Marketing and Reputation

By Jeffrey Hayzlett, from his book, The Mirror Test: Is Your Business Really Breathing?

“The 118 is my version of what some people still call “the elevator pitch” — an out-of-date name for the worthy idea that you need to see what your company offers (and you)_ in the span of an elevator ride.

The 118 comes from the 118 seconds you actually have to pitch: 8 seconds to hook me and up to 110 seconds to drive it home. The first eight seconds is the length of time the average human can concentrate on something and not lose some focus. It is also the length of time of one of the toughest rides in the world: a qualified ride in professional bull riding. In these first eight seconds, you must be compelling, strong, and focused to be successful. You must hold on as one of the meanest, toughest animals in the world tries to throw you off — just like any good prospect will. Make it those 8 seconds and I’ll give you 110 more to drive your message home with no bull. But if you have not sold me at the end of the 118, I will start to tune out. At that point, we are moving forward to a sale or not.

I speak at hundreds of meetings, conferences and events worldwide every year, and I am constantly amazed by the inability of entrepreneurs, business owners, their managers, or their sales and marketing representatives to deliver a great, relevant 118.

The 118, like the elevator pitch before it, sells much more than a business’s products or services and unique selling pro[position (USP). It is an essential piece in building your brand.“

Purchase replay: THE MIRROR TEST: A New Way To Look At Your Company’s Marketing and Sales Strategy. Presented by Jeffrey Hayzlett, bestselling author, celebrity CMO, digital thought leader and cowboy.

Other quotes from Jeffrey Hayzlett:

Your marketing will and should reflect the personality of your company, and if you are not genuine, you won’t last very long.  Anyone who says otherwise is just trying to sell you something.

So it is with social media and will be again with the next “big thing” in marketing. Hard and fast, it too shall come again, startling us with its power and speed and forcing us to mistake it for something it can never be: the be all, end all.

You may not think customers are always right, but now they are always in charge.

Conversations are about talking and listening and then acting

The Holy Grail of Marketing is the one-to-one relationship.

Think “story” not “Placement.”

Scale is the new black. Leverage everything to make many out of one.

Make your business as transparent as possible.

Buzz is not sales.

itting in the board room, I’ve heard discussions focused on customer service, brand management and growing sales. Much less frequently have I heard discussions about associate relations surveys or concern for employees’ view of the company. Too often, such conversations only surfaced when there was an impending lay off or a plan to seek an “employer of the year” award.

Yet when you recognize that employees are brand ambassadors, you quickly realize that time dedicated to reviewing the organization’s reputation with this audience and investing in ensuring a positive image is produced is definitely time well spent:

Taking time to listen: Many businesses use tools such as employee engagement surveys and anonymous opinion polls. This research can help identify critical issues, such as productivity and retention. These tools even can help identify barriers to innovation, spot at-risk populations or uncover potential workplace violence issues.

It’s equally as important to train supervisors to listen to their teams to learn about issues of concern, the level of satisfaction and the degree of trust in leadership.

But to effectively use this methodology, you also must be prepared to listen.

Keep in mind that monitoring the Internet produces a picture of employee satisfaction. You can discern if there is a small percentage of unhappy employees or if the list of discontented associates is overwhelming. After all, people feel much safer sharing their views on the Web, so carefully listening to this chatter can provide excellent insight as to how much education needs to be done on a particular topic or which subjects are running rampant through the grapevine.

Now that you have the data: You may like what you’ve heard and are satisfied with your reputation as an employer. You may discover you have excellent communication and — even if your employees don’t always agree with you — they understand the corporate mission and strategy. They trust you are headed in the correct direction.

But you may have some revelations in regards to how you are viewed by those who represent you every day. And if those attitudes are not positive, the interaction your employees have with your customers, vendors, the community or government representatives could undermine the image these other groups have of your company. If this is the case, it’s time to develop plans to address the negativity.

Whether employees don’t think you care about their welfare, a single supervisor is creating problems within a department or individuals feel there is no future advancement opportunities, this knowledge is invaluable in helping you frame future communication, position modifications to policies, or introduce new ideas and methodologies.

In addition, by knowing the level of discontent and how your company’s reputation is being tarnished, you have a chance to correct misconceptions by providing additional information and perspective.

The key is, if you don’t like what your employees are saying about you, then you must take steps to address this.

Don’t forget the on boarding process: Because there are more applicants than jobs, it is easy to forget the necessity of making a positive impression on potential and new employees. This group is forming an opinion about the company based on the interaction that occurs during the hiring and early stages of employment.

Depending upon these feelings, your new team members will determine if your organization will be “a long-term commitment” or somewhere they can “get a paycheck as an interim gig.” Knowing how much it costs to search, hire and train an employee, you want to make a positive impression and know this “candidate turned employee” is ready to represent you positively and dedicated to the organization’s agenda.

