Professional Communication: project an image, don't be creepy

How to create an image? How to communicate professionalism? Are there standards which can help us enhance the communication strategy?

Study Case

The answers to those questions are correlated and almost impossible to find separately. However, there are quite a lot of companies out there trying to cut down the communication costs while making efforts to score high on image rankings. I have in mind a recent experience from a big international corporation operating in the office space renting business. The experience included both online company research and visiting the local office. The research phase showed non-existing CSR policy, non-existing employee benefits, accusations of careless behavior in connection to the terrorist attack against the World Trade Center a few years back, and company-produced marketing videos. The visit at the local office revealed a high rate of employee turnover, very unusual hiring policy (hiring only for lowest hierarchy positions with no requirements for education and experience, on minimal wage), and deceiving job descriptions.

When walking through the door you are greeted way too eagerly by the staff which makes you almost uncomfortable. What they pride themselves for is great flexibility in services and high level of professional customer service. The only customer feedback is available through the corporate marketing videos though.

Communicational no go

What was observed at that company is an absolute communicational no go. The non existing CSR policy and the lack of personnel benefits in a country as Denmark where CSR is becoming more than a standard and employees are treated with special care as assets is a sign of unprofessional management. The smile of the receptionist is not enough to make up for corporate mismanagement or irresponsible behavior. It also needs to be in line with services, surroundings, corporate culture and needs to be rooted in a thorough policy. Otherwise it comes across as insincere and creepy. Smiling while doing your job needs to be just as professionally distanced as your work style. Are you flirting with the customer or servicing them? Make it clear.

Image: communication standards and guidelines

Image management, even though there is such a discipline, sounds very wrong as image management is nothing but the tip of the iceberg. Hiring a professional to work on your image does not make a lot of sense if you have not clarified what the company stays for and how it wants to be regarded by your stakeholders. Stakeholders are all individuals and groups that are or can be affected by the operating of your business and/or have an interest in your business.

You need therefore to start from identifying your business’ core characteristics and analyzing the strategic stars for your brand. After clarifying what is desired and what is possible you need to get very practical and analyze in what ways your vision and mission can be embedded in your culture and business operations.

While you make considerations about communication practices, image building and communicating your values outside of and inside the company you need to get acquainted with the professional communication standards which will be your guarantee that your communication strategy is not going to backfire by earning you critics or even lawsuits in connection to unethical behavior.

 

After you manage to create a thorough and working communication strategy completely aligned with your business operations you might want to go one step further and consider CSR. There are countless studies showing that a CSR policy is considered a plus and sometimes a definitive criterion for choosing your company as a partner, provider or employer. For the policy to work though, you once again need to be consequent. Just as you need to make sure that you have implemented a communication policy that fits your business profile you also need to do the same when engaging in CSR. If you are not careful about this you might end up being accused of using CSR as a promotional tool instead of as a sincere expression of your concern for your stakeholders and the environment. You might for example decide to fund poor children in Africa but you have to explain why it is the poor children in Africa getting your support and not the local caner organization, for example.

After completing your communication strategy you need to make sure that it covers as a minimum mission, vision, development strategy, internal communication and employee management, HR policy and benefits, corporate culture, online and traditional marketing activities, branding, crisis communication, media relations, external stakeholder management, customer relations specifically, community care and involvement, and CSR.

When you are ready you will find yourself under a stack of thick guidebooks addressing the separate topics. You will have to always make sure that they are aligned with strategy and updated regularly. Among those guidebooks you will find the one describing how you need to treat customers in order to communicate the desired corporate image.

Do you now understand why smiling a lot is not professional but creepy?

 

DIDI

Online Marketing and Website optimization. Corporate Communication in practice.

Online Marketing and website optimization seem to be the future of communication. Therefore finding the answers of the following marketing questions is essential: When setting up a website how do we do it? How do we communicate with consumers? How do we make sure that our website reflects who we are? How can we be found by consumers? What about SEO?

Setting up a website as a communication tool

We are used to think that setting up a website is a programmer’s job. They know how to do it and we trust them. However, a website is not simply a bundle of code made to look good. A website is a business’ face towards millions of consumers online. As such it needs to comply with business strategy reflecting image, vision and mission. Even more importantly, it needs to represent the business in a way communicating branch, niche, products, services and all subthemes relevant to consumer searches on the web.

There is no doubt that a website needs to be set up by a programmer. To ensure high quality though a close collaboration between the programming team and the company’s marketing or communication department is necessary. Naming, tagging, titles, highlights, products, etc. need to be done in a way facilitating both the company’s best interest and consumer searches. This is done by reviewing business strategy and pointing out what you want consumers to find about you the easiest. After setting your communication goals for your website you have different options in terms of how you are going to implement your communication strategy. You can do it either through careful coding and content management or through helping search engines understand your content (if your website has already been set up and recoding/content optimization it is not an option). Ideally, you could use both strategies.

