It’s that time of year when us pundits make bold predictions about upcoming trends in 2011. I had considered putting on my Nostradamus cap and making some reputation management predictions, but then I discovered my fellow reputationista Dr. Leslie Gaines-Ross had already staked-out that turf!
Oh well, I’ve never been one for predictions, anyway. So, how about some certainties instead? Some solid, often unwritten, rules of reputation management that will pervade 2011–and beyond?
OK, here goes!
Law #1 – Everyone has an online reputation
We all have an online reputation to maintain. Don’t believe me, go ahead and “Google Yourself”–I promise you won’t go blind! Even if you don’t find anything written about you, then that’s still your reputation–or lack thereof. In 2011, you should make sure that what’s found in Google, Facebook, Twitter et al is something you’d be equally comfortable showing your mom or your boss!
Law #2 – Your reputation is an extension of your character
It doesn’t matter how hard you work on managing your reputation, it will only ever be as solid as your actual character. Tiger Woods had a reputation of being the greatest golfer–and a family man. His character revealed otherwise. As Abraham Lincoln once said,
“Character is like a tree and reputation like its shadow. The shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.”
Law #3 – Every reputation has an achilles heel
While Toyota may have spent years telling us that its cars are the most reliable in the world, sticking gas pedals told a different story. In fact, even though Toyota tried to deny the increasing incidents of sticking accelerators, its customers were the ones steering the car manufacturer’s reputation in another direction. Instead of denying the issue, Toyota should have been the first to recognize it! When you recognize and acknowledge your weaknesses, before your customers, you have the opportunity to craft a response before the public outcry. Do you know your reputation’s weakness?
Law #4 – Listen twice, act once
OK, so I’ve plagiarized this from the saying “measure twice, cut once,” but it’s appropriate, when it comes to listening to your customers. I tell our customers at Trackur that they should spend twice as much effort on listening as they do responding. It’s too easy to simply jump in and reply to that tweet or Facebook post–without fixing the underlying problem. Instead, you should spend time actively listening to the feedback you’re collecting about your reputation. Listen for trends. Listen for opportunities. Listen, listen, listen–ok, that was three listens, but you get my point. When you actually take onboard what your stakeholders are saying about your reputation, you do more than just fix a problem, you make sure you fix the underlying issue that created the problem in the first place! GAP’s customers weren’t so much angry that the company’s logo was changed, they were mad that the company hadn’t initially thought to listen to their feedback–a decision the apparel company quickly reversed!
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
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
No dispute there. They also all have customers. Call them consumers or taxpayers, students or patients, passengers or clients, patrons or donors … or whatever you want. In the end, their satisfaction largely dictates an organization’s destiny.
All organizations also have employees. Call them associates or co-workers or partners or colleagues … or whatever you want. In the end, their sense of trust and happiness in the workplace determines how they relate to customers – and how satisfied those customers will be.
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
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
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.
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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. -
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.
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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. -
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. -
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. -
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. -
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 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 .
Comments |
RE: Marketing vs. Marketing |
I am produ to know that my country is making giant strides…also the India Poised campaign is seen as a powerful message in uniting and spurring a nation ahead. While I agree about the need to brand/market a message, it sometimes goes downhill when the audience reads it differently or it is timed wrongly. What is essential is transparency and follow-ups. Keeping citizens informed on change and how they can make a difference. There was a similar campaign called India Rising – which portrayed India as the next superpower. It was a powerful message but many viewed it as a political gimmick..due to the timing ( around elections)… |
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.
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.
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.
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.
Miniaturization – Every business process will go through intense compression and digitalization so when it comes out on the other side of the tunnel, it will have already considerably reduced its operational costs. This will enable the process to function effectively, more powerfully, and be highly replicatable, with a lower cost structure like a proverbial silver bullet. Will this now shrink entire office floors into cubicles, and cubicles into little icons on websites? Who would need to come to the offices anyway; managers, to put their feet on desks, water cooler crowds, elevator pitch experts or just the office cleaners? Is this the reason commercial office space is about to fall off the cliff? Both big and small businesses will be shrinking to survive, with increasing competitive pressure the requirement is to become the silver bullet. Are you running a bullet speed operation or lost in the office maze?
Lateralization – The realignment of both the cerebral hemispheres is also urgently required with the next automobile tune-up. Many exhausted and stressed out individuals throughout the world have suffered tremendously over the last few years, intensifying with the economic collapse. This raises serious question about the functionalities of senior executives, their basic business logic, financial literacy and the right-left-brain balance. Why did the business systems and financial services fail so badly? Despite all the high level education, was their vision got blurred, or capital risk management was insufficient so the real world imploded. Was it the lack of lateralization which fogged the reality? Is it time to re-discover new types and styles of educational agendas, new methods and new formats of operation? A new wave of educational programs will sweep the executive corridors. Are you newly trained and outfitted as a gladiator or you are just an old time spectator?
