On a Mission
A day with Mike Harris
Stand for Something
Building trusted brands
The Upside of the Downturn
Ten Management Strategies
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Talking BananaramaThursday 30th April 2009 I've just been scanning the Business Money All-Asset Conference Agenda on the train to the CBI Conference Centre at Centre Point. All the great and the good will be here and I have some tough things to say about how brands will pull them through the recession and the importance of cherishing clients. It's an outing for the very recent Financial Services Leadership Survey conducted with my good friends at Harvey Coaching. The ink isn't even dry yet on the survey and so there's a lot of new ground to cover, far-reaching serious stuff.
I'll be quoting a lot of management, branding and leadership gurus such as Seth Godin, Tom Peters, Peter Drucker, Kevin Roberts et al and yet one of the most far reaching visionaries I'm citing has to be Bananarama – "Its not what you do, it’s the way that you do it – that’s what gets results!" So many financial services organisations try to differentiate on product, tinkering with risk or price. The way that you do what you do is far more distinctive, memorable and engaging. It's also far less risky! Never Forget the Elephant Story!Wednesday 29th April 2009 I was preparing my presentation for The Business Money All Asset Conference and I was reminded of a story regarding a group of tourists who were walking through the streets of a little Indian village. All of a sudden they noticed an old man picking up what appeared to be a scrap of wood. With a small rusty knife he scooped up another piece of wood and then another. Amazed at the speed, dexterity and accuracy of this old man, one of the tourists could stand it no longer. Breaking away from the pack, she said “Excuse me but I have to ask you, how are you able to take the rusty knife and carve the most exquisite miniature elephant figurines I have ever seen. The old man paused for a moment and looking her straight in the eye, he smiled and said, “It’s simple really I just cut away all the bits that don’t look like an elephant.” If you want to protect your business and emerge stronger the answer is simple - you need to cut out all the parts that don’t look like your brand – then focus and build on what remains. Focus on what’s core. Eliminate ruthlessly. And if you don’t know exactly how to do that all you have to do is ask. That's how you Create Your Own Space! New Client / Old ClientTuesday 28th April 2009 Financial organisations seem to have forgotten that it is seven to ten times more costly to attract new customers than to retain existing ones. All the new, fresh and exciting offers are designed to appeal to and attract new clients, not reward existing customers. OK, clients feel vulnerable right now and this is manifested in terms of significant inertia. That can change frighteningly fast.
Never forget that today and in the future, the customer will be even more self-empowered. Napoleon Bonaparte said it all: "I can no longer obey; I have tasted command, and I cannot give it up!" When we emerge from recession, clients will wish to exercise that choice like never before. Leading with LovemarksMonday 27th April 2009 During meltdowns, the role of emotion is heightened. The tougher it gets, the stronger emotional bonds become. This is a time for love – big unconditional love. As Kevin Roberts CEO of Saatchi and Saatchi says “Brands are built on Respect. True Lovemarks (which create unreasonable client loyalty) are created out of Love and Respect. Lovemarks are about relationships, not transactions. Stop the Analysis ParalysisWednesday 22nd April 2009 In this market, too many senior executives within the financial services industry have been watching and waiting on ‘what will shake out from the downturn’. So much time is spent agonising about what they shouldn’t do, their greatest danger is substituting ‘Action’ for Analysis.
Financial Services organisations can get away with this in a boom economy. We can’t get away with it now. The antidote to the Recession is a commitment to Action. No matter how many ideas you have swirling around, not one of them is worth a penny to you until you actually take action on it. This is the time to choose five new initiatives and test, test, test. Follow Up or Fade AwayTuesday 21st April 2009 Do you aim to give your prospects and key business introducers away to your nearest competitors? Of course not. But you could be doing just that by not following up enough. In today’s market conditions, persistence is power. Take a look at these eye-opening statistics:
48% of sales people never follow up with a prospect
25% of sales people make a second contact and stop
12% of sales people only make three contacts and stop
Factor in the following:
2% of sales are made on the first contact
3% of sales are made on the second contact
5% of sales are made on the third contact
10% of sales are made on the fourth contact
80% of sales are made on the fifth to twelfth contact
If that wasn’t bad enough, just take a look at the reasons why people stop buying from businesses: 1% die And a massive 68% of people leave a business because they do not feel valued.