Remember: You company is only as good as the employees. To ensure you are getting the highest quality of work, long-term commitment and excellent brand ambassadorship, you need to invest in your reputation as an employer.

Ruth Ellen Kinzey, The Kinzey Company is a corporate reputation strategist, consultant, and professional speaker. Want to hear more about a specific topic? She can be reached at (704) 763-0754 or http://www.kinzeycompany.com.

Why? Sustainability touches every aspect of an organization, from corporate stewardship to brand communication to transparency and governance to environmental interaction to employee relations to health and wellness. And while examining your business from this vantage point may seem overwhelming, it quickly becomes less burdensome when you recognize sustainability directly impacts your company’s longevity and success.

Is it really important?

Thoughtful leadership questions a paradigm shift or the need to adopt a new behavior prior to actualization. But when it comes to embracing sustainability, a strong business case exists already.

For example, on Deloitte’s website, sustainability is termed “a fundamental change driving long-term profitability,” referencing opportunities for innovation; human capital and technology changes; the implementation of high value processes; waste, emissions, water and energy issues; regulatory requirements; new growth markets; and shareholder expectations.

In May 2010, David Lubin and Daniel Esty talked about the “sustainability imperative” in the Harvard Business Review. They referred to sustainability as an emerging megatrend, citing environmental issues as steadily encroaching “on businesses’ capacity to create value for customers, shareholders and other stakeholders.”

When a survey of chief executive officers was released by the United Nations Global Compact and Accenture in June 2010, sustainability was identified as critical to the future of companies, citing the growing number of environmental, societal and governance concerns.

And, these CEOs considered the corporate attributes of brand, trust and reputation as the primary drivers to act on sustainability. Other motivators, in descending order, were the potential for revenue growth and cost reduction, personal motivation, consumer and customer demand, and employee engagement and retention.

Tapping into resources

Whether you are starting your sustainability journey or have it underway, a plethora of resources and volumes of data are available to assist you. In fact, Google produces 39,700,000 results for “sustainability” in .05 seconds.

But before you seek help, it is critical to understand where you are in this process by identifying how your resources are allocated in terms of corporate stewardship, environmentally-friendly behavior, diversity initiatives, corporate ethics and transparency, employee relations and other sustainability matters.

After completing a comprehensive inventory, you must determine where to concentrate initially and what your long-term goals are.

Ceres, a national network of investors, environmental groups and other public entities, emphasizes the necessity of business sustainability to achieve a global economy that supports today’s population and the projected 9 billion people in 2050. It’s Roadmap for Sustainability identifies four areas considered key for a comprehensive and coherent sustainable business strategy: governance, stakeholder engagement, disclosure and performance.

But, there are numerous other well-known and highly reputable nonprofits, businesses and government entities that offer guidance, tools, or collaborative opportunities, such as the Conference Board for the Center of Corporate Citizenship and Sustainability; Institute for Sustainability; Business Civic Leadership Center; Harvard’s Kennedy School Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative; Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship; Business Social Responsibility; the Environmental Protection Agency; and University of Cambridge Program for Sustainability Leadership.

Embed into the culture

Sustainability is more than producing an annual report, signing a public commitment, or winning corporate philanthropy and environmental awards or certifications. It must permeate a company’s culture, engaging everyone from the board of directors to the least paid employee.

There are roadblocks. Capital investments in eco-friendly technologies may not be predicted to generate sufficient return on investment or in a timely manner.

Current corporate infrastructures may have barriers that prevent implementing environmentally-sound practices. Broadening the corporate perspective to include societal issues or the impact of the company on a community may require changing a business plan or corporate objectives.

Changing human resource guidelines that have served the organization well for many years may face major challenges. Introducing a new strategy across business functions can be extremely complex.

Such inhibitors, however, can be overcome when everyone makes sustainability a priority and focuses on innovative solutions for issues.

Thus, the board of directors must demand a commitment to sustainability; and executive management must demonstrate its importance by leading, educating, recognizing and requiring accountability. Only then can the entire organization begin the cultural change necessary to bring the sustainability platform to life.

Easy? No. But sustainability is a necessity for companies focused on their future and their reputation.

Ruth Ellen Kinzey, The Kinzey Company is a corporate reputation strategist, consultant, and professional speaker. Want to hear more about a specific topic? She can be reached at (704) 763-0754 or http://www.kinzeycompany.com.

Sustainability has moved up in the corporate agenda over the past three years and become recognized as a source of innovation and new growth, according to a recent Corporate Sustainability: A Progress Report, published by KPMG International.

