Thinking in the customers/receivers shoes: say exactly what you want your customer to do

When you send out a CV via email or upload  for a job do you call the attached file "CV" , "resume" or  "Document1" ? You are not alone…. most people seem to do this in email attachments. When they know that there may be hundreds of other emails with the same type of document but from different senders to the same receiver. A far better idea is for individual "First Name Last Name"  call the document "FirstLastName CV," so that the receiver does not have to do a whole lot of re-coding for every document received. Similarly if you are a company in B2B email attachments, its a good idea to have the company name in the file name of attachments you send out rather than call the file simply 'brochure."  So make the file name "CompanyName Brochure" in your next campaign.

While this blog has been advocating attempts for such clarity it was great to see an article "Tell Your Customers where to go" by Barry Feldman.Quite often we do not think from the customers point of view in both the brick and click world. See driving directions that companies put out on their websites. Hey today we have GPS for all the highways, what you really need is some intense directions for parking when your customer or supplier goes visiting you. The same for websites. Except that folks leave a website in an instant but in the brick world its harder to leave if you have driven considerably to get to meet your prospective customer or supplier. 

Since the website visitor can leave with one click, its really important to keep the visitor engaged. Starting with the right content as mentioned in the previous post. Contact StratoServe.

Search marketing, landing page and quality content that reflects real value to customer

There are two ideas in this post because although simple, these are a bunch of related concepts that seem hard to grasp.These are:

  1. Your organization  creates: —-> Real value to customer (Innovation)——> Puts out web content
  2. Search engine creates :—–> Real value to customer (better search like Google) —> Delivers   search results (and relevant Ads)                                                                                                                           

Businesses on the web want the red phrases to match up (i.e. have their content found in searches)  as much as possible. But first let us understand the two parts above.

The first part is where you create innovation and value for your customer following the marketing definition. And put out the web content explaining the value you create in the hope that your prospective customer will find you on the web. Or better, you might be able to serve your existing customers more easily and at lower cost for at least some of the services you provide.

And the second part is what search engines are trying to do. Led by Google both Yahoo and Bing are trying to create value for their customers. They do so by serving up the most relevant results that speak to what is on the mind of the "customer." Here the customer of the search engine is not the advertiser but rather the individual who does the Internet search. This is a crucial difference and surprisingly hard to understand or "get."Relevant Ads like Google AdWords creates the mammoth Google revenue stream, but if you think about it Google is not in the business of earning Ad revenue from businesses . They are interested in providing you with search results that is exactly what you were looking for. Sort of like a hit TV show that has lots of audience which enable the TV channel to sell ad space at better prices. Except that the Internet works one search click at a time unlike millions of  TV viewers who might have very different expectations from TV viewing.

Here are some tips that businesses can use to address the challenge of being found on the Internet .

  • Content that helps answer the search query: Also called Search Engine Optimization or SEO, although you cannot really do optimization without linking to your business and what repeatable value you provide. Thus, you might have great content but if the customer does not get real value they won't stay (will bounce) and that's bad for business and search engine rankings. Tip 1: Provide content  that really helps the searcher.
  • Match search keyword to Ad and landing page: Spending on search advertising alone does not take you far because your Ads may promise a lot but if the content does not keep the customer on your website your Ad quality score will go down and costs will go up, ad position will go down. Tip 2: Deliver on your website what you promise in your Ad.

Both the tips above involve ongoing work, but can pay off hugely. Contact StratoServe.

 

US Healthcare: 5% people account for 50% of the cost: the Camden experiment

You have heard of the 80:20 or Pareto principle, but the 5:50 with US healthcare costs  is  just amazing. And guess what – all those in that bottom of pyramid 5% who go innumerable times to the Hospital Emergency Rooms (ER) and rack up  what becomes 50% of the cost-  are  rather unhappy with US society for the quality and access to healthcare it gives them. Who would like to go through the hassle of the ER time and again? Ironically,society spends huge amounts of money and yet the beneficiary is unhappy.

So can you serve the bottom 5% better with healthcare delivery? The Camden Coaltion of Healthcare providers under the initiative of Jeffrey Brenner is trying to do just that. By just asking doctors about the worst of the worst patients they identified spots around Camden ,NJ that had the highest costs for health-care. These included some patients cost insurers $3.5 million dollars ( see page 42,column 1 of the New Yorker article). Brenner then just tried to customize and bring the health solution to these poorest of patients including social workers in the team. When the team realized that one building had a large bunch of patients who regularly went to the ER they opened up primary care in that building and the situation is improving significantly. For as Brenner says, numerous ER visits indicate  a failure of primary care.

Can this Camden approach be replicated in other communities? Perhaps yes if local governments, the medical and insurance community get together on the task.