Trillionization – Once society becomes immune to the trivialization of the trillionization of nations’ debts it will become a real comfort pillow for the public consciousness to sleep on. After a year of struggle, over confidence about a $1 million net profit may sound like an embarrassingly minute accomplishment when pleading for plant expansion funds to a banker, whose tight fisted policies, despite receiving a $100 billion bailout, still do not solve your business issues. The overly casual use of the word trillion, as an ordinary measurement of the rising deficit, with each hiccup is going to diminish our respect and regard to the daily challenges of life, dealing in only a few millions of dollars. Is this the reason why nobody is any longer impressed by how much money you have made during this great recession? New methodologies and new types of presentation collateral will be required to pitch for any serious business game plan. Do you have the new tools to present your business plan or would you prefer the sign language?
Infotoxication -If the information is more toxic than the toxic assets themselves what is the point of believing anybody? Just stay intoxicated; forget joining AA. The truth is being morphed into twisted sugar candy by the day to keep the masses high while credibility gaps are getting wider by the hour. Is there really a person or a body on this planet that the global masses would blindly believe? Is there a government, a department, a corporation, an NGO, a global body, a credit reporting agency, a polling service or a bank? What happened? Was it a meteor hit, or just a daisy-cutter type memory loss? Why trustworthiness simply disappeared and why was credibility just wiped out? Is this the reason for the lowest rating when any head of state goes for national public broadcasts? Is this the reason that newspapers and TV are becoming irrelevant and disappearing? Creating solid credibility will be the biggest challenge for both the public and private sectors in this new decade. Do they trust you with their life or with empty bottles?
Googlelization – If society is already overly dependent on Google without a quick early morning hand shake, the day simply doesn’t start. The sun does not come out and the moon stays stuck behind the clouds. The entire global search-centric culture is based on Googling to put life in perspective, determine the importance of anything, news, personalities, money matters, buying or selling of any idea. The new product and services from the mother ship Google will keep us even more comfortably tangled in a kind of great and free service till we all get overly cozy, almost dazed and habitually responding to our stimuli. What Google did in the last ten years took others a century to even approach. Today, Google can be credited with a trillion dollar savings in time costs, by having information in seconds available to the global public. It is hard to imagine a life on this planet without it. Become a Google expert and find all the possible options to build your expansion strategies around its access and services. Ignore the sobbing in other media and advertising as they have run out of batteries. The introduction of new ideas, ranging from phone and gadgets to insurance and banking services, will create amazing shock waves and exciting opportunities to feel the global pulse in real time. Are you being Googled and if not do it yourself?
Domainization -If several key languages other than Roman alphabets are allowed, it will make the internet really global. It will be a dynamic adjustment, colorful and yet at times extremely confusing, so what should brand name holders do? Scream foul in other languages; buy dictionaries, or simply go exploring on world trips? A name is the most important and critical component of any serious business today. If a name is not worthy of protection as it is already diluted and confusing, then it could surely become a nightmare very soon. Only well balanced and protected name holders will really be allowed to play the superior games on new platforms of TLD now offered by ICANN.
A serious business without a solid global name is like a dull joke in search of laughter. Global understanding of domain name management and naming architecture skills will be where all the battles of social-media-searching and customer acquisition will be headed. Is your name identity a shiny star or a dull object?
Ghettoization – Is social media in reality becoming an anti-social-media, as Joe-Social has little or no real relationship with Jane-Public, except as a spectator cheering at dull events. Is it creating its own social-ghettos, where micro-gatherings are only blocking crowd-gathering? Will this fad mould into another form of personal personification like an old phone directory but with pictures and some quirky messages? If advanced level personal data was manipulated to determine the next action to plant a selling proposition, would it not eliminate all the old selling procedures? Can you imagine this as a new online CyberHeaven or will it be CyberHell? Is it time to buy stock in delivery vans? New processes will seriously replace old style location and large inventory-based retail industry thinking, along with the traditional advertising? Are you in social-media-heaven or anti-social-purgatory?
Cybernetization – Once all the processes are electronic, digitized, portable and in cyberspace, then what is the point of a regimented 9-to-5 Monday to Friday working society? Free at last! If everyone was working and thinking while connected to some large portal spread out on a global range, what would it do to corporate structure, hierarchies, protocols and decorum? Would society cope with such an open ended free flow of work? Will it change habits and daily routines? Will you find more people in libraries, cinemas, malls or restaurants? Will they just stay home and watch 3DHDTV and get more depressed about repeated ‘socio-politico-economico-climatico-damaged-news’? Will the home craft industry boom and autos stay in the garage? Will back yards turn into small grow-op farms, and will groceries stores be quieter? Are you already undressed to be hard-wired?
Frugalization– While ‘shop till you drop dead’ created the greatest recession, then ‘save till you drop’ will keep you there forever. Was it the failure of capitalism and liberal economic policies without regulation that resulted in ‘beg, borrow and steal, shop at high interest plastic and boost Dow at 15000’? It will surely take all the income to finance these shopping bills. The capitalist free enterprise system seems broken. Communism and socialism is also not the answer. The society all over the world is getting a free crash course on economy, and what they are going to derive is that saving is perhaps the only way. Wealth is created by actual work and not by spending. Is it possible that the USA may end up with a Japan-like decade? The intense frugality at the main street will spread and linger all over. Are you saving or spending enough or do you have a printing press too?