What does our website communicate?

Monitoring your website performance in terms of visitors, time spent, visitor behavior, returning visitors, keywords can help you understand the way your website functions and is used by consumers. That is done by your Webmaster using tools as Google Analytics and Google Webmaster tools. Analyzing those parameters can give you an overview of how good a work you have done setting up a website. If for example you only have new visitors you might want to rethink website structure or content. It might be a sign that your consumers do not like either your website or your business. Which is the case, you might more or less determine by evaluating time users spent on your website. A quick look to your website’s top keywords will give you a good opportunity to find out whether you have made coding/content mistakes.

It is also very important to control how your website appears in searches and on which position it appears. As search engines (mostly) try to provide the most relevant and highly rated results to their users a low position in a search result might signal problems with either popularity or keywords settings and website structure. Keep in mind that the quality of the website in terms of speed is also taken into account when showing search results. Last but not least, be aware that a lot of the content which is not in plain text form might lower your website’s relevance evaluation as it is often skipped by search engines. Therefore you need to provide your key information in a text form.

Consumer searches and SEO

We are made to believe that SEO is the key to success online. However, Google warns that the SEO business has become a bit shadowy and thus not always a good idea. If you though decide that you want someone specializing in the field to optimize your website, you might need to take a look at Google’s warnings and guidelines. The truth is that in most cases you do not need a SEO specialist. What you need is to keep track of your website’s data and optimize content and structure in such a way that you make it easy for both search engines and consumers find what they need.

Still one of the best ways to make consumers aware of you is advertising and marketing yourself both online and offline. In addition to advertising you have the option of establishing links towards your website from different relevant web places. Some of those links you would need to pay for but others like the links on your Facebook or Google + pages will be free.

 

Basically, one of the most prominent rules in Business is to create something of value. Only after you are sure that your product is sellable it makes sense to start marketing it. Therefore think of your business and the process of communicating it as a process of discovery. You have discovered something which you want to share with others. Who are the others and how you get their interest should be what should guide you, not SEO concerns.

A small tip: when starting a business you often lack resources. But you already have a large public thanks to Social media. Use it. Use your friends as your marketers. Asking them to like your Facebook page or share it (once, do not abuse your friends) will instantly give you access to a larger target group than you have imagined.

Influencers and how to become one yourself

Influencers: The Stakeholders who own you and the Stakeholders you can lead

 

When living our lives no matter whether as individuals or as a part of organizations and the business we often make choices or have opinions which do not represent who we truly are. Sometimes we “catch” ourselves making those unnatural steps but most of the time we become unknowingly who our choices make us. The reason is that we are not born free. We are limited in so many ways by laws, culture, education, religion, etc. that we have grown up used to the idea that we must obey the rules.

Rules are indeed very important, if not the very core of society in all its forms. However, growing so obedient we have become slaves to many more rules than it is necessary in reality. Examples can be fashion, music, group rituals, diets, exercise, lifestyle in general, etc.

You will probably ask why we buy certain clothes or go to a certain club? You will not be the only one. Every business no matter how big or small wants to know that.

We do so because we are “told” so. Among us who obey there are also the so called influencers. Those are individuals who are a part of the groups to which we belong and who do not always stay ahead and behave as leaders. Those are simple people who speak the language of the crowd and understand its mechanisms. Of course, influencers are also often also public figures who beforehand have groups of followers.

Influencers are important for business from two points of view – as possible promoters/anti-brand activists and as trend creators. In the first case we talk about marketing efforts or restoring brand communication. Needless to say, this may mean the success or the failure of a brand. In the second case we talk about researching and detecting future trends predicted by behavior of influencers. Using this method can help channel the business efforts in the right direction.

This is also the reason why companies try to attract influencers as their employees or as their loyal consumers. But they fail to understand that being an influencer by “buying” an influencer’s voice is not the best practice. The reason is both that public figures are overused as corporate faces and “private” influencers are often individuals who succeed as such thanks to their strong, honest voice rooted in SOME principles. That is to say that there are no universal influencers. Somebody who is known as knowledgeable in nutrition will without a doubt be as useless to McDonald’s as they would be to Siemens if they start promoting hamburgers after swearing off all fast food throughout all their lives.

There are of course many “sneaky” ways to include an influencer’s voice in the corporate marketing but one should always beware that if an influencer is used in an attempt to manipulate the public and this information is leaked out of the organization great damage might be expected brand-wise.

The truth is that the times of manipulation are over. The only winning strategy for a company is to answer the demand, be honest and responsible. Getting the attention of influencers depends on a company’s ability to predict trends and act on them, cooperate with the public and always be a step ahead of competition.