In a supply chain risk sense the Camden approach is to manage patient risk and cost upstream i.e. at the patient's home for the sickest and poorest patients. It is a brilliant segmentation approach that is not only effective for patient outcomes and costs but also has a huge "do good" feeling for all involved.

As an almost afterthought, it can bring down US healthcare costs, an absolute priority. Contact StratoServe.

Why Encyclopedia Britannica took twenty years to go digital- the sales force angle

1988 Ad Encyclopedia Britannica- StratoServe

Finally, Encyclopedia Britannica has gone digital (Reuters 2012) And it took 20 years for the 200 year old organization to do so.Above is a 1988 TV commercial and you can see the PC in evidence.  PC makers were already giving free Grolier Encyclopedia discs alongwith the IBM PC’s that came with Windows DOS. But Britannica managers were in denial. Lots of reasons but primarily  disbelief: This can’t be happening to us, we have been around for 200 years , we have world authorities writing on every topic….But there was also the pressure from the sales force at Britannica, a decent sales occupation if there was one.

Well into the 1990’s selling Britannica Encyclopedias was considered a great example in professional sales training classes. And why not? In selling encyclopedias you could make between $300-$4000/week in commissions. The primary role of the salesperson was to explain and inform the prospect at home how to look up stuff in the encyclopedia in presentations that could last two hours. Very much like the roof replacement or air conditioning sales call to home owners today. Getting the encyclopedia was as big a decision like getting a new roof or at least comparable amounts of money were involved. Understandably the sales force was powerful and must have influenced the marketing and advertising folks to continue to nurture leads via television advertising in 1992.  The inexorable march of digital technology, a better Internet with the democratically authored Wikipedia and great search engines finally has compelled the Britannica organization to go entirely digital.

So what does the Britannica story tell professional salespeople who sell high value products? Here are three things:

  • If you are in professional sales, a large part of your job has been to inform and educate the customer. And this applies to diverse categories from real estate and insurance to automobiles.
  • The information search is being taken over by the Internet so your customer (B2B or B2C) will search the Internet and educate herself/himself. So when you get to meet your prospect they are pretty knowledgeable. In fact, they are catching up on your industry as you wait in the lobby- to make that sales call!
  • You need to add value to what your customer already knows. OK check how much research your customer has done and encourage them to do more. And then articulate what value you and your product or service brings to the client.

In other words do an Internet search before your next sales call, and build your pitch beyond what you find.

About StratoServe.

Marketing is about segmenting and diversity is about *not* segmenting

Marketing is all about segmenting so that you have viable “buckets” of customers for whom you can develop product or service offerings, get a  reasonable price as you communicate your offering and deliver it without excessive cost. “Stereotyping” is thus at the heart of conventional marketing and it is “stereotyping” that is at the core of diversity issues in organizations.

In a March 12, 2012 HBR blog post Peter Bregman makes a great point about why “diversity training” does not work. It does not work because it tries to segment colleagues into “buckets” and then tells folks how to be more sensitive about what they say. Naturally, any form of negative segmentation of people you already know and work with turns out to be counterproductive and is perceived as disrespectful. Bregman suggests that communication training works better than traditional diversity training because it helps you identify and treat every individual as a person and not as a part of a bucket,segment or stereotype.

And if you think about it, there is really no contradiction in the segmentation idea in marketing and diversity training. For “segmentation of one” is the ultimate mantra in marketing. If only you could economically deal with each customer individually- you would. Pre-Internet sales calls would be really expensive but today digital marketing allows you to customize the customer experience as in Amazon.com. So marketing is moving to a micro-segment approach that tends to treating every customer as an individual which is what exactly the Peter Bregman post is about. And it probably is far easier to treat each organizational colleague you interact with as an individual first, and work on avoiding stereotypes.Far easier than the individualized approach for customers outside the organization.

About StratoServe.

Happy 100th Birthday to Oreo cookies: keeping the soul of a brand

In a rapidly changing world- Oreo cookies give you a sense of stability and comfort and that is the soul of the Oreo brand. The largest selling cookie of the 20th century has survived numerous wars,technology upheavals,financial meltdowns and extreme globalization. If you were used in childhood to "twist,lick and dunk" and are now watching your diet- you can just scrape off the cream or just have a tiny bit with fat free milk.

How does a low tech product like a cookie sell in 100 countries with annual sales exceeding $1.5 billion? Keep in mind that there are countless competing local bakeries in every country selling "fresh" cookies right off the oven and yet there is no slowing down Oreo that originally came in tin cans and now comes in a variety of plastic and other flexible packaging depending on the market.

