Strategic Imperatives

Have you ever been confused over establishing priorities for your business.  One way to think about this issue is to establish strategic imperatives.  Essentially, strategic imperatives define what you absolutely must accomplish over a given period of time to be successful.  First, of course, you need to define your overall strategies within the context of your business plan. 

Once that step is accomplished, you must review your entire plan and decide which strategies must be accomplished in order to achieve your objectives.  The word MUST is the operative word.  Clearly when you develop an annual plan every strategy and tactic in that plan has importance.  So, the difficult decisions you must make are what are the most important strategies that must be accomplished.  Without accomplishing those strategies, your plan will clearly fail.

Once you identify your strategic imperatives, then you need to lay out clearly and simply what you must do to accomplish each of those imperatives.  Included should be key dates by which each of these steps must be accomplished.

This exercise will help you stay focused on what you need to do to ensure success in the coming year.

Rich

Bizvice:  Strategy, Marketing & Entrepreneurship

Customer Developed Marketing

You have all heard the buzz about Customer Developed Advertising and Marketing.  There are Companies today who are clearly experimenting with this technique on a large scale.  Budweiser has a TV show called BudTV and I am sure you will see many examples of Customer Developed Advertising on this site.  Of course You Tube has many examples.  Other Companies are using Customer Developed Advertising on the Internet and on Broadcast TV.  So, good idea?  While it may be to early to make a judgement, I believe this approach holds out great promise for a number of reasons:

1.  It gets customers involved in the product or service;  The more involvement, the more loyalty (at least in theory);

2.  It opens up the creative pipeline to new and innovative ideas and approaches;

3.  It provides a unique insight into the minds of your customers in terms of how they view your product or service;

Are there pitfalls…. of course there are.  The big one will be how “rejected” customers will feel.  In addition, ensuring that anything that is ultimately used is consistent with your product/service positioning is critical.

So, my vote goes to “try it, you may like it!”

Rich

Bizvice:  Strategy, Marketing & Entrepreneurship

This Isn’t Kansas Anymore

Do you remember when broadcast TV on a national basis was how you simply communicated your product’s message?  And, when that message was a “slice of life” commercial?  Well, in the words of Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz, this isn’t Kansas anymore!

And yet, what has really changed?  Aside from the myriad of communication options available today, the key fundamental of brand positioning has not changed.  You still need a product with a significant point of difference which meets a real customer need to succeed.  And, you still need to communicate that point of difference clearly and succinctly.  What has changed is how and where you communicate your message.  Both of these issues (the how and where) are not easy to answer and will depend upon many factors.  Every “supplier” from TV,  Cable, magazines,  newspapers, Radio, the Internet, Cell Phones, etc., all have their compelling stories of why your money would be best spent with them.  Targeting your current or potential customers through demographics, psychographics, purchase behavior, predictive analytics, etc., all come into play.  So, how do you choose?  At the end of the day, it all comes down to results.  What combination of spending will “move the needle” in terms of your objectives (volume, awareness, new versus existing customers, etc.). 

So, experiment, and use “experts” to help you decide.  But, remember that the message is ultimatly “king.”  Your products differentiation should win out in the long run.

 Rich

Bizvice:  Strategy, Marketing & Entrepreneurship

Lifetime Value

While I have discussed this concept in a few earlier posts, I feel it is such an important concept that I wanted to elaborate further on how to apply it to your thinking.

Lifetime value is simply the “profit” your Company makes on a customer over his/her lifetime.  The simple example is if you sell Chevrolet cars and a 20 year old buys a car from you on which you make a profit of $500, that individual provides you with a potential lifetime value of $10,000.  This  assumes he/she buys a new car from you once every three years for the  next 60 years.  Of course, if that person gets married and needs two cars, then their lifetime value doubles to $20,000. 

Can this “model” be applied to all products and services?  Yes it can as long as the product/service is not a one time only purchase.  So it can be applied to restaurants, toothpaste, haircuts, computers, etc.  Yes, anything.  Obviously, the lifetime value of each product or service will vary.  But I think if you apply this concept to your products/services you will be quite surprised at the “value” of each customer.

Once you establish this “lifetime value” it brings into focus the importance of customer satisfaction.  With a high lifetime value, you need to do everything possible to keep that customer for his/her lifetime.  Improving your product/service, extraordinary service, special unexpected surprises, etc., are all ways to accomplish this task and I have talked about many of these in the past.

The key is keeping your customers loyal to truly see the benefits of their value over their lifetime.  Remember it is always easier to keep a customer then to get a new customer!

 Rich

Bizvice:  Strategy, Marketing & Entrepreneurship

Recognition And Motivation

How do you best motivate your employees?  What role does recognition play in the motivation equation? 

Let’s start with the basics.   Recognition is basic to human behavior.  At least that is my belief.  I am sure if we checked with the psychology experts they would agree.  Everyone wants to be recognized for doing a good job.  Whether it’s your kids who get a good grade, or make a good play in a sport, or your spouse who buys you an unexpected gift, or your religious leader who recognizes special services performed by members of your congregation.  Human’s want to be recognized. 

Thus in the business environment, recognizing good work is highly motivating and, I believe, many times it is even better then compensation.  Recognition can take many forms.  An annual “award” such as a sales award, or leadership award are clearly great recognition opportunities.  Especially if they are presented in front of the entire Company.  But, throughout the year there are many ways to recognize outstanding performance.    Flowers, lunches, dinners, music, books, in-house publications, simple memo’s of congratulations are just a few of the ways you can recognize your employees for great work.  The right tool will need to “fit the occasion” but you should consider what will really make someone “proud” that they achieved this recognition.  So, a new tech toy might work for some but not for others.  Flowers to a wife/family might work for some  but not for others.  Just think carefully about what is best to fit the situation.  AND, do not overdo it….  Recognize where appropriate.

If you follow this advice, you will be amazed at how motivated your employees become!

Rich

Bizvice:  Strategy, Marketing & Entrepreneurship