March 10, 2005
Nice reference
800CEORead published a very good list of the most fundamental business books from Sun Tzu to Adam Smith to Drucker to Micheal Porter.
Posted by johnza at 05:01 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 02, 2004
The Right Marketing for the Right Play
At the same Ignition offsite, a recurring theme among CEOs was the importance of not only simplicity but also consistency across the organization. So several folks also asked "OK so I've chosen my play, that should keep my strategy simply, but what does that imply in terms of the marketing decisions on down the organzation, how do I keep these consistent?"
They asked for a quick summary of the standard implications of each chosen play on the key marketing elements. It's also in the book, but here's a reprint:
Posted by johnza at 05:54 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The Right Play for the Right Field
Yesterday Ignition had one of it's regular portfolio company CEO offsites. One of the key themes for CEOs was the importance of making the complex simple. This time we introduced the playbook and used it as a means to driving that simplicity in reviewing and discussing each company's strategy (or play) and it's marketing. Really sparked some stimulating discussions. Great CEOs call clear, simple plays.
Anyway, amongst other things there were frequent requests for a summary of the best conditions, pros, cons, i.e. decision criteria for each play. It's in the book, but what the heck, here's a reprint:
Posted by johnza at 05:46 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 14, 2004
Not All Proof is Created Equal
Making a bold claim is important to get an audience's attention, but supporting it is even more critical if you want to convert that attention into action. You can support a claim at three levels:
. Functionality and Features: What you have.
. Needs and benefits: Why they should care, what's in it for them.
. Evidence or Proof: Why they should believe you.
And in our calculus not all support it equal. Features are great but not as important as the benefits they provide to customers. Benefits are the center of all good messaging. But proof speaks the loudest. Therefore Proof>Benefits>Features.
Beyond that, not all proof is equal. Depending on where you are in the market, you can leader with weaker or strong proof of your claims.
The strongest is when you can say you are number one overall. The next strongest is when you can claim leadership of some subset of the category (e.g. "choosey mothers choose Jif"). The next best is individual endorsements from folks your audience trusts. And the weakest (but still essential at whatever stage of market development you are in) is simply to show how you are better.
Proof may be the most powerful marketing but always make sure to engineer your proof to put the strongest foot forward. End of soapbox.
Posted by johnza at 11:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 08, 2004
Strategy vs. Tactics
BusinessPundit: Strategy - It's Hard To Stick With It Business Pundit highlights an age old issue that made me think of this week's quote (one of our all time favorites):
Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.
- Sun Tzu (Chinese General, circa 500 BC)
So what is strategy and what are tactics. For fun below is a short outline of an explanation we've used to clarify this supposedly easy but often devilshly tricky distinction:
-------------
Objectives 101
. What is an objective?
. What is a goal?
. What is a strategy?
. What is a tactic?
. What is a plan?
Objectives and Goals
. Objective a : something toward which effort is directed : an aim, goal, or end of action b : a strategic position to be attained or a purpose to be achieved by a military operation
. Goal a : the end toward which effort is directed : AIM (Also a specific, measurable achievement behind an objective)
Context
. Business: How to make money from spending money - Engineering, Finance, Operations, Marketing Sales
. Marketing: How to build demand with the market place - Product, Price, Place, Promotion
. Communications: How to promote effectively - Messaging, Media
. Personal: How to contribute to all of the above
Strategy
. Strategy a : The science of military command, or the science of projecting campaigns and directing great military movements; generalship.
. The set of decisions made to best ensure achievement of the desired objectives, based on an assessment of:
... one's own current situation/position; capabilities & shortcoming; competitive position
... options/alternatives -- risks
... timing
Tactics
. Tactic a : a device for accomplishing an end; b : a method of employing forces in combat
. The set of requirements for a plan to take effect
Tactical vs. Strategic:
. Always relative to one another
. Tactics: the set of actions taken to fulfill a strategy
Plan
. Plan a : a scheme devised; a method of action or procedure expressed or described in language; a project; as, the plan of a constitution; the plan of an expedition.
. The combination of objectives, strategies and tactics
. The specific articulation of how the tactics will support the strategies that will achieve the objectives in time
. The rationale that supports this course of action
Anyway, we've found this little glossary useful in the past. Let us know if you think it makes sense.
Posted by johnza at 04:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 14, 2004
What do we mean by Campaigns?
This entry is a bit overdue. We've talked a lot about this Marketing Playbook system. It has Plays, a Playing Field and Campaigns. So let's explain what we mean by that. If the Play is the strategy, the Playing Field the market and other conditions you face, then the Campaign is the tactical action of running the play down the field toward your goal. These tactics consist of a ton of things, all of these are really choices. Our list includes the product and it's packaging, how it is priced, the positioning and messaging that makes it compelling and different, the promotions you use to drive demand, and the media you choose to reach people with. All of these elements come together to create a successful campaign. The true test of your play.Posted by johnza at 08:42 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 05, 2004
What's in a name
Recently, I was working with a company on both their product and company naming. Here was some of the basic guidance used to guide the decisions:
Some naming realities:
Names are for people outside your company
* Names are things you want an audience (i.e. people) to remember
* Names are things you brand and even trademark, they are things you invest in, if you don't they are just words
* Names communicate and simplify
Some people realities:
* People are easily confused - complexity does not work well in names
* People have a limited cache - they can't digest too many names at once
* People forget - they need to be reminded over and over again of the same one or very few names
* allows you to know WHAT you are actually naming and not naming,
* helps keep these names consistent and compelling, and
* makes it faster and easier to name each time.
Keeping things straight.