This is the only way a company can become an influencer itself. However, besides being a market leader one way or another, the company should understand what makes one an influencer – a strong honest voice, rooted in clear principles. Companies need to understand that if they have a stand there will be somebody who will want to listen. And follow.

Goal setting - the beating heart of marketing

Marketing Mix: What is your marketing goal?

 

Even though it might seem to some managers that business has many more important challenges to deal with than details as marketing, reality always comes back with a sudden strike proving them wrong. I was currently in a situation where I had the opportunity to be reassured in the importance of marketing. However, it was even more impressive as management realized that something should be done, they only failed to figure out what.

The major problem was caused by the fact that management failed to understand how marketing worked. They were ordered to act so that the company could fight its way to more customers and they did so. They planned a range of activities covering all the fields of expertise. They planned 3 years ahead. This should have secured them some success, they meant.

The results, however, were far from expected. After investing a lot of time and engaging many employees whose time costs a lot and spending 8 months believing that they are headed to success, results turned to be more than disappointing. All the efforts and investments did not lead to winning even one major customer over.

And here comes the question: WHY?

The answer is as simple as that: what they were doing was doomed from the moment it started. The reason was that their action plan was merely a list of possible actions. There was no research to understand the market. No real evaluation of resources. No bench marketing. And finally – no goal setting.

Even though all of the mentioned marketing stages are critically important, I will now focus on goal setting. That is simply because I was stunned by the difficulties management faced trying to understand the concept of a goal. They would just keep calling a simple action a goal, failing to grasp that it is only the desired outcome of an action that can be called a goal.

A goal is a realistic and desirable reflection of the future. Where we want to and can be in a year from now, for example. A company would usually have some big goals which are included in the business strategy. Those might be both extrinsic and intrinsic, that is measurable and difficultly measurable. Those goals are in turn translated into multiple micro goals which are included in the operational strategy. They are the milestones which the planned actions aim at.

Now it is maybe a bit clearer why a strategy excluding any goal setting is doomed. If we don’t know where we are headed, how are we ever going to get there? Mission impossible.

That is why a goal setting is one of the most important elements of a successful strategy. There are some who suggest that choosing the right goals is already a win. This is because setting the goals wisely and precisely can show you the way to achieving them.

Many lecturers in marketing, communication and project management teach the principle of the turned pyramid where your major goal is divided into sub-goals which are translated into actions by asking the same question again and again: How am I going to achieve this? Asking this question enough times, you are going to end up with a list of simple options and possibilities to start from.

Setting your goals should therefore be realistic. Otherwise you are going to end up putting a lot of energy and using a lot of resources on something that is only going to bring you disappointment. Realistic however does not mean that you cannot be progressive and innovative. What it means is that you need to keep your goals real by checking business development as it comes along. You need to control your progress so that goals can be adjusted to reality.

If you follow those pretty simple steps, you are not guaranteed a great success as there are many factors one cannot take into account. You are though guaranteed that no major failure is headed your way. In an uncertain business environment this is already a win. Marketing is generally not an exact science. It gives though the basic guidelines for survival and in some cases for prosperity. Following its principles is hardly a choice any more. You either do it or you end up in the same situation as the one described in the beginning here.

DIDI

Misusing CSR

CSR as we know it and CSR of the future

 

The concept of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) is not new. Some link its birth to the middle of the 20^th century and the attempt of tobacco corporations to remedy their public images and to shift the focus of attention from the harm they cause to the good they claim they do. However, the concept has been developing all through the past years and has come to mean incorporating philanthropy and responsibility towards stakeholders and community at large. A definition of it could sound as “doing business by doing more good and trying to avoid harm”.

The way CSR is been practiced also differs greatly from country to country (explicit and directly marketed in many countries and implicit and promoted by earning recognition of third parties in other countries). For this reason any generalization about the concept cannot be feasible.

However, it cannot be denied that many companies use the CSR flag as a marketing tool. Dorfman, Cheyne, Friedman, Wadud and Gottlieb give a great example of that in their article “Soda and Tobacco Industry Corporate Social Responsibility Campaigns: How Do They Compare?” (www.plosmedicine.org). They be a few CSR campaigns run by soda corporations. Pepsi’s RefreshProject turns out to be the perfect example of misusing CSR.

The problem about doing that is not only ethical. What happens is that corporations use the consumers’ desire to do business with responsible companies to turn them into loyal users of their products. The biggest question here is about the consequences of such an act when we talk about companies which produce health endangering products as sweets, fast food, soda, alcohol, tobacco and medicines.