Traditional marketing — including advertising, public relations, branding and corporate communications — is dead. Many people in traditional marketing roles and organizations may not realize they’re operating within a dead paradigm. But they are. The evidence is clear.

First, buyers are no longer paying much attention. Several studies have confirmed that in the “buyer’s decision journey,” traditional marketing communications just aren’t relevant. Buyers are checking out product and service information in their own way, often through the Internet, and often from sources outside the firm such as word-of-mouth or customer reviews.

Second, CEOs have lost all patience. In a devastating 2011 study of 600 CEOs and decision makers by the London-based Fournaise Marketing Group, 73% of them said that CMOs lack business credibility and the ability to generate sufficient business growth, 72% are tired of being asked for money without explaining how it will generate increased business, and 77% have had it with all the talk about brand equity that can’t be linked to actual firm equity or any other recognized financial metric.

Third, in today’s increasingly social media-infused environment, traditional marketing and sales not only doesn’t work so well, it doesn’t make sense. Think about it: an organization hires people — employees, agencies, consultants, partners — who don’t come from the buyer’s world and whose interests aren’t necessarily aligned with his, and expects them to persuade the buyer to spend his hard-earned money on something. Huh? When you try to extend traditional marketing logic into the world of social media, it simply doesn’t work. Just ask Facebook, which finds itself mired in an ongoing debate about whether marketing on Facebook is effective.

Read full article via Harvard Business Review blog

Well worth a trip down the marketing timeline. It’s interesting to see that not only the channels have evolved, but customer’s preferences and expectations — from pushing advertising messages to distributing information value.

Words and phrases including “blog,” “wiki” and even “chat room” make some business leaders nervous. They’re not sure what to make of these new social media. The technology seems mysterious and a bit scary to people who are still trying to find their way around the Internet or figuring out how their BlackBerry works.

If the wild world of online media makes you hyperventilate, relax. Take a deep breath. Despite the hype around Skype, behind the stress caused by RSS, it all comes down to a fundamental process as old as humanity: communication.

What really matters is how well you communicate with employees, customers, shareholders, the community and other important people. The methods you use, while important, are secondary to the quality of communication.

A recent illustration of this principle involves computer maker Dell. Unhappy customers took their complaints about Dell’s products and service to the “blogosphere” – that online place where everyone with a laptop and an Internet connection can share their opinions with the world. Despite the outcry over problems with Dell, which quickly reached hundreds of thousands of people thanks to blogs with names like “Dell Hell,” the company resisted joining the virtual discussion.

Apparently, however, the pressure became too much. A few months ago, Dell created “Direct2Dell,” a blog intended to improve communication with customers about issues ranging from the company’s battery recall to new products. The company’s critics considered the action too little, too late and charged Dell with paying lip service to open communication with customers. On the surface, bloggers said, Dell seemed to be improving communication, but in reality “Direct2Dell” represented more of the company line.

Last week, Dell posted a new “Online Communication Policy” and held a news conference to announce it. The policy, aimed at Dell employees, recognizes the value of online communication tools, lays out expectations of employees who use them and states the company’s commitment to “transparent, ethical and accurate” communication. Translation: no more company PR disguised as real, direct dialogue.

Time will tell if Dell’s policy makes a difference, but for now the bloggers are skeptical. “Dell Hell” creator Jeff Jarvis wrote, “Isn’t it always a company’s policy, in any interaction – by blog, telephone, or letter – to be open and honest?” He wondered if Dell’s 500-word policy might have been boiled down to three words: “Tell the truth.”

What can your company learn from all of this? It doesn’t matter if you choose to communicate through blogs, chat rooms, e-mail or good ol’ face-to-face interaction. What matters is that you communicate honestly and as completely as possible. The latest technology won’t save you if your stakeholders feel you’re not being truthful with them.

It’s the quality of communication that ultimately matters.

Robert Holland

I just got back from a three-week business trip in India, where I helped a major Indian conglomerate re-brand itself for a global launch. Visits to exotic places are always full of intrigue and anticipation: But since I had been to the region before, I knew what to expect. Or so I thought.

But on this trip I was stunned by a dramatic integrated advertising campaign launched by the Times of India, called India vs. India. The Times kicked it off on New Year’s Day, on the front page. That’s right; no news appeared on that morning’s front page. This was followed by major, spectacular billboards and posters, which appeared everywhere, arriving overnight as if by magic. Next came a parade of Indian celebrities who endorsed the “Anthem” (as they called this) on TV advertisements. This was a highly orchestrated campaign that quickly became celebrated, espousing the idea that there are two India’s, working against one another and preventing India from being the global power that it ought to be. It was a call to arms to unite around the idea of one India, to be progressive, to heal the country’s divisions, and to look toward the future. The thought was summarized with a tagline: India poised-Our time is now.