Globalization -If globalization is the only way to go forward despite all the nationalism, what will the new world would look like? Will it eventually create select alliances and free trades? Will it create blocks, or just battles in a sandbox? The search for best markets, best labor and minimum regulation is where the private corporate jets would be parked. The talk of nationalism would primarily feed the textual lines to the tele-prompters all over the world, but the real protectionism will not work well for most of the nations. The internationalism of business is already way out of the bag and this is where all the cutting edge skills are required. Multiple countries, languages and cultures will all dance to one tune in the same boardroom. New global standards will drive marketing, naming and image management. Are you basically local, somewhat ‘glocal’ or truly internationalist?
Naseem Javed is widely recognized as a world-authority on building corporate image and creating global name identities. http://www.abcnamebank.com Toronto – New York
Thanks to Paul Dunay for sharing this Q&A with such a distinguished panel of corporate marketers from the recent Media Convergence Forum. The panel consisted of the following:
- Jeff Hayzlett – Chief Business Development Officer, Eastman Kodak
- Russ Klein – President Global Marketing Strategy, Burger King
- Nicholas Utton – CMO, E-Trade Financial
At the Forum they discussed what the current and future role for the CMO looked like from their perspective.
Check it out here.
Pepper and Rodgers shows us in their 1-to-1 media site the need to have Marketing and IT collaborate. Is this a problem in your organization???
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How sales and marketing teams can create a shared go-to-market strategy that focuses on customers, not products. White paper by Peppers & Rogers Group and Microsoft
- Make a list of critical vs. non-critical activities. As in, which ones will impact my customers and the current or future survival of my business? Then, focus only on those essential activities. Eliminate, delegate, or postpone everything else.For me, that meant I cancelled a bunch of non-essential social, community and volunteer activities. This is a great way to find out what you’re really, truly passionate and energized about. I found I easily ditched my boring Dreamweaver course but nothing was going to get between me and my djembe drumming class (great therapy!).
- Figure out what you can reasonably do and what you can’t, with the understanding that you need to get some rest and take extra care of yourself during a stressful time. I had over a thousand emails/alerts in my inbox, most of them to satisfy my endless cravings for information. Without mercy, I deleted everything that didn’t require action.
- Set expectations up front. For me, clients consistently identify reliability as one of my core brand attributes. While waiting for hours in the hospital, I sent each of my key clients (and suppliers) a personalized but brief note. I let them know I had a family situation and that I expected to meet my deadlines, but there was a small chance I may need a bit of extra time. All thanked me for letting them know. Turns out I met every deadline.
- Be authentic (but not needy). Many of my client and peer relationships have turned into valued friendships. People in my network genuinely wanted to know how I was doing. Although it would’ve been easy, I refrained from giving them an aloof, conversation-closing “everything’s fine.” I showed them the real me and shared what I truly felt – fear, hope, exhaustion, gratitude, imperfection. In less than 30 words (they want to know you’re OK, but enough already).
- Ask for help from your support system. It doesn’t need to be big. It doesn’t need to be lasagne. Despite my fierce need for independence, I asked my mastermind group, my friends and some of my close clients to send their positive, healing thoughts, if they were so inclined. They were grateful to feel like they could help. I was grateful to feel supported. Strangely, it made us all a little closer.
My second job was in a large corporate environment, and I had been given the responsibility to produce the employee magazine. I was writing a typical article about a committee’s planning efforts so that everyone in the organization had a feel for what was happening. I asked what the team was doing, who was on the team and when they expected to finish the work, and I got a blank stare from the manager who was my source. She said she didn’t want to put a date out there because the team might be held accountable to that date.
That’s when I first learned the truth about truth: it’s a moving target. And it’s why so many brands are so bland. When there’s no truth – no authenticity – there’s no focus, there’s no goal, there’s no accountability to the brand.
It’s happened time and time again since that day…a client, for example, will boldly make a claim that is different and relevant, only to back down when it’s put in writing for all to see. “I’m not comfortable with that” is the common response (usually during the second or third round of the approval process, just before the piece goes to print) because they realize they can’t guarantee the claim operationally.
As communicators – as brand warriors – we have only one choice: speak up, loudly and often, and demand our co-workers or clients be true to the brand. It’s the T in a D.I.R.T.Y. brand. And it’s what will help us move out of the tactical conversations and be part of the strategy conversations in our organizations.
A few years ago, I was facilitating a brand discernment process with a group of employees at a small bank client, when the receptionist asked if she’s supposed to hold the vice-president accountable to the brand. I said “absolutely” and the whole room went quiet. A smile slowly crept over the face of the vice-president, a quiet man who completely bought into the premise, and he said “yes, you should.”
It’s difficult to demand authenticity across an organization. If the brand is understood by everyone, positive brand management examples are shared with everyone, and there’s buy-in at the top of the organizational chart, however, it’s easy to be a brand warrior.
And there’s nobody more empowered to be the brand warrior than the communications professional. You can use your skills to:
• thoroughly explain the brand,
• demonstrate how others are living the brand,
• help the leadership craft a brand story and
• take it to the market.
And keep telling the story so others know how to tell the story, too.
By Mark True