This issue is highlighted further by the ever greater use of social media in consumer relationship building. Using social media allows for constructing consumer realities and boosting consumer brand involvement by participation in causes, games, initiatives. When CSR activities as a part of marketing become viral through social networks the motive behind, thus the real goal of the campaign gets blurred into the mass excitement. In campaigns as the Pepsi Refresh Project results are expected to be more sells and not so much philanthropic projects, confirmed by a Pepsi official, cited by the authors.

Even though business of business is business and this will never change, with the appearance of greater tools for managing (not to say manipulating) consumer behavior it is necessary that companies take the responsibility accompanying such great power.

Many researchers argue that regulation agencies are too slow in following progress in technology. Thus the consumer is left at the mercy of companies employing ingenious marketing campaigns designed to shape behavior. Therefore something more is necessary. That could be the next CSR direction which would allow companies to master responsibility in close consumer contact.

That could be done for example by engaging in social marketing and reshaping businesses to reflect the needs of society. That is of course idealistic, the realistic approach would be to either focus marketing efforts on adults only, to increase the amount of health information freely available to users or to avoid creating unhealthy habits by using social media involvement of consumers.

Even though there is no active reaction by the public concerning social media and CSR efforts of companies at the moment it is certain that with mounting research on the topic public awareness will soon be raised and the issue will be faced. That is why it is a good investment to rethink your CSR strategies and social media appearance so that they reflect the values your company stays for. This is the surest way to avoid a crisis and go ahead of competition when many are going to face the anger of the public.

 

DIDI

Stakeholder management: Relationship expiration date

Relationships and Stakeholders

 

As all things relationships also come with an expiration date. Even though it might not be a 3-day expiration date stamped on a package it does not mean that it will not come. Relationships are basically also just a product – a product of invested time and effort. And here comes the question – when do they expire?

Drama and tears might be reserved for personal relationships but the end of a business relationship should be just as dramatic. Business today is run through leaning on a vast number of relationships and cannot be run without them. We talk about our customers, our suppliers, our partners, our broader network, our governmental links, our international relations and so on. Every business has a number of critically important relationships and an enormous number of less important ones.

Those relationships are different from a management point of view and require different policies. However, what is common for them all is that they should be a primary concern of management as developing relationships is an investment in the future of the company. They are a time and resource craving process and that is another reason why relationships should be valued high – building new relationships – when possible – costs much more than maintaining established ones and sometimes costs the company’s position on the market.

So when do relationships expire?

Relationships – no matter whether it is a B2C or B2B – characterize with mutuality. That means that they have been established because both parts believe in the benefits from the relationship. They develop in time if the benefit lives up to expectations. And they cease to exist when such benefit lapses.

In practice this means that maintaining a relationship includes not only establishing it and working on the agreed terms but actively looking for development opportunities. If we look from a B2B point of view this translates as the need to be better than competitors, to offer more revenue, both in terms of cash and image enhancement. You are not unique as a company as there are hundreds of similar companies out there trying to do better than you. That is why what you should do when working on developing B2B relationships is to focus on answering the main questions: What are the benefits of this relationship? How can we make them more salient? Is there place for development? Is there something we could add? How can we gain more from the relationship? Are there companies who can offer something better than us? How important is this relationship for our business? Can we trust each other? What will keep us together? Can we work better together?

Those questions should be answered both by management and in cooperation with your partner. Business relationships are much like personal ones. They require discussion and agreement. The difference here is that even though some of them are driven almost completely on personal basis, they are still benefit-based. If you want your business to succeed you maintain only relationships that are beneficial to you. That is why focus on value creation is more than necessary.

If we take the B2C perspective, things are generally the same. However, it happens only rarely that a company has enough contact with its customers to be able to discuss mutual benefits. That is why maintaining the relationship with your consumers requires the employment of different tools. Some of those include market research, consumer research, bench marketing, and innovation. One should of course also consider market niche, positioning, and market segment. From a positioning point of view the product should deliver what it promises – quality, low prices, high prices and prestige, etc.

However, satisfying the expectations of your consumers is not enough. Once again you should make sure that your offer is better than the offer of competition. And there are many ways you could differentiate yourself. In the last decade or so though, a certain method has shown quite good results. You should listen to your customers, understand their concerns and help them solve their problems. That means you could support the local football team or buy medicines for the nearby hospital. Doing that will add value to your product and buying will not be a random choice but a meaningful decision.

A bit of a warning here though – such an involvement can bring you great benefits and image enhancement when being an honest act but it can also destroy you if dishonesty is found by your stakeholders.

Another tool you could use to maintain your consumer segment are the very popular discount or loyalty programs. Most of the time they have proved to be quite efficient. The only downside is that they will not ensure you loyal consumers in the long run.

That you could achieve by involving them. Be transparent. Be responsible. Give them a look inside. Give them the word and let them be part of the company’s policy. No one can tell you better what your consumers want then your consumers. Listen to them and empower them. This way they will stay with the company as they will be part of it.