One of my favourite quotes is from Calvin Coolidge, the 30th President of the United States:
“Nothing in this world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan 'press on' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”
It's time to substitute 'Analysis' for 'Action' and 'Prevarication' for 'Persistence'. Think of new ways that you can act now to follow up better. Mix media - send regular monthly direct mail and email communications in a variety of formats (but keep your branding consistent). Keep your messages fresh. Look to inform, inspire and entertain. Above all, be different - Create Your Own Space!
Same Difference?Monday 20th April 2009 Scanning through the marketing collateral of financial organisations and trade magazines this month, I couldn't help but notice that most players are claiming exactly the SAME attributes as differentiators within their respective trade magazines.
Statements such as: "What differentiates us is our people, service, flexibility and innovation." peppering journals, brochures and web sites seem to me to be having the opposite effect to that which was intended. Ironically, it follows that the greater the organisational focus on these particular 'differentiators', the more similar these companies must seem in the eyes of their potential customers - resulting in inevitable commoditisation and price parity. The thing is, brands need to be different at the core! As marketers, I believe we have a responsibility to ensure that each financial brand in our stewardship is treated individually. and nurtured. They therefore must have a distinctive core essence and a personality that sets them apart. The real opportunity to gain a competitive advantage is to focus and develop DIFFERENT attributes from competitors and to build a Unique Value Proposition and customer experience from that solid foundation. Cherish your Financial BrandFriday 17th April 2009 Cherish. It's a word that's not used very much in today's society, let alone in financial services markets. Yet, it can make a big difference to your marketing. This month, I will be speaking at The Business Money Conference, my key message, "Your brand can pull you through - cherish it!".
Think of the word ‘cherish’ and it conjures up the concept of ‘unconditional love’. After all, your brand is - or should be - your baby. If you do not cherish your brand enough to nurture, protect, promote and sustain it as I have said above, then why on earth should anyone else care, especially the hard pressed owner managed business.
Whatever label you choose to place on the current climate, it’s clear that there are macroeconomic forces at work that are placing new pressures on your firm. There are normally three knee-jerk reactions that are applied by financial organisations during times such as these: command and control, paralysis by analysis and to retrench. Not exactly terms that you would associate with cherishing your brand or your customer. Clients are feeling more vulnerable than ever and they are more likely to stick with what they know and trust and take fewer risks. However, there is no room for complacency.
This is the time to focus on retention and referral, remembering why you took your clients on in the first place. Go out of your way to show them you still want them. Communicate with them with relevance and regularity.
Make meaningful gestures - if you read something in the national press or the Internet about the state of a particular market and you have clients in that specific sector, why not share the information with them? It shows a willingness to engage, to understand their business and a degree of thoughtfulness that is memorable. What can you give away to your clients this week that doesn't cost you anything at all but would mean something to them?
Don't assume a return to normal - the longer and deeper the recession, the more likely clients will adjust their attitudes and behaviours permanently. Take time to re-evaluate your insights and be alive to clients' changing mindsets.
PermitThursday 16th April 2009 Three big Dont's:
Don't wait for permission from The FT or The
Economist to declare that the recession is over. Get ahead of the crowd
- plan your post-recession strategy now. Don’t permit momentum in your marketing to be lost – you may never get it back.Don’t be one of those companies that allows itself to become complacent and miss the changes. Focus on sectors where pent-up demand is going to be unleashed once the economy turns the corner.
PromoteWednesday 15th April 2009 There’s a lot less noise – and a lot more opportunity. Invest in marketing and you are guaranteed a greater share of voice. In a re-financing market, with the absence of data that tells you exactly when prospects plan to move, you’d better be in touch with them every month.
Re-evaluate media channels, messages - and everything else. The volume of direct mail has reduced dramatically, so use it. Get your online strategy delivering. Heighten the level of creative and disruptive thinking – hire it in and make your messages “top of mind”.
ProtectTuesday 14th April 2009 The goal of marketing during a recession is generally to protect market share at a minimum and ideally to expand it, positioning the brand to perform well post-recession.
“We have a philosophy and a strategy,” P&G chief A.G. Lafley once told The Wall Street Journal. “When times are tough, you build share.”
