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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Innovation - A Choice of DefinitionsFriday 28th August 2009 I recently spoke about the 10 Immutable Laws of Innovation. Here are some other thoughts:
“Innovation is the sum of invention plus the commercialisation of that invention.” (Ireland)
“A major innovation is one that sparks further innovations and investment (e.g. the computer), as opposed to other “Innovation is a process by which a company:
“An Invention is a new product; an Innovation is a new customer benefit.” (Doyle) “...the ability to look where everyone else is looking and see what no one else can see.” (R. J. Duggan) "Innovation is the introduction of change via something new.” (Rouse). "Innovation (is) the process of taking a discovery or idea to the market." (Brinkman) "Research is the transformation of money into knowledge; innovation is the transformation of knowledge into money." (Bayer). Real QuotesThursday 27th August 2009 "It is not slickness, polish, uniqueness, or cleverness that makes a brand a brand. It is truth." "A brand that captures your mind gains behavior. A brand that captures your heart gains commitment." "A brand is a living entity - and it is enriched or undermined cumulatively over time, the product of a thousand small gestures" Reputational QuotesWednesday 26th August 2009 "A brand for a company is like a reputation for a person. You earn reputation by trying to do hard things well." "Google actually relies on our users to help with our marketing. We have a very high percentage of our users who often tell others about our search engine." "Ordinary people can spread good and bad information about brands faster than marketers." Remarkable QuotesTuesday 25th August 2009 "Something remarkable is worth talking about. Worth noticing. Exceptional. New. Interesting. It's a Purple Cow. Boring stuff is invisible. It's a brown cow. Remarkable marketing is the art of building things worth noticing right into your product or service." A lady, sitting next to Raymond Loewy at dinner, struck up a conversation. "Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs. Marketing is the distinguishing, unique function of the business." Relevant QuotesMonday 24th August 2009 "Customers must recognise that you stand for something." "Marketing is the art of meaningful differentiation." "A brand is a set of differentiating promises that link a product to its customers." "To uncover hidden category needs, don't ask 'How can I differentiate my brand from its competition?' but rather ask 'What are the unmet needs that no brand is addressing?' " Legendary Marketing Quotes SeriesSunday 23rd August 2009 Brand stories, quotations and anecdotes make a point real to people and imbed these truths in their memories. As they are told and retold, they can raise the brand to a mythological level. This week, I'd like to share with you some quotes that I find interesting and inspiring. For those of you who have been on the journey with me through the development of the 4Rs methodology, I have collated these under the headings: Relevant, Remarkable, Reputational and Real. Feel the Netvibes!Friday 21st August 2009 Founded by Tariq Krim in 2005, Netvibes pioneered the personalised homepage as an alternative to traditional web portals.
Netvibes is a Web 2.0 aggregator that enables people to assemble their favorite widgets, websites, blogs, email accounts, social networks, search engines, instant messengers, photos, videos, podcasts, and everything else they enjoy on the web - all in one place.
This month, using the Netvibes platform, Mike Symes has created the ideal bookmark for Financial Marketers to access all the very latest Financial Marketing news, views and blogs on one page.
You can gain fresh new insights at http://www.netvibes.com/financialmarketing
First, Find Your SpaceThursday 20th August 2009 There's a wonderful book called, "The 22 Immutable Laws of Marketing", by Al Reis and Jack Trout. In this seminal work, the authors provide a clear illustration of the importance of being first in a category. It goes something like this:
Now, if I was to ask you, "Who was the first person to fly solo over the Atlantic?", I'm sure you'd tell me without any hesitation that it was Charles Lindbergh. Do you know the second? The chances are that you would have no idea. Do you know the third? Even less likely to recall the name of that particular person! However, if I rephrased the very last question: "Who was the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic?", then naturally, you'd tell me it was Amelia Earhart.
Considering your core competencies and redefining your space should be one of the first places to look for differential advantage.
So, the first law, according to Reis and Trout, is: "It¹s better to be first than it is to be better." The second law is: "If you can't be first in a category, then set up a category that you can be first in."