It is true that it is not always such tactics could be used but the ones described here are only a small part of all possibilities. Different businesses and different countries present with different challenges and very specific solutions to very specific problems. When talking about relationships generalizing is almost impossible or at least incorrect as relationships are unique and defined by a long list of factors. They should be treated as unique. Time and resources should be invested into continuous research and relationship development programs. As relationships do expire. They expire in that moment when you think that there is nothing more that should be done.

Will it be worth it to realize it the moment after?

 

DIDI

Global or local marketing strategy?

 

Today globalization means much more than travelling or drinking Cola all around the world. For companies it means a series of urgent questions and strategic decisions which are always due yesterday. A firm has generally few options – to operate locally while competing with local and global competitors, to operate globally while competing with global and local competitors, and to operate globally with localized strategies, thus to compete with global and local competitors as a local entity with the advantage of being a global company.

Each of these strategies makes sense in a certain context. Operating locally is mostly possible when we talk about small companies as with a company’s expansion its market necessarily also expands. However, there are several pluses which small companies should take advantage of. Firstly, it is fairly easy to network, create and manage strong relations with your local community. This way one can ensure loyalty and support for the business. Secondly, engaging in CSR is easy and effective. It is also incredibly visible within the community. Last but not least, one could profit from developing unique partnerships with local suppliers and other companies creating a desirable or protective business climate in the area. It is important to remember that investing in a community gives you some negotiated rights but it also gives you possibilities to control and develop your business environment.

Usually it is advised that strong and established global brands follow a global strategy. That means that a unified marketing strategy with minimal adjustments as language or other small details important at local level is implemented. Examples here are brands as Coca Cola, Harley Davidson, etc. Normally those brands have already been heavily marketed on both established and new markets so their arrival is anticipated and all values attributed to them are incorporated in consumer minds.

As great as that sounds it does have its downsides. Cultural differences, rivalry between countries or religious differences can trigger a market failure for a product marketed in such a way. On top of that one should always be on the watch for anti-globalists as their voice can be pretty loud and their arguments loaded with tragic emotion do affect many consumers and communities. Once again we could take Coca Cola as an example suffering in Asia from its way-too-American branding. The anti-American movement in many of those countries turned a few years ago into a campaign against all American products. Brands like Coca Cola were the main target.

Furthermore, global brands are attributed descriptions as impersonal, money-machines, mass production garbage, killers of culture and local business, invaders, etc.

So one could ask oneself – why market globally?

Just as mentioned above the globalization of a brand makes sense in certain cases. Marketers calculate expected profits and losses in connection to different strategies and if it turns out that losses are not expected to be major or are predicted to present a lesser cost than localizing the global strategy, it is a rational choice to go for global.

However, such a choice is quite more complicated. It also depends on what type of a product or service we offer and what are the standards in the countries where it will be marketed. Some products as toothpaste are generally expected to have similar qualities all around the world and can therefore be marketed globally with almost no necessary modifications. However, marketing something like cigarettes or alcohol which is a subject of a number or local regulations or something like lingerie the commercial of which might simply be banned in some countries as a result of moral censure presents us with a challenge. It requires consideration of a long list of factors highlighted by a thorough research of different prospect markets. That is what is called localized strategy.

In such a case a brand is built around a tight unbendable value core around which the product/service is shaped to meet market needs and requirements. Corporate policy though focuses not only on selling its product but on being accepted by local communities. That is necessary especially in controversial markets but is always advisable.

Allowing your branches to work semi-independently strategy-wise allows for local adjustments and for true involvement with the local community. Such a strategy which incorporates CSR elements benefitting local communities and developing a dialogue with them helps counteract the negative perceptions in connection to being a global brand and creates an environment of trust and mutual support. Needless to say, that will greatly affect sales.

However, there are also some cases where such a global – or multi-branch – company does not have a choice but to allow for independency and local policy for their branches. Such a case I have seen. Factors there were completely different core competences of employees, completely different customer base, different levels of popularity of company name in the two locations, different practices, different expectations and requirements of market based on some cultural differences, and so on. Incredibly enough, the goal was maximal unification – instead of maximum profit or efficiency. The result, not so incredibly, was a struggling local branch.

That is why making a decision concerning your global strategy should be based on thorough research and several major considerations:

1. What are the pluses and minuses of marketing globally?

2. What are the pluses and minuses of marketing locally?

3. What are the expectations of our main consumer base?

4. What are the needs and expectations of our prospect consumers?

5. Is our product/service replicable or it will be modified when entering the new markets?

6. What characterizes the new markets?

7. Who are our competitors? Is it at all worth it to enter certain market?

8. Are there strong local communities? Should we approach them? How?

9. Does our advertising need modification?

10. Are there some religious, cultural or other rules we should respect?

11. How will entering the new market affect our established market and our brand?

Those are just some general concerns which will likely have to be modified in accordance with your specific business, product, and of course market. The main point is that in marketing there are no simple decisions as the right decisions are based on facts, data, and prognoses. 

