, customers place even more importance on brands they can trust.
• Ensure your brand is clearly defined and is delivered at all times.
• Avoid bait and switch branding; making a promise to customers that cannot be fulfilled.
• Engage all of your people with your brand promise. Staff interactions with your customers need to reflect your brand.
• Align your business practices to reflect your brand. All operating procedures, systems and policies need to reinforce your brand.

3. Communicate clearly

• Ensure your communication (internal and external) is clear. Clear customer communication minimises the potential for clutter, which leads to confusion.
• Also ensure that you reinforce your relationships with customers.
• Review your existing marketing communications programs. Think outside the square to identify alternative mediums and campaigns.

4. Look for ways to deliver superior value to your customers 

• Customers are more focused on value; they want to receive more for less.
• Ensure your customer value proposition meets the needs of a value conscious customer. Make sure it can withstand challenges from the competition.
• Invest in customer retention, as acquisition is more difficult.

Marketing is usually seen as an easy cost-cutting option, but think carefully about the long-term impact this will have on your brand and profitability.”

Full Article