All-Asset Finance ConferenceMonday 13th April 2009 I am greatly looking forward to addressing The Business Money All-Asset Finance Conference at the CBI Conference Centre at the end of April. It is perhaps ironic that the audience have unrivalled experience at handling a multiplicity of assets and that our business at Strand Financial is concerned with just one - and an intangible one at that! However, I take comfort from this quote from John Stewart, former CEO of Quaker, who once famously remarked, "If this business were split up, I would give you the land and bricks and mortar, and I would take the brands and trademarks, and I would fare better than you."
In fact, there are clear similarities between the management of brands and Asset Based Lending. The key is to understand the underlying sources of value intimately and manage them closely like any asset. The key factor for success for individual brands within this sector is connected directly with the ability to differentiate at every level. Last year I introduced the "SPACE Model" - Strategy, Positioning, Architecture, Communications and Engagement - which shows the way in which brands in this sector can achieve a distinctive approach.
This year, I look forward to sharing some Brand New Ideas with this expert audience consisting of leading CEOs and company directors.
Re-inventing Banking BrandsFriday 10th April 2009 Today, banks and their marketing agencies seem most intent on simply communicating stability. In the current climate, you actually have to engineer two vectors - one of stability and one of change - simultaneously.
Banks can't simply stabilise as an endgame or else they'll disappear. Banks that effect change are the only ones that really get noticed in the marketplace.
Brand re-invention is a vital part of what we do for clients and a repositioning of your brand is essential when one or more of the following conditions exist:
A) Its meaning has become cloudy or confused
B) It doesn't stand for anything (anymore) C) It has a poor or damaged image as the result of the current crisis D) It owns an irrelevant or undifferentiated benefit or attribute (possibly once differentiated but now price of market entry) E) It is not aligned with (a shift in) strategic direction or culture through management focus or a merger or acquisition F) It's current positioning is no longer appropriate G) It has a new competitor with a matching or superior value proposition, diluting the power of the brand H) It is possible to gain a powerful proprietary advantage that must be integrated into the positioning strategy I) It faces the situation where the appeal of the brand must be broadened to new segments for which the current positioning is inappropriate (care must be taken to appeal to current and new customers and must not alienate these groups). Have you discovered your point of difference? If you haven't done so, it's time to Create Your Own Space.
Your Customer's Mind - the Ultimate Search EngineThursday 09th April 2009 I’m a fervent believer in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). I’ve seen what it can do for our financial clients. Organisations who are enjoying number one rankings in Google for key industry search terms and consequently driving record levels of quality enquiry. However, I’m also an advocate of MEO – Mind Engine Optimisation. Here, clients approach their browsers with your brand already in pole position in their mental search engine. So, for example, if you’re thinking of a book seller, you’d go to Amazon.com. By extension, if you’re thinking of a financial marketing agency, you’d go to strandfinancial.com, naturally – and you’d get this site, which I hope you’d think is a good thing. And if you then put financial marketing agency into Google on a UK search, you’d find financialmarketingagency.co.uk standing out at number one. Which, when you look at the people section, brings us full circle to the fact that you can’t ignore search! Think brand. Think search. Think ahead! Don't Research, ProsearchWednesday 08th April 2009 Market research needs to abandon its pretensions that the consumer has predictive powers as a guide to the future. Experienced researchers recognise that many consumers can be future-blind and apathetic until stimulated into taking action and being shown new space. However, this trend is being challenged in terms of Internet use where the consumer is making free choice, driving market space in networking and community environments. Using the 'brand-past' as a guide to future action may help the consumer recognise our advertising in a tracking study, but the findings will only condemn us to merely repeat the past. Market research may re-enforce what we already know, it may even give us Œcolour¹ in terms of consumer attitudes and perceptions but it won¹t shift markets. Only the adoption of new thinking can do that. So far the financial services industry has been unable to tap into the trends with sufficient impact or thought velocity. When the future was an extension of the present, it was reasonable to assume that what worked today would also work next year. That assumption must now be cast aside. During times of change, it can almost be guaranteed that what used to work well in the past will not work at all next time around. The old approaches are at best simply too incremental. Research and analysis will tell you only what has been; at best what is. It cannot predict the future, nor will it help you to see today what you can be tomorrow. To create the future, you have to engage with possibility. To this end, a new kind of research 'Prosearch' is a vital step in helping you Create Your Own Space. Because to Create Your Own Space, there must be a view as to how customer needs will change (insight), what the new opportunities may be (imagination), what these opportunities could look and feel like (illumination) and how the organisation should adapt to realise them (implementation). |
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