The copy reads like poetry. Here are a few lines.

There are two India’s in this country. One India is straining at the leash, eager to spring forth and live up to all the adjectives that the world has been showering recently upon us. The other India is the leash. The other India says, give me a chance and I’ll prove myself. The other India says, Prove yourself first and then maybe I’ll give you a chance. One India lives in optimism of our hearts. The other India lurks in skepticism of our minds. One India wants. The other India hopes. One India leads. The other India follows.

It’s powerful copy.

As an American, after seeing this campaign unfold, I couldn’t keep myself from wondering whether this idea is just as relevant here. Do factions and discord within our political and business arenas hold us back from becoming even greater than we are now? Is it time for the marketing and media community to do something as dramatic as India vs. India to unite the country or its industry around a common purpose and a vision of the future?

My thoughts then wandered over to our marketing industry. Can we make an India vs. India comparison? Do we even have unity around the value of marketing? Are clients and agencies/PR firms on the same page? Who is the “leash” and who is “straining the leash” in our industry? Clients seem to concentrate on growth, attracting new customers and growing market share, while agencies and-yes–even consulting firms, frequently focus on creative ideas and new technologies. They often win awards, but do little to attract new clients. Some of them are fixed on the almighty 30-second TV commercial, while others on rely on interactive internet marketing. Are we suffering from Marketing vs. Marketing?

The answer, in my opinion, is marketing integration. Marketing should never be exclusively one thing or another. It should do whatever it takes to solve the client’s problems and unite around that solution. Use all available techniques, media, creativity and technology to help the client’s business grow and improve its market share. That does not mean simply doing what the client wants, but providing new ideas, insights and perspectives, no matter what creative medium might be used.

No more Marketing vs. Marketing. It’s time for Marketing AND Marketing.

Is it time to examine America vs. America? Or marketing vs. marketing? Please send me your thoughts. Let me know your opinions on this topic and let’s see if we can apply the same logic to our business and political culture.

If you are interested in learning more about the India Poised campaign currently underway and to see some of the creative marketing built around the mission themes and values, visit the Times of India’s India Poised Website by clicking here-Visit The Times of India Interactive Website . 

A recent Wall Street Journal article validated many of the tenets upon which I founded our firm nearly nine years ago. The article was entitled, “M&A Blind Spot. When negotiating a merger, leave a seat at the table for a marketing expert.” Unfortunately, this rarely happens.

The article talked about the integral role of marketing in securing and consummating a deal through internal acceptance by the organization. It reminded me of a statistic I heard nine years ago to explain M&A failures. Dr. Michael Hammer said “that 80% of mergers and acquisitions fail and that 50% of the reasons that they fail are due to personality and culture clashes between the companies and their leadership.” This is just as true today as it was a decade ago.

In my opinion, marketing and branding are lynchpins of a successful merger and acquisition. All too often, however, marketing is just an afterthought. Bankers, lawyers, and accountants have a place at the M&A table to ensure that the deal lives up to its potential in regards to risk minimization, asset evaluation, and legal due diligence. But where are the marketing experts? They should be at the table as well to ensure that the organization embraces the merger, positioning it with positive benefits inside and outside the company. Effective communications and messaging can win over all the critical stakeholders and ensure success.

Find me a lawyer, accountant, or banker who can manage all this:

1. Vision and direction
The company must have a clear sense of direction and vision after the M&A plan is laid out. The vision should be in simple language (with examples) so employees can relate to it and understand the benefits for themselves and their company. Marketing departments and their leadership are trained and experienced at creating this kind of messaging.
Creating a new, combined vision is clearly the role of marketing. Imposing one company’s vision on two merged entities often alienates half of the people the instant the merger is launched.

1. Overcoming uncertainty through employee engagement
   Without doubt, uncertainty is the number one issue after announcing a merger or acquisition. Overcome it by enrolling the staff through relevant messages and experiential communications programs.
   Marketing professionals understand consumer insights and motivations that translate into actionable tactics and communications. With knowledge and understanding, employees gain motivation. After internalizing the merger value proposition, they finally gain inspiration. They will be engaged and enrolled.

2. Understanding where your employees stand on issues
   Companies should segment their employee audience the same way they segment and analyze their external audiences to measure their acceptance of change and learn the best ways to communicate with them.
   These are the types of questions that marketing will answer:

– What motivates employees?
– What inspires them?
– What are their opinions of management and the corporation?
– How do employees relate to management and management communications?
– What forms of communication do the employees prefer?

Marketing professionals are analytical. They are in constant search of insights and buyer values that can be deployed toward an internal employee audience as well as an external one.