That is why no matter the size of your company or the budget you have, do yourself a favor and spend as much as needed on strategy. Otherwise you risk spending more on failed strategy.

DIDI

Exclusive Business Style

When talking about business style it becomes clear that different companies and different managers understand that term and what it is supposed to symbolize differently. Style is about presentation, about standards, about image, about who you really are. Style encompasses almost every aspect of everyday life. The image we create includes and is defined by our style.

Therefore our business style should be carefully formed and developed to perfection. Unlike many other things style cannot be faked. If we pretend to be an honest and socially responsible company while we steal from our customers and pollute the environment, it is stealing and irresponsibility that define our business style. Of course, some companies use a lot of money on public relations in an effort to cover their indiscretions and create a stable pretend-image. Money bad spent.

Another wrong interpretation of business style is that exclusivity is achieved by being different. I have seen the results of exaggerated focus on being the only one. They included mail labels which did not follow the generally accepted norms about labeling a letter, business cards which confused customers by providing unclear contact information, and last but not least 4 slogans on the back of the business cards promoting corporate responsibility and progressive innovation, while the company still did not account for any of them. That is what one can call an outside-in style, that is, a style created outside of the company, not aligned with the its values and forced onto it in the hope of becoming true.

Style is indeed a great commodity and it is understandable why companies strive to be perceived as working with great style. It is a great commodity though, only because it is a reflection of our behavior in the minds of our stakeholders, a reflection of our hard work on becoming who we are. That cannot be faked. Just think about corporations as Maersk. One can argue that it is different small things that build up their image and the perception of great style. The truth is though that their style cannot really be tracked to any of the small details in particular as all about them adds to who they are in our minds, thus creates the idea of business style.

In that sense trying to fake a business style is a condemned mission. First, it will take a lot of resources and time. Second, it will add to the stress in the company as employees will perceive the attempts to present the business in one way while working in another as schizophrenic. Last but not least, we live in an information society and truth always surfaces sooner or later. Therefore save your business the chocking impact with reality and avoid becoming a schizophrenic company. In fact the stakeholders have often a more positive attitude towards innocent-sins companies than such which pretended to be saints and turned out to be sinners. Do not forget – image is hard to build and easy to destroy, the same is valid for business style.

That is why most successful businesses demonstrate that they have understood the importance of genuine identity. Genuine identity refers to such an identity build from inside out, following the business strategy and practice. It is not a mask, product of an outside PR agency, forced onto the company’s face. Producing slogans and offering them to stakeholders, as mentioned above, is simply pure waste of resources and on top of that is dangerous.

Another common mistake regarding style development is attempting to be unique. Being unique is in fact something, everyone dreams about but there are good reasons for some equity to be established among us. The given example with the one-of-the-kind mail labels shows why. The post office got confused about who the sender was and whom they needed to deliver to. Was that a good way to differentiate the company? Following established standards is necessary in order to function in a society. Developments, innovation and revolutions are carried out in such a way that they do not bring confusion. That means that consensus should be achieved on them. Otherwise they are either dismissed or ridiculed by the conservative society.

If not that way, how do we establish an exclusive business style? Well, the simplest answer is just be exclusive in everything you do. We live in a society which values quality, simplicity, high standards, excellent services, transparency, responsible businesses, welfare, environment, care, etc. Being exclusive means that you fulfill as many as possible of the requirements of your stakeholders AND you do a bit more than required. Furthermore, it almost does not need mentioning, you have to be a reliable partner, honest and ethical and open to your local communities, perfect in legal and economic perspective, bold enough to be a leader.

After working hard enough on becoming the great company you wish to be perceived as, you can focus on the other details – presentation, communicating – directly and indirectly – your social leadership, sustaining your position. You need to accept though that it takes time and resources and the end result is often unpredictable as it depends on many internal and external factors.

What is guaranteed though is that you will gain a lot in the form of enhanced image and stakeholder trust and support. Exclusive business style today stretches beyond business and transforms companies into socio-business institutions with responsibilities for welfare, healthcare, safety, ecology, etc. No company, no matter how strong it is at carrying out business operations, will be perceived as a high-standard company as long as it does not take ownership of social issues as well.

That is why what you need to remember is: do not spend money on style attributes or image creation. Follow the highest standards of business, respect and include your stakeholders, act socially responsible and always go a bit further than required. Instead of talking too much how great you are, let others talk about you. Do not forget that every detail of your behavior talks, be thorough in developing and sustaining your public image.