Generally the things you name are as follows (make sure you really know the difference between them and how they relate to each other):
* the company - this is the longest lasting name you have to have. You pour your values,
personality, mission, vision etc into this brand (e.g. Microsoft)
* the product line - a family of mulitple products that are related to each other (e.g. Office)
*individual products - the products within a family, either different variations or component
products of the core family (e.g. OfficePro)
*product versions - as the specific individual products evolve, this is the means of keeping track
(e.g. OfficePro 95)
*ingredient names - the green crystals or Secret Sauce. These should be lasting technologies or
concepts that cut across more than one product (e.g. Intellisense, Retsin)
*feature names usually version specific functionality, that you want to highlight in promotion but
not in packaging (e.g. Pivot Tables, the Blue Dot)
*program names - not products, but supporting efforts that are worthy of naming, putting marketing investment behind. Often at the corporate vs. the product level (e.g. MSDN not Visual Studio Developer Network)
Some ground rules for a good naming convention
* Names should either be memorable or meaningful
* They should create the right emotion or communicate/imply the actual thing they are naming
* Company names should be flexible and bigger than the names of the products, they are receptacles that you put meaning into. They don't have to be as concrete as the product names (Salesforce.com is kicking themselves, they are going to have a hard time launching an ERP product)
* Invest in very few core names, build the rest of your convention around them
* Do not name stuff you are not going to support or invest in over the long term
* Don't work too hard. Even if you don't love the name, even if it doesn't make sense, if people already love it and are aware of it, keep it.
Also wanted to make a quick plug for Susan Giordano and Christopher Ireland who have done a bang up job for us on a number of corporate ID and naming efforts.
Posted by johnza at 02:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 14, 2004
Positioning XYZs
The heart, soul and mind of any campaign, any persuasive communication is your positioning. It is also one of the most hotly discussed topics in marketing. For us though, it's simple. Your positioning statement is just the logic, the argument for choosing your offering over everyone else's. But believe it or not, in our little Marketing Playbook, we once again have a handy shortcut for this too. It's called the Positioning XYZs(tm). This is another little tool you will see us refer to all the time. It's a super simple logic. We are the only X that solves Y problem in Z unique way." Where... . X is the category of company, product, service or other offering you've chosen to win . Y is the unment need of your target audience, and . Z is the differentiation, advantage, or key positive distinction you have over your competition.Posted by johnza at 02:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 12, 2004
The Marketing Playing Field
This is the phrase we use to describe the terrain on which you run your Marketing Play. Understanding this terrain is critical. You have to keep it in mind everyday, but it doesn't have to involve tons of work and research dollars each time you do it. It consists of looking at (and doing your ABC assessment) of four dimensions: the overall industry dynamics and economics, the competition, your existing and target customers, and your own resources and competencies.Posted by johnza at 09:32 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Marketing ABCs(tm)
Another term you'll see us use all the time is the Marketing ABCs or just plain ABCs. This is a shorthand formula for a simple situation or gap analysis, where
A = Where we are today, or the current situation
B = Why the heck aren't we there, or the challenge/frustration in not being in a better situation
C = What we need to get there, or the proposed action required to cross the gap.
The ABCs allow you to quickly assses all the dimensions of your Marketing Playing Field and understand what you are up against, where you want to be, and what you need to do to get there.
Posted by johnza at 09:11 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 11, 2004
The High-Low Play
This Marketing Play is basically the opposite of the Best of Both Play. Here, instead of offering a combination that collapses the extremes of a category, you emphasize the importance of choice. You offer both extremes, no compromises and a migration path between them.
Posted by johnza at 06:49 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The Best of Both Play
Best of Both is an ambitious Marketing Play. Many product and services categories have both high and low end offerings - and never the twain shall meet. In Best of Both you aim to gain dominance the whole category by collapsing both high and low ends into a new more compelling offer. You winning by offering "your cake and eat it too."
Posted by johnza at 06:46 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Stealth Play
This Marketing Play is almost the opposite of the Drag Race. When you run stealth you are trying to avoid getting squished by the competition. Generally you focus on a specific niche where you can build your strength unnoticed. You often add-on, peacefully coexist and even draft behind the would-be biggest competitor(s), avoiding dragraces completely. Until you have what it takes to move onto another more open and larger play.
Posted by johnza at 06:37 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The Platform Play
In this Marketing Play you rise above the competition, or even coopt them. Instead you win by becoming a Platform from which a whole industry can win too. You win by making it easy and profitable for others to ally with you and painful for them to let you loose.
Posted by johnza at 06:28 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The Drag Race Play
The Drag Race is simple. In this Marketing Play you pick one competitor to compare yourself to and then you put all you have into beating them across the finish line.
Posted by johnza at 06:22 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
The 5 Marketing Plays(tm)
You will hear us refer to specific Marketing Plays a lot in this blog. We've found in examining and dealing with marketing problems over the years that there are really only five basic strategies or Marketing Plays to fit all situations you face: the Drag Race, the Platform, Stealth, the Best of Both, and the High-Low. These form the core of the Marketing Playbook we use all the time.Posted by johnza at 06:18 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
What is a Marketing Playbook?
This whole "Playbook" thing is really pretty simple. Most of the time marketing -is way too complicated. One way to keep it simple is to think of it like a game. A game where you need strategy - the Marketing Play(tm), you need intelligence about what you are up against - the Marketing Playing Field(tm), and you need some guidelines for when you actually run down the field - the Campaign. The Marketing Playbook idea is really just a concept or system for keeping these three elements organized and at hand. It is also the lense through which we make sense out of a lot of what we see in business out there.Posted by johnza at 06:10 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