1. Experiential communications
   Particularly in an M&A situation, old forms of internal communications are no longer relevant or successful alone. New and more creative methods, with involving and entertaining communications, are more appropriate for adult learning.
   Media should vary by audience: video games, gadgets, viral campaigns, role playing, one-on-one meetings with senior folks, skits, outings, company-wide challenges, events, internal trade shows, a staff radio station, a webcast-whatever draws them in. The key idea is to engage the employees to participate in the exchange and learning.

2. Developing the message
   Like any other marketing campaign, internal branding starts by understanding the change readiness of the organization, followed by developing messages that are relevant and meaningful at all levels-corporate, team and department, and individual. The company needs a clear positioning and sense of what it aspires to be.
   The messages should be presented by the leaders of the organization who know their business and the marketplace best.

3. Establishing brand ambassadors
   Seek out the critical internal stakeholders and opinion leaders for their support and help first, then build consensus within the organization.
   Involve the full spectrum of employees. Ask for their input into the program-they know the customers and the business from all angles.

4. Project management, not ad hoc effort
   Treat the plan like a program-management launch. Assign a great program manager and allocate the proper monetary and HR resources for the effort to succeed.
   Reinforcement is critical. Your employees need to see the message all the time, in lots of different media via different channels. You can emblazon it on a lapel pin, a parking-lot sign, a redesigned uniform, or a lunchroom banner. Or anywhere else that it makes sense to remind people.

5. Measurement and Feedback
   Take measurements and make adjustments. The campaign will need fine tuning as it gains momentum. Gauge how the organization’s culture is receiving the message and reacting to it. Then modify your emphasis as needed.
   Budget for post-campaign analysis and an audit of effectiveness. Conduct before-and-after employee surveys to measure business literacy, brand awareness, and awareness of M&A messages and corporate initiatives.
   In the end, what matters is an educated and aligned workforce motivated to get behind the sale, acquisition, or merger. You want your people to be inspired to work for your firm. They should be proud of what it stands for and what they do. If they care about being part of the process, they will spread the word to your clients and to each other. By enrolling your employees, you will accelerate the changes you have planned and get down to business faster, with fewer internal squabbles, and with a steady stream of re-energizing successes that will sustain itself over time.

Is your company facing a merger or acquisition, or just going through major changes such as ERP implementation or reengineering? Don’t forget to reserve a place at the table for professional marketing counsel. With marketing present as an equal partner with the lawyers, bankers, and accountants, you will ensure success of the merger and win over your employees, who are ultimately responsible for making it all happen. 

I’ve quoted my friend and mentor, David Berlo, numerous times in this column. Here’s one of his more curious gems. “The key to being effective is sincerity,” he said, “and if you can learn how to fake that, you’ve really got it made.” He was joking, of course. But like the old saying goes, there’s a bit of truth in every joke.

Key to Leadership
I was reminded of David’s quip recently when I attended a presentation on a report entitled “The Authentic Enterprise.” It was published two years ago by the Arthur W. Page Society from a study that examined the role of senior communicators in the 21st century.

Based on comments from numerous CEOs and chief communications officers, the report summed up the study’s pivotal finding like this – “In a word, authenticity will be the coin of the realm for successful corporations and for those who lead them.” The report goes on to say, “Demands for transparency are at an all-time high, and give no sign of ebbing.”

Reality is Fabulous
Perhaps it’s not surprising that businesses have struggled with the elemental need to be straight shooters. It’s certainly not new – just look at what Henry David Thoreau wrote in Walden more than 150 years ago …

“Shams and delusions are esteemed for soundest truths, while reality is fabulous. If men would observe realities only, and not allow themselves to be deluded, music and poetry would resound along the streets. Let us settle ourselves, and work and wedge our feet downward through the mud and slush of opinion, and prejudice, and tradition, and delusion, and appearance, till we come to a hard bottom and rocks, which we can call reality.”

Despite the apparent yearning for greater authenticity … or sincerity … or reality, some skeptics think it’s mostly a hoax. They argue that when stakeholders – inside or out – say they want more authenticity, all they’re really looking for is consistency. I guess they haven’t run into as many consistently inauthentic “spinners” as I have.

A Choice and a Voice
Still, the remark made me examine what I mean when I use the word authentic. It was easier to grasp its significance by describing what I mean by IN-authentic. Here are some words and phrases that come to mind – doubletalk … misdirection … sanitizing bad news … glamorizing good news … manipulating the truth … distorting the facts … empty jargon … phony platitudes. It’s rarely an outright lie – just an artful shading of reality. Sound familiar? From where I stand, that’s a whole lot more sinister and unsavory than merely being inconsistent.