Forget USPs - what's Your UVP?Wednesday 19th August 2009 The sales training industry owes a great deal to Rosser Reeves who coined the phrase USP as an acronym for the unique selling proposition in the 1950s. The problem is, a USP doesn't go far enough because business, particularly the financial services business, is far more complex. In today's financial services industry, differentiation comes through redefining or "re-imagining" the customer experience through creating a value proposition based on a central idea or core essence. That value proposition is something we call the UVP - Unique Value Proposition. Imagine a wheel with your core essence as the hub and spokes coming off that to specific points or nodes. Each one of these should create value and be connected directly to the Core Essence. There aren't too many conditions other than the fact that they must be remarkable, reputational, relevant and real in order to add value, be communicated effectively and be sustainable points of difference. It's a great test to validate your core brand essence - the ultimate test being your customers! Emerging MarketsTuesday 18th August 2009 In a mother of all projects, BrandZ asked over 650,000 consumers and professionals across 31 countries to compare 23,000+ brands. Just by way of background, BRANDZ is a diagnostic and predictive brand equity measurement tool that was developed for WPP's operating companies. Notably, their 2007 Top 100 Brands Report highlights the following trends within the financial services industries: "As financial markets in developed countries become saturated, financial institutions are extending into emerging markets. Multi-national banks are eager to tap into China's banking sector as the country deregulates its financial institutions. India's retail banking is expected to grow 18% a year until 2010. Most global players entering the market have realized the need to focus on marketing issues to establish brand awareness and gain a share of the market. Globally, an increase in the number of wealthy individuals has led banks to introduce or strengthen wealth management services. Meanwhile, insurers are focusing on a single brand strategy that has proven effective. Large insurers such as AIG ($5,880 million) are re-branding acquisitions to their own brands." Planetary PositioningSaturday 15th August 2009 Here's some jamming with words that I did this weekend when exploring the theme of creating space. There are some associations inherent in the names of the planets that struck me as interesting: Mercury Messenger / Communication / Speed / Agility Visiting Deep SpaceFriday 14th August 2009 When mapping a competitive position, the concepts of light and heat illustrate the principal strategic influences on the market spaces we choose to take up:
Light
White Spaces - Where there is clear market space free of competitors (high differentiation, high demand) Black Holes - Where brands reach the end of their lifecycle (low differentiation, low demand) Heat
Cool Places - Where innovation thrives (high innovation, long term gains)
Hot Spots - Where new competitors cluster (high innovation, short term gains) Launching into SpaceThursday 13th August 2009 Planning Your Mission
I have been emailed by one of the regular readers of this blog in response to yesterday's post, to outline where Positioning sits in the overall context of the marketing plan. Although by no means exhaustive, here are my headline thoughts on structure for a Marketing Action Plan (MAP):
Scope Define Explore Evaluate The Conative Campaign - Knowledge to ActWednesday 12th August 2009 I noticed a series of striking text-based ads from Thomson Reuters on the tube today. The key messages support their 'Knowledge to Act' campaign. Each of the ads reveals a different aspect of the business and it struck me immediately that the nature of the proposition is fundamentally Conative. The first creative execution is headed, "The end of think. The beginning of know", which is a theme echoed in the line "It's no time for 'think'. This culminates in the dependable promise:"knowledge that businesses and professionals rely on worldwide." Here, the proposition is played out by emphasising the inherent dynamism of the process in response to Board pressure, driving towards a decision to act instantly, eliminating or subjugating both cognitive and connective dimensions: "The end of think. The beginning of know.
Markets are watching. Your board is waiting. It's no time for 'think'. Enter Thomson Reuters, the world's leading source of intelligent information. Thousands of industry experts filtering vast databases of information with the most intuitive applications. Checkpoint. Westlaw. Reuters News. It's knowledge that businesses and professionals rely on worldwide. Thomson Reuters - Knowledge to act."
The second ad in the series serves to highlight the difference between feelings and knowing. Although friendship is mentioned, the decision-making process taps into gut instinct and experience, rather than the world of emotion and feelings. The proposition for this advertisement centres on trust: "Introducing a better gut instinct. The third ad execution is creating empathy based on peer knowledge and experience, resulting in robust insight and knowledge that drives action: "Insight from people who don't just get what you do. They do what you do.
Taxation, finance, accounting, healthcare, law; thousands of experienced specialists working for you 24/7. Add the most intelligent insight-generating software in the world and you get the world's leading source of intelligent information, business insight and knowledge to act; for businesses and professionals. Thomson Reuters - Knowledge to act."
Like the ad before it, the fourth and final ad maps out the target audience as businesses and professionals. This ad sharpens the focus still further by utilising peer to peer or aspirational positioning, citing the Fortune 500 amongst its clients. We are told that they 'help uncover decisions',
suggesting a process or discovery that leads to action: "Decision in a haystack.
Plea bargain? 'Launch Invest'? We're the world's leading source of intelligent information, business insight and knowledge to act, for businesses and professionals (including the entire Fortune 500). With insight mined from reams of data by experts who do what you do, we help uncover decisions. Thomson Reuters - Knowledge to act." What you may ask is missing from these Conative ads? Oh yes - a Call to Action! Get Connective - Bridge Functional and Emotional AttributesTuesday 11th August 2009 Whilst the Connective dimension may not be the primary driver to action in financial services markets, a greater balance between functional and emotional brand values may serve to stimulate value creation and sustainable differential advantage. The ability to communicate on a more intimate level helps break through the constant noise that consumers are bombarded with each and every day.
Ethical values and beliefs engage with clients on a deeper level than functional attributes as The Co-Operative Bank's 'Smile' Account has shown. On a totally different motivational level, aspirational positioning to the 'privileged few' can elicit desire for specific financial products e.g. the esteem conferred by owning, say, a Coutt's bank account or a black credit card.
A cohesive visual vocabulary is a powerful means of creating an emotional connection. This may consist of a carefully chosen mix of your your corporate identity, corporate colours, fonts, an icon, character or images designed to endorse your brand personality and tell your unique story, speeding up the brand recognition building process.
Despite an ever-expanding array of marketing platforms, consumers still place their highest levels of trust in other consumers, according to a recent global Nielsen Internet survey. Conducted twice-a-year among 26,486 internet users in 47 markets from Europe, Asia Pacific, the Americas and the Middle East, Nielsen most recently surveyed consumers on their attitudes toward thirteen types of advertising from conventional newspaper and television ads to branded web sites and consumer-generated content. 78% of respondents said they trusted the recommendation of other consumers above all else.
It follows that video testimonials are powerful ways of highlighting a positive brand experience in a real way. The warmth and sincerity of delivery as well as the emotions expressed will build the credibility of your Connective messaging through the power of 'social proof'.
Cognitive Marketing - Bulletproof your Brand PromiseSunday 09th August 2009 We have already established that the Cognitive dimension is the dominant zone which the financial decision maker inhabits. Consequently, we as financial marketers need to appeal to the needs of the 'thinker', re-enforcing the brand promise with proof points or 'reasons to believe', that are grounded in fact to substantiate our claims. It is vital that these proof points are validated and I would like to use one of Strand Financial's clients, Vision Critical, to illustrate my point.
In the recently published Business Money Annual Review 2007, Editor Bob Lefroy comments: "It was a master stroke (Close Invoice Finance) being first to the party with the revolutionary IDeal discounting product, one that makes use of Vision Critical's real time reconciliation systems. It allows greater exposure levels with much lower administration costs making the product a ferocious competitor in term of flexibility, cost and service.
The figures reflect this. Factoring business is down overall but just look at the discounting numbers with sales and advances up 31% and client numbers up 25%. Average loan size is up 5%, operational efficiency measured by the client/officer ratio has improved 50% since 2002."
This contained a wide range of proof points. Within the space of a few paragraphs, we learn that:
1. Vision Critical works with BLUE-CHIP CLIENTS, such as Close Invoice Finance.
2. The level of third-party ENDORSEMENT is two-fold, that of the respected editor of the leading industry trade magazine and that of the CEO of Close Invoice Finance.
3. The Ideal product was FIRST to market with Vision Critical's innovative technology.
4. An aggressive MARKET LEADERSHIP position established by messaging such as 'master stroke', 'first to the party' and 'ferocious competitor'.
5. The client demonstrates SUPERIOR TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANTAGE, as evidenced by the 'revolutionary' product reference (n.b. this approach can also be applied to patents, unique processes, industry secrets and guarantees).
6. The entire proposition is supported by HARD FACTS, unequivocal evidence of customer advantage - 'sales and advances up 31%', 'client numbers up 25%', 'Average loan size is up 5%', 'operational efficiency measured by the client/officer ratio has improved 50%.'
7. There has been sustainable improvement demonstrated by BEFORE AND AFTER COMPARISONS - 'improved 50% since 2002'.
Create Your Own Space is about making bold, unique promises that truly matter to people. Think about bulletproofing your brand with powerful proof points.
The Natural OrderSaturday 08th August 2009 The order of Space-States is defined by the degree of involvement required in order to make a purchasing decision. Financial markets tend to work with high-involvement decision-making that supports the 'natural' order of Cognitive (Thinking), Connective (Feeling) and Conative (Doing) dimensions. Generally, the prospective client will be seeking assurance about the finance provider and the product in order to feel the level of trust to complete a purchasing decision. In the first instance, The purchaser is driven by the need to gather information (Cognitive State), so they can feel assured (Connective State), before they are comfortable to complete (Conative State) the transaction. This is applied to complex, high-risk, infrequent transactions characterised by decisions for acquiring financial services products. The fashion industry operates in a similar dimension, yet with the dominant emotional bias, the order and emphasis changes to create a Connective - Cognitive - Conative decision-making pathway. Low-purchasing decisions for may be Conative - Cognitive - Connective in the case of daily purchases of staple consumer goods or Conative - Connective - Cognitive in the case of an impulse purchase. Five out of SixtyFriday 07th August 2009 I read recently that only five out of the top sixty superbrands in Britain are financial services brands – and the same is true in Japan, America and other markets. Facing overcapacity and product proliferation, many financial organisations have become or are drifting towards being regarded as commodities with very few points of differentiation and a growing emphasis on price. Creating differentiation – the only alternative strategy to price-dominated competition – becomes an imperative. There has never been a better time for you to Create Your Own Space. Click on the link below to see the key note speech at the launch event for Financial Marketing TV. Space-StatesThursday 06th August 2009 The ways in which financial customers respond to marketing communications has been subjected to rigorous scrutiny and refined over decades. As early as 1923, Daniel Starch, said that to be effective: "an advertisement must be seen, read, believed, remembered and acted upon" E.K. Strong espoused the AIDA principle: "attention, interest, desire, action." Lavidge and Steiner produced the Hierarchy of Effects in 1961: "awareness, knowledge, liking, preference, conviction, action" and, in the same year, Russell Colley launched his theory of "unawareness, awareness, comprehension, conviction, action". Of these, I find it surprising that marketers still talk about the AIDA principle, as if it is cast in stone. It is, in contemporary terms, a very simplistic model. Cognitive (Thinking) Connective (Feeling) Conative (Doing) Create Your Own Space Check ListWednesday 05th August 2009 Do you and your employees truly understand what your brand stands for (your Core Essence)?
Do you have unique qualities that will support your Core Essence (your Brand Pillars)? Do you have a distinctive brand vocabulary with which you convey your most important points (your Key Messages)? Do you have all of the facts at your fingertips that endorse your key differentiators to demonstrate your competitive advantage (your Proof Points)?
Do you have distinctive defined actions and behaviours that your employees commit to and continually deliver on (your Unique Value Propositions)? Do you have an Elevator Pitch that articulates your distinctive competitive advantage in a way that is Remarkable, Relevant, Reputational and Real (your Positioning Statement)?
Creating Oceans of DifferenceTuesday 04th August 2009 In Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant (Harvard Business School Press), W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne challenge everything you thought you knew about the requirements for strategic success, and instead argue that the way to win is to stop competing. At Strand Financial, we are not obsessive about a client’s immediate competition. Yet we do not create brands in a vacuum. We are aware of convention, so we can break it and help clients to create their own space. One way is to adopt "Blue Ocean" strategies for clients.
Many financial companies settle for a remorseless battle for success in a commoditised "red ocean" or shrinking profit pool.
In the red ocean, industry boundaries are defined and accepted, prices are driven lower, and the competitive rules of the game become more transparent. As the market space becomes increasingly crowded, Kim and Mauborgne argue that companies need to use an "opposite approach". Instead of benchmarking the competition, brand pioneers set their own rules and create "blue oceans" of uncontested market space.
"Oppositioning" is one of the most successful competitive strategies ever to be unleashed on a cluttered marketplace. Why not ask how Strand Financial can explore Blue Oceans to help you Create Your Own Space? http://www.amazon.co.uk/Blue-Ocean-Strategy-Uncontested-Competition/dp/1591396190 Don't become benchmarked out!Monday 03rd August 2009 W. Chan Kim and Rene Mauborgne wrote a challenging piece in the Financial Times entitled, "Think for yourself - stop copying a rival." They explained: "Companies need to break out of a vicious cycle of competitive benchmarking and imitation. Aiming to beat the competition has the opposite effect to the one intended. It keeps companies focused on the competition. When asked to build competitive advantages, managers typically rate themselves against competitors, assess what they do and strive to do it better." I'm with Don Listwin, CEO of Openwave who added to the debate: "How do dominant companies lose their position? Two-thirds of the time, they pick the wrong competitor to worry about." In the past, I have spoken about financial companies becoming 'benchmarked out' and a proprietary differential marketing model that will help them break free from traditional thinking to create their own space. Watch the Strand Financial home page in the coming months for some fresh insights on video and podcasts concerning these key issues. A Seth Godin Action Figure?Sunday 02nd August 2009 This really made me smile - Archie McPhee is now selling the Seth Godin Marketing Guru Action Figure for $8.95 (no, I am not joking). Check this out:
http://www.mcphee.com/items/11792.html I love the website copy: "Imagine having your own personal marketing guru you can go to for advice and guidance. You could pay millions of dollars to consultants, but why not just get the Marketing Guru Action Figure? Marketing genius and famous blogger Seth Godin serves as the model for this 5.375" plastic action figure with his trademark mismatched socks and business casual clothes. Each figure comes with a free gift and the Little Book of Marketing Secrets. It's rumoured that if you want an insight into what your customers want and how they'd like to be communicated with, you can rub Seth's bald head and all will be made clear." Just stop right there, valued clients, don't get any ideas!
Porter: Banks must set themselves apartSaturday 01st August 2009 In an interview with Banking Strategies, Harvard professor and best-selling author, Michael E. Porter, commented: "We need to start moving into the next phase, which is one of strategy, the phase in which individual banks make It is my view in these credit crunch times, that boardrooms of financial institutions need bold visionaries who will drive differentiation strategy, rather than fall back on the endless cost-cutting that starves innovation. |
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