Marketing 320

Why it is great to work where I work

Richard Rezek — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 16:17:20 +0000

GE recently announced three new leaders through the internal announcement system. These leaders were asked if they had any advice to share. I have done a simple cut and paste blog on their responses. These three do not need me to add anything. What great responses!

Richard Hausmann, VP of Magnetic Resonance: There are two lessons I’ve learned in my career: first, always be open to new situations and innovative ideas (standing still means falling back), and second, it’s all about a good team. My former boss always said: nobody is perfect but a team can be!

Banmali Agrawala, President and CEO for GE Energy in India: I have learned to listen to people before speaking my mind. I have learned this the hard way as earlier in my career I was rather eager to share my opinions rather than listen to others. More often than not, one only learns by listening to others.

Puneet Mahajan, VP and Chief Risk Officer: I would say a few things
  - You are only as good as your team
  - Take the tough jobs that will differentiate you from your peers
  - Build deep domain and ensure you embrace globalization
  - Be Humble & Curious – learning is a continuous process

The case for a business case

Richard Rezek — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 12:59:52 +0000

"I think we should start a circus."

One of my projects over the past few weeks has been to create a business case for a “bad idea,” something we have no chance of ever doing. I am pretty sure that if I worked in a small business, I would have simply concluded instantly, “We are not doing that. It is not worth it, what else ya got?”

My colleagues and our leadership happen to love the business case. It has provided the basis for objective discussion about this bad idea. It seems that there has been reluctance to just call it what it is, because of concern about the origin of this bad idea. Ah, the big company life! Although this bad idea is new to me, it is one that has been discussed off and on since 2009. The business case is based on many assumptions and the analysis is not that complex, yet they love it and I am getting the credit. I will present the business case to an “officer” of the company next week. An officer of the company is a big deal, so I will rehearse and prepare with the objective of getting a cease and desist order. Not what I am usually going for.

Business Case Recipe

Describe the problem to solve. Answer the question; “How will things be different if we solve this problem?”
Use a four or five year time frame
Create an excel column for each year
Create four proposals with different levels of risk and estimated cost of implementation
List out all assumptions
Cite any references
Use Excel to calculate the net present value of the four options
Make a recommendation for one of the four proposals
Outline an implementation action plan and timeline

Fulfilling promises

Richard Rezek — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 08:30:12 +0000

How can marketers be accountable?

Four steps.

Step One: Believe that you can make a difference. If you can make a difference then you will be motivated and naturally want to work on the right projects. Projects that mean something to your organization and ones that help you grow and learn. Projects that highlight your value, which is very important.

Step Two: Promise what you will do or create. Put yourself out there and commit. Take a chance, but be willing to ask for help. I think it is important to clarify your promise in an email, or a document or in a power point slide. Be flexible and clear so that you can make sure you have made the right promises.

Step Three: Do what you promise. It feels good and is good to do what you say you will do. This is the time to be creative and innovative. On occasion you will do more than you promised. Your reputation depends on you doing your part.

Step Four: Hold yourself to high standards for communication and effort. Sometimes you will not be in control of the result and that is ok. Accept it. Control what you can and have trust in your leadership to help you work around the uncontrollable.

Stakeholder Analysis

Richard Rezek — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 11:00:12 +0000

I had the great opportunity to attend a Change Acceleration Process (CAP) training workshop a couple of months ago. Now I have the even better opportunity to put it into practice. That happens sometimes. You attend a workshop and then actually use what you learned at the workshop as part of your real job.

The situation. I am part of a four person team with an idea. Each of the four of us is passionate about the idea. No executive sponsor anywhere in sight. Even our line managers are not fully updated and certainly not on board. A classic ground up idea in a culture that prefers top down ideas. There is a lot of work to do, no budget, and we are not ready to pitch anything to anyone.

The CAP tool that I like the most right now is called a stakeholder analysis. We have a long list of stakeholders and a scale that indicates our impression of their reaction to our idea, if they knew about it. The other part of the scale is where we think they need to be, to support our idea so that it can be turned into an official program. I hope this does not sound too manipulative, but the stakeholder analysis is helping us to formulate tailored selling strategies for each of the stakeholders. Who prefers logic and who prefers emotion, who will get it immediately and who will need time to think it over. If another team had me on their stakeholder analysis, they would put me down as someone who wants a customer perspective and will listen carefully to give the idea a fair chance. I will formulate an opinion quickly. I will need some evidence to support the idea, but not too many details. Why do I like the stakeholder analysis tool so much? Because in the past that I have assumed that everyone is like