DIDI

Strategy development, stage 1

CONTENTS

1.      The Perfect Chaos

2.      A strategy – how to manage the chaos

a.       How to prepare for strategy development

b.      Strategy development

 

THE PERFECT CHAOS

Some companies do not understand the importance of strategy it seems. My personal experience with such a company made me aware of some worrying tendencies which one should absolutely avoid if the company is to survive on the market.

First, it seemed that after a relatively recent merge between the company and another company operating in the same general market segment nobody had bothered to evaluate the results in terms of qualifications, working environment, customer relations, company and business structure, etc. Nobody noticed that the company had turned from a small to a middle company. Then nobody understood the necessity of changes in terms of policy, structure, synergy, strategy, consumer segments, competition, market development, and so on.

The problem was that everything was driven on an emerging basis: we stumble upon it, so we should deal with it. However, that resulted in confused customers, dealing for more than a year with a double entity (both companies co-existing under one management); no clear concept about business structure or heading; no vision, mission or image which usually means problems in terms of finding a niche or a stable customer base; no visual image – no business cards, no logo, no presentation materials.

The worst mistakes though came in the form of lack of understanding of strategy. Chaos was created by trying to centralize the control and the administration even though there were two offices operating on different tasks with different customers and with completely different needs. The lack of marketing strategy (and business strategy for that matter) resulted in financial pre-crisis at the smaller office and absolute confusion about how to handle the insufficiency of clients.

The biggest problem though, was that the HQ management did not develop a strategy managing the issues on hand. The understanding and inclusion of all key elements characterizing the business and giving it a fighting chance seemed mission impossible. No wonder there – managing a small office is different than managing two bigger offices. Furthermore, strategy is a specific field and requires competences. You should not believe that knowing your field qualifies you as a strategist.

That is why, before everything falls apart, please understand:

 

A STRATEGY SHOULD BE DEVELOPED BY A STRATEGIST.

In line with that comes the last paradox in the story. Buried in problems, the small office had a great core competence that clients were interested in. However, not understanding what a strategy implies and what the business logic requires, development suggestions given by splendid professionals in their own field included ideas as offering a predefined service to customers (instead of learning to listen and adapt to clients’ needs) and mixing the successful service with different unconnected activities to ensure revenue (thus risking an image that has a chance to be established). Last but not least, one can even argue that the relative success so far has only been a coincidence as the short-termed action strategy – contacting possible customers – cannot ensure the achievement of any of the typical business goals – sustainability, growth, prestige.

A STATEGY – HOW TO MANAGE THE CHAOS

How to prepare for strategy development?

A strategy is crucial, as shown above.

Preparations for strategy development include full analysis of the available resources, of the market, the consumers, and the competition. Resource analysis should include:

1.      Personnel – number, location, qualifications, network, image (in some cases);

2.      Buildings – what does the company own or rent, how much does it cost, what is the location, what is the use of the buildings, what are the eco-characteristics of the buildings, etc.

3.      Management – what is the managerial structure, who are the managers, which are their qualifications, what network do they have and how good they can use it, what is their public image;

4.      Partners – qualifications, resources, CSR, public image, financial state, contracts and agreements, network;

5.      Supply chain – companies, CSR, qualifications, resources, public image, contracts and agreements, network.

6.      Finances – what is the current state of the company, debts, interests, investment, how are the resources managed;

7.      Image – how do our stakeholders see us and why, do we manage to broaden and retain the customer base, what is our strongest feature, what is negative about us, are we known, have we promoted our core competences effectively, have we reached all the stakeholders we needed to reach.

8.      Core competences – licenses, limited knowledge, special type of a service or a product difficult to copy, innovation, etc.

9.      Product – expected frequency of use, demand, price, quality, development, stage in the product life cycle, primary target groups, etc.

After finishing the internal corporate analysis, an external research should be launched to get a detailed picture of the market situation. It should absolutely include:

1.      Competitors – bench marketing, consumer segments, core competences, possibly future strategy, types of products, financial state and public image.

2.      Market – rules and regulations, supply and demand, financial stability, customers’ ability and desire to buy, market tendencies and branch tendencies, etc.

3.      Political and social situation – development and freedom of the market, legal systems and necessary steps to legalize the business, expectations of local communities, political interests and cross-border connections, war, etc.

4.      Consumers – brand dependency, expectations regarding product quality, price, socially responsible practices, levels of consumer awareness in connection to the product’s characteristics and the business practices, local communities, customers of other brands/companies, etc.

5.      Other stakeholders – mapping of all groups or individuals with an interest in the business or interest affected by the business or affecting the business.

Those factors do vary depending on the type of company, on the branch, and the country you operate in. The important part is to analyze comprehensively all factors that have impacted, are impacting or might impact the company. Only then you are ready to talk strategy.