Professional communicators have a choice and a voice. We can play along and help our organizations engage in “shams and delusions” that strain credibility – or we can be champions of authenticity. Promoting the latter, the Page report says, “If we choose this path, we can transform our profession, open up new and meaningful responsibility and learning, and create exciting new career paths for communications professionals.” Now that’s something to look forward to – sincerely.

Les Landes, Landes & Associates

Buy Les’s webinar replay: Getting to the Heart of Employee Engagement

Connect the dots, and the picture is clear.
Making employee well-being a top strategic priority is more than a nice thing to do. It’s just good business. That’s the central theme of a highly touted book that came out several years ago entitled The Customer Comes Second: Put Your People First and Watch ‘Em Kick Butt.

The principal author is Hal Rosenbluth, the fourth-generation head of Rosenbluth International, a family-owned corporate travel agency that grew in annual revenues from $20 million to more than $6 billion in a span of 25 years under his leadership.  When he joined the business right out of college, he noticed that they put a lot of emphasis on making customers happy, but virtually none on the employees who served them.  That didn’t make sense to Rosenbluth, and the disconnect showed on the unhappy faces and performance of disgruntled employees.  So he set out to shift the company’s focus first and foremost on the attraction, retention and development of outstanding people.

Realizing that’s counterintuitive for many organizations, Rosenbluth explains, “Companies are only fooling themselves when they believe that ‘The Customer Comes First’ … Only when people know what it feels like to be first in someone else’s eyes can they sincerely share that feeling with others.  We’re not saying choose your people over your customers.  We’re saying focus on your people because of your customers.  That way, everybody wins.”  With industry-leading customer satisfaction rates of over 99%, how can you argue with him?

A Secret Weapon

It all adds up to a simple yet significant phrase from the book, which serves as a poetic and memorable motto: “People who feel cared for will care more.”

Les Landes, Landes & Associates

Buy Les’s webinar replay: Getting to the Heart of Employee Engagement

The other day, I was looking at different definitions for marketing.  In a nutshell, it’s described mainly as a process for getting in front of prospective customers and enticing them to buy your product or service.

• The American Marketing Association defines marketing as the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.  Marketing practice tends to be seen as a creative industry, which includes advertising, distribution and selling.

• On Wikipedia, marketing is defined as an integrated communications-based process through which individuals and communities discover that existing and newly-identified needs and wants may be satisfied by the products and services of others.

• Webster’s dictionary describes marketing as the process or technique of promoting, selling, and distributing a product or service.

As far as they go, those definitions are okay, but their main thrust can be summed up in one word – attraction.   While that’s important, it doesn’t account for the other vital half of the business building equation – retention.

Invest in Keeping the Customers You Have
Depending on what sources you cite, it takes 2-20 times as much investment to attract a new customer as it does to keep an existing one.  But look at where most of the business building dollars go.  It’s mainly for advertising, sales and other promotional tools and techniques designed to acquire or attract new customers.  For many marketing people, that’s essentially how they view their role.

When it comes to retention, that’s usually handled by customer relations or consumer affairs or some similar function – and only a fraction of what’s typically spent on marketing is dedicated to the work they do.

Define Marketing as Relationship-Building
Rectifying that imbalance starts with a more encompassing definition of marketing – to create, sustain and continuously improve relationships with the organization’s key stakeholders.

At a minimum, that definition begs for marketing and customer relations people to be joined at the hip in working on the company’s business building efforts.  But the implications go farther than that – to the very heart of why marketing communication and employee engagement must go hand-in-hand.  It’s pretty simple, really.  If you define marketing as “relationship building,” then it’s no longer just a promotional activity for creative specialists.  Instead, it becomes an integral part of each employee’s job.  Everyone who has an impact on customer relations – directly or indirectly – ultimately shares responsibility for the company’s marketing success.

Live Up to Your Image
Loyalty programs like “frequent flyers” are designed as a retention device, but they’re usually in the form of promotional spiffs.  While that can be effective, it still falls short of the personal relationship building that goes beyond loyalty and leads ultimately to customer advocacy.

In the end, attraction comes more from the image you project, while retention comes more from the performance you deliver.  Both are vital, so don’t get suckered into putting disproportionate emphasis on getting customers in the front door – when keeping them is so much cheaper than replacing them after they slip out the back.

To learn more about our approach to Marketing Communications, visit http://www.landesassociates.com/index.php?/Marketing-Communications.html

Remember when organizations used to talk about the “internal customer?”  You still hear it sometimes, but it’s mostly fallen on the trash heap of yesterday’s useless business jargon – another example of a cutesy idea turned into a misguided metaphor.

You could argue that the proponents of that idea had their hearts in the right in place – i.e., coworkers should treat one another with the same regard and cooperation they give to customers.  But think about the flipside of that comparison.  One defining characteristic of a true company-customer relationship is this – if a customer gets sufficiently unhappy with the product or service they’re getting, they’re outta’ here.