There are lots of reasons that Oreo survived a 100 years  and today there were impromptu  global celebrations of an iconic American brand. These include a great product,packaging and brand extensions that evolved and a wonderful adaption to different global distribution systems.

But it is the communication of the soul of the brand that has remained consistent and has been passed on from father to son making it a tradition to have Oreo cookies with milk in not only the US but in many countries of the world.

Generations of Nabisco-Kraft marketing and advertising folks must be considered remarkable and deserve hearty congratulations today. For between changing marketing managers and advertising agencies there is so much confusion that most brands barely make it to the next decade- let alone the next century!

Nabisco marketing leaders have been able to stay on message for over a hundred years between different evolving media platforms.And in a category where almost anyone can compete with a packaged brand. Contact StratoServe.

 

What is the most important attribute in GE Jack Welch’s 4E and 1P?

Previous posts on GE Jack Welch’s 4E’s and 1P on the StratoServe blog are very popular. Sort of leads you to think about which of the four E’s and one P really matter? But first a quick recap, although they appear in earlier posts. We’ll talk about 3E’s and the the one P first and then the last piece about Execution-that most elusive managerial trait.

    1. Energy: High personal energy is something you see in great leader managers. But where does personal  energy really come from?
    2. Energize others: Top performers energize others, how are some people able to energize not only their  teams but also colleagues across the organization? Also are able to energize customers and suppliers as well? Or the better question is why is someone able to spark the energy in you? They do it by simply recognizing the contribution you make and your worth to the organization and its goals. Just by accepting and recognizing you … they seem to make you motivated. Contact StratoServe.
    3. Edge: The top leader managers are able to say “no” without deflating the team’s energy or motivation. They explain why they say no and often are able to demonstrate with data that the “no” is fair to all parties concerned. In other words, the leader shows respect and recognition and does not fake it. Most folks accept tough decisions when they perceive that the leader has good thoughtful reasons and is fair to everyone for the sake of the task at hand. Tying these 3E’s together is the 1P:
      1.  Passion  : Although the original version of Jack Welch 4 E’s and 1 P puts the P as the overarching attribute there is a slight change in the ordering that this blog suggests.Based on a whole bunch of happiness and well-being research brought into focus since 2005 by the American Psychological  Association there is increasing evidence that : Happiness—-> (leads to) —->Success  and not vice versa as we tend to believe and as Shawn Achor points out.  And passion supports happiness  when you think about it. If you are passionate about something, you feel happy doing it. It doesn’t seem like work but seems like play. And who wouldn’t like to play all the time? So passion leads to happiness and happy people would be energetic (the first E) and would energize others and certainly would not pull them down (the second E) and are confident enough to take tough calls (the third E or edge). The problem is with the 4th E or Execution which passion alone cannot achieve even with the other 3 E’s.

4.   Execution: is the ability of tying things together,explaining processes and steps clearly so that your organization is able to learn and move like a well oiled machine. This involves setting up organization routines, an organization culture of execution or the “small company” feel that Jack Welch’s successor Jeff Immelt so values in FedEx and Fred Smith. When you think FedEx you think of a well-oiled machine complete with hand held package tracking devices – an organization that literally delivers as promised !

To summarize, given the advances in happiness research“Passion”is probably the most important ingredient in the 4E’s and one P.Execution is not difficult, it’s just about training, organizational learning,processes and all that routine stuff that makes stuff happen that we call results. Execution (the 4th E) is boring and tedious at times but should probably follow passion as the most important attribute for leader-managers. About StratoServe.

IBM-CMO Study 2011: Big Data,Social Media,multiple channels and changing demographics

The IBM-CMO Study of 2011 is a pretty large scale study of 1700 CMO (Chief Marketing Officers) in 19 industries and 64 countries. Here are four headlines of the study that re-iterate some of this blog's earlier posts:

  1. 1. There is a deluge of data– strikingly 90% of all data in the world was generated in the last two years according to the video summary of the IBM study alongside. To make sense of data you need to have a "gut" and "ground level" feel of whatever marketing phenomena. And that require immersion and learning and not just data analytic skills. CMO's are worried on both counts viz. having people who for example understand how distributors and retailers think and work in each market and also are able to make sense of scanner sales data,web analytics and are able to integrate insights from RFID data in the warehouse,the scanner data at checkout and the web analytics data from online sales. In addition, there is the sales funnel data from CRM systems like Sales Force.com or Seibel.But the deluge of data on the sales end is still something company folks can influence or directly control. Viz. you can adjust the supply chain when you see a growth in retail numbers. Not so with the next one.
  2. Social Media and what consumers share or post in social media sites like Facebook or rating sites like Yelp is pretty much out of control of the marketer. You can "listen" and try to make sense but it also needs a lot of authenticity in the dealings and delivery mechanisms of your firm. You really cannot say one thing in your companyspeak "marketing" and not deliver or do a different thing when it comes to service. Your customers will talk online through social media and sometimes your own employees will too. Finding ways to engage customers authentically is a huge challenge.
  3. Multiple channels of communication like mobile devices including the smart phones like iPod and Android or tablets like iPad is also adding an entirely new dimension. For example, earlier you could reach the office bound car driver via radio jingles. You could reach the train commuter by the newspaper. Both push medium. Now anyone not driving to work is more likely to be checking their mobile devices and be more responsive to "search" messaging and "pull" appeals. Just understanding this huge shift in behavior is a challenge. Consider that a majority of students making under $15,000 a year have a smartphone according to Neilsen.
  4. Finally changing demographics in the world. IBM mentions that from 5% middle class in India the number will jump to 40% in 20 years in that country. A similar situation is likely in much of the developing world. Meanwhile in America Baby Boomers are aging, Millennials are far more relaxed and Hispanics are the fastest growing market segment.

All in all, respondents in the IBM study generally felt that this was a most exciting time to be in marketing ! Contact StratoServe.

Why do organizations find it so hard to update websites?

Ask small  or large organizations- for profit, non-profit or government ones – and top managers will admit that their website could be better in both content and looks. Understanding why organizations find it so hard to update websites is useful. Here are five thoughts:

  1. "Bricks" organization legacy: Remember that any business that existed before 2000 had an "inside" the organization and "outside" the organization mentality. Hence the Communication and PR department, the press release and the company/non-profit or government "spokesperson." A medium that is  easy, free and immediate like the company website is something that most legacy organizations are simply not organized to deal with.
  2. It's not technology: Consider that folks update their Facebook status several times a day and enthusiasts agonize and spend a lot of time to figure out the appropriate pictures and persona they want to project. Web content systems are clunkier than Facebook but are getting better. They will include the Analytic codes and social media buttons for every page- but the content problem remains.
  3. Mandates to the web folks don't work: Despite social media, a surge in worldwide aspirations for democracy traditional management is basically the old military model of "mandates." So you might "mandate" an external web agency/internal web department and that too does not work.  The agency's first priority is to keep the contract going and not chase individuals in your organization. Also the web agency is not particularly interested or capable of understanding  the insides of your organization, how it works, where it wants to go and what might (in website terms) help getting it there. So what's the solution? 
  4. Align pages to responsibility centers: Every page must have an owner who executes around the content of the page(for "Execution" see an earlier post on Jack Welch's 4E's and one P) . For example, the Supply Chain department  who own the Supply Chain function should own the supplier pages of the company website. These would include the Supply department's mission,vision,supplier registration and supplier portal , supplier diversity etc. Thus,start with responsibilities within the organization first, then trying to map pages to to those responsibile for the activity itself. The idea is: Organization mission—> department/individual responsibilities—> web pages
  5.  Web agencies/departments: have a huge role and reason  in trying to nudge organizations towards more fully owning the pages as above. Instead of "owning" client pages agencies should actively facilitate client's operations folks to "own" pages. This way ad agencies can focus on their traditional ad agency role of helping with branding on the web and integrating marketing communication messages off-line and online. In addition,spend time on developing  analytic and digital marketing skills to cope with an increasingly complex and challenging digital marketing environment.Contact StratoServe.

Thus trying to link the organization's mission to responsibility centers that own the pages and the delivery of what is promised on a particular page -might be a way to update websites more easily. Contact StratoServe.

As US mobile wireless data zooms: wireless carriers run out of spectrum

Old Cingular Coverage MapEver wondered why every US wireless carrier has a spotty coverage map?  Just look at this old AT&T (then Cingular)coverage map.

It turns out, wireless carriers own "spectrum" they are allocated from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and these are like "pipes" they own to provide wireless services to their voice and data customers. Naturally, as more and more Americans adopt wireless ( including mobile and tablet devices like iPad) these "pipes" are getting choked. One reason that wireless companies are putting caps on the use of data. Some carriers like AT&T have been working on this spectrum problem and AT&T has increased it's customer satisfaction ratings as a result.

Since everything wireless including Satellite TV needs spectrum and only wireless carriers are facing the boom in wireless data demand, there is a frenzy of activity between wireless carriers trying to get whatever extra capacity from spectrum owners. Meanwhile consumers would have to pay more and get less with wireless as this CNN story suggests.

So what is with this huge demand for wireless data? As the Internet gets better people are taking more to searching online, evaluating goods and services online. Folks do this on their own through search engines like Google and also through  social media like Facebook. More reason for organizations to give high priority to their digital marketing.Contact Strat oServe.