Strategy development

Strategies are developed in close collaboration between the company’s finance manager, business administrator, marketing manager, development/innovation managers, sales managers and possibly stakeholder representatives. It might be that a smaller company will hire outside help if not housing all the needed experts, but it should not happen that any of the core business areas is overlooked.

After establishing the status of the company, vision and mission should be defined. At first they would typically encompass only the financial and growth goals but in the formulation process they will come to encompass everything from resources and company interest to marketing, communication and stakeholder interests. Mission and vision are closely connected to the existing (if any) image of the company and to the desired one. That is to say that setting goals should not only be based on perceived abilities but also on stakeholder expectations.

With the appropriate choice of mission, vision and image goals the first major step in strategy development is over. From here on follows the development of a company-specific operative plan meant to lead the way to realization of the corporate goals.

A very important point here is that mission, vision and image have the purpose to channel the company’s efforts, thus maximize outcomes. However, this also means failure if mission, vision and image are chosen inappropriately. Last but not least, a note which one easily can find in any management textbook – the strategy must be a process, not a campaign with a clearly defined deadline.

DIDI
 

What advertising is not

Advertising has always been an important part of any communication strategy. But what does that mean in practice when deciding on marketing strategy?
I was recently asked to look through some university notes meant to help students prepare for their state exam. As I read I realized that there was a serious problem. It seems that many consider commercials to be the center of any marketing activities. And this is what they are not.

Stakeholder Management: behind the commercial

 

A commercial is designed not just according to the desire to sell certain product to certain target group. A commercial is designed as a visible end of a long marketing process. That is because even before designing a product or a service one should make sure that there is market for such product or service. That includes a comprehensive analysis of consumer needs and desires, of competition, of resources, of market tendencies. A successful product is usually designed in collaboration with target groups. Communication specialists always advise that consumers and other stakeholders are empowered when it comes to decision making. And this is a reasonable advice as practice shows that empowered stakeholders are more involved and thus less likely to switch to another company/brand. This implies that potential consumers along with all other stakeholders will be involved in the design and production of a product. Therefore they will not need to be informed about the new product through commercials.

A very good example of empowered consumers are brand communities as the Apple community. There we talk about much more than a product or a consumer need. What drives sales is the brand community’s culture. It is a question of pride to own an Apple product and it is always desired to have the latest model. The same we observe with the Harry Potter community. What can make a 10-year-old spend a night in front of a book store in order to get the new book as the first? It is not advertising. It is much more. Behind Harry Potter we can find a whole industry bringing the characters to life making them important part of the children’s lives through producing dolls, posters, creating stories, online communities, myths, etc. Thus it is superficial to regard advertising as a central marketing activity.

Kotler says that marketing is as an iceberg – what you see on the surface is just the tip of the iceberg. And this is where some less experienced companies stumble. Not understanding the importance or scope of marketing is fatal.
 

Advertising and types of commercials

Advertising offers good possibilities for reaching out to wider consumer segments, for establishing status or class, for promotion, for additional information, for keeping up interest, for comebacks. And used as such it will serve its purposes. Especially if designed accordingly and distributed through the right channels.

There are three general types of commercials – rational, based on promoting quality, stability, and price; emotional, designed to prompt an emotional response; and class-establishing, promoting luxury and exquisite lifestyle. There are furthermore commercials meant to accompany a product’s launch, to stabilize market positions and reach new consumer segments, to remind of the existence or characteristics of a product and finally to announce a comeback.

Media Strategy 

The media we choose for a commercial depends on the marketing strategy just as much as the commercial itself. Everything starts with analysis, mapping publics, budget, status, goals, and strategy. Nowadays typically used media as TV, radio and newspapers are no longer as effective as they have once been. This is mainly because of the enormous impact internet has on our lives today. Most people use it to get informed about products, read reviews, contact consumer communities. That is why it is almost useless promoting quality or other characteristics. People have the power to find the very truth about a product. For that reason today it makes much more sense to advertise the existence of a product, especially valid in the case of small or new companies, the class of the product and its superiority – why should we consider buying it.

However, we should not forget that today’s society is flooded by products and services and it becomes more and more obvious that other differentiators are needed to turn consumers’ attention towards one self and their product. It is advised that as long as you cannot provide a product impossible to copy, you have to invest in building an image that will make your product more desirable than the products of competitors. Doing so includes different types and mixes of activities as CSR, brand communities, partnerships, welfare, support of causes or science/medicine/sport/culture/etc., discussion groups, company outreach, transparency, reporting and many more depending on the branch.

That is why I will say it once again – advertising has its purpose, goals and results when used as a part of a thorough marketing strategy. It should not be underestimated, but even more importantly, it should not be overestimated.

DIDI