That Ain’t No Way to Build Relationships
We like to think we’re fostering the kind of customer loyalty that will give us some wiggle room to recover if we screw up.  But anyone who believes the typical disgruntled customer is going to stick around for long while you “work things out” is sorely mistaken.  In fact, according to research, for every customer complaint a company gets, 25 more people have a similar problem, but instead of saying anything, they just quietly walk away.

Now, is that really the kind of relationship we want co-workers to have with one another?  When things get tough and tensions run high and solutions are hard to find, do we want colleagues to bail out and say c’est la vie?  Hardly.  Fact is, we got it ass-backwards in the “internal customer” days.  Instead of thinking of employees as customers, we should be thinking about both employees AND customers as partners.

No One’s an Audience Anymore
Luckily, we’re moving in the right direction. In recent years, there’s been a conspicuous shifting tide in employee communications – moving away from creating messages for an employee audience to engaging employees in conversations as partners and stakeholders.  As it should be.  After all, isn’t it a bit weird to think of the people who make everything happen in an organization as an “audience?”  They ARE the organization.  They certainly are NOT a passive recipient of messages – or at least they shouldn’t be.

But what about customers – the people communicators subject to a constant barrage of sales and marketing messages?  Surely, THEY are an audience, right?

Engage your Partners – Inside and Out
Not according to the authors of the book Grapevine, who advocate WITH versus AT marketing.  “AT marketing is about targeting, capturing, and one-way communication,” they say.  (I won’t quibble for now over the faux pas of “one-way communication,” which is sort of like clapping with one hand.)  “WITH marketing means that companies and consumers work with each other.  They (companies) cease to think of consumers as targets.  They find ways to … partner with them.  In WITH marketing you don’t talk about capturing.  You talk about listening.  Targeting is a concept from the old days.  Now it’s about engaging.”

Different organizations will take different approaches to engagement, to be sure.  But the underlying premise is the same – messages don’t build relationships, conversations do – whether your partners are inside or out.

Les Landes, Landes & Associates

Buy Les’s webinar replay: Getting to the Heart of Employee Engagement

It’s ironic, isn’t it, that one of the surest ways to raise suspicion about someone’s motives is for the person to say, “Trust me on this?”  That’s certainly true when it comes to employees and customers.

In the workplace, few challenges have obsessed and perplexed the business world more than the issue of employee trust.  The reason is obvious.  With it, virtually any obstacle can be overcome in an organization.  Without it, every day is filled with uncertainty and anxiety, no matter what else the organization does right.

In the marketplace, few things are treasured more passionately than loyal customers – those people who come back time and again, and even refer new customers to enjoy the same experience.

When you get them both right, it’s business paradise.  The crucial thing to understand is that the two go hand-in-hand.  Without employee trust, customer trust suffers, as well.

Management Credibility Factors
One reason organizations fail to foster a culture of trust is because they focus mainly on interpersonal factors.  They’re important, to be sure, and here are key behaviors that managers have to exhibit to gain employee trust:

• Caring – Genuine concern about employee wellbeing is where it has to start.
• Honesty and Openness – Dance around the truth or hide important information, and people tune out and turn away.
• Responsiveness – Listening and taking action on what you hear tells people you’re sincere.
• Competence – If you don’t know what you’re doing, it’s hard to win a following.
• Reliability – Can people count on you to do what you say?
• Apology – If you can admit mistakes and apologize sincerely, trust goes way up.

In a recent article I wrote for Communication World called “Cracking the Culture Code,” the communication VPs for Southwest Airlines and Enterprise Rent-A-Car talk about how their companies observe those behaviors in their extraordinarily successful cultures.

People-First Systems
But…that’s only half of the equation.  You also have to design the systems, policies, and processes in a way that tells employees unequivocally that they are trusted.  We call those People-First Systems, and they fall into five main categories:

• Measurement
• Rewards and recognition
• Communication
• Learning and development
• Continuous improvement

Of course, many organizations have some type of mechanism in place for all of those areas.  But do they really demonstrate to employees that they are trusted?  Do they truly reinforce the oft-heard mantra that people are our most important asset?  Fact is, systems in most organizations are designed to protect against the miniscule number of irresponsible people, and those constraints wind up stifling the vast majority of employees you can count on like clockwork.

Bottom line, you can’t have performance excellence without sincere trust and belief in people.  If you have doubts about the merits of that philosophy, consider the wisdom of renowned statesman, Henry Stimson, who said, “The only way to make a man trustworthy is to trust him.”

Les Landes, Landes & Associates

Buy Les’s webinar replay: Getting to the Heart of Employee Engagement

The basic idea behind “brand alignment” is pretty simple – When it comes to delivering on your marketing promises, make sure everyone in your organization knows what’s going on and they’re able to walk the talk.  Living up to that ideal, though, isn’t simple at all.  It takes a concerted effort to get everyone tuned in and turned on to the principles and practices that align the “do” with the “say.”

Promise Broken
One revealing way to test if an organization is living the brand is to observe how they deal with customer complaints.  I recently had an experience with a new service I subscribed to online that told me a lot in a hurry about what they believe and how they operate.

Within an hour after subscribing, I got a notice that the first program would be broadcast that same evening.  They described the event and what the participants would learn during the one-hour session.  I didn’t want to miss it, but I already had another meeting scheduled.  Reluctantly, I contacted that person and asked if we could reschedule for the following evening.  She agreed, so I was set to take part in the new program

About halfway through it, they still hadn’t talked about the topic that was advertised.  I was getting suspicious that I had been sold a bill of goods – that this was yet another company that promised one thing and delivered something else.  By the end of the program, they still hadn’t discussed the topic they had promoted, and I was fuming.  It had been a long day … I was tired … I had wasted an hour … and I had put off another meeting.

Customer Disappointed
I decided to share one of my Inside Out lessons with them in the form of a “strongly worded” e-letter to what I thought was some nebulous person in the ether-world.  To my amazement, I got a reply the next morning from a sales manager named James, expressing regret for my problem and promising to look into it.  Later that day I had my next pleasant surprise.  I got a real live phone call from James explaining how I had been connected to the wrong program.  He also thanked me for informing them because they were able to contact other people who experienced the same problem.  Then he said I would be set up in the near future to participate in the program that had been advertised.

Relationship Renewed
That would’ve been good enough, but then I got a call from David, their head of marketing.  He had received my e-letter, too, and he also wanted to apologize for what happened.  Then he really floored me – he said he wanted to give me a FREE lifetime subscription to their service.  The only thing he asked in return was for me to give him occasional feedback on how I felt the service was meeting their customers’ needs.

I told him I thought his offer was very generous but I probably over-reacted a bit in my note, and his compensation was way more than I expected.  To his credit, he would have nothing of my attempt to downplay my initial disappointment, and he apologized again for “wasting my time” and failing to give me what I was promised.

Execs in some companies might say he was crazy to give away so much.  But I’m betting they don’t get many complaints like mine, and when they do, few people raise a fuss because the service is probably impeccable most of the time.  Since it’s an online program, it’s not really “costing” them anything to give it to me free, but it still speaks volumes about their commitment to delivering on their promises – and living their brand.

Les Landes, Landes & Associates

Buy Les’s webinar replay: Getting to the Heart of Employee Engagement

In a broader analysis of 50 global companies, Towers Watson found that companies with low engagement scores had an average operating margin just under 10 percent. Those with high traditional engagement had a slightly higher margin of 14 percent. Companies with the highest “sustainable engagement” scores had an average one-year operating margin of 27 percent.

Forty percent of employees with low engagement scores said they were likely to leave their employers over the next two years, compared to 24 percent of traditionally engaged employees, and just 18 percent of employees with the highest “sustainable engagement” scores.

So what is energy, exactly? In physics, it’s simply the capacity to do work. In other words “energy” and “capacity” are essentially interchangeable. In simple terms, energy is the fuel in our tanks — what’s required to bring our skill and talent to life. Without sufficient energy, skill is rendered irrelevant. You can’t run on empty and that’s increasingly what employees are being asked to do.

Feelings of overload and burnout are default emotions in today’s organizations. Nor is this likely to change soon. Higher demand and fewer resources are the new normal. Effectively addressing the issue of capacity — energizing the workplace — depends on the willingness of individuals, leaders and organizations to each take responsibility for their roles.

For organizations, the challenge is to shift from their traditional focus on getting more out of people, to investing in meeting people’s core needs so they’re freed, fueled, and inspired to bring more of themselves to work, more sustainably.

Specifically, Towers Watson concludes that organizations must create policies and practices that make it possible for employees to better manage their workload, live more balanced lives and exercise greater autonomy around how, when, and where they get their work done. Policies focused on flexibility and working remotely contribute to a more energized workplace, we’ve found, and so does setting organization-wide boundaries around the length of meetings and the hours during which people are expected to respond to email.

For leaders, the key is to begin thinking of themselves as Chief Energy Officers. Energy is contagious, for better and for worse, and disproportionately so for leaders — by virtue of their influence. “The manager is at the heart of what we might think of as a personal employee ecosystem,” the Towers Watson study concludes, “shaping individual experience … day in and day out.”

Read full article in Harvard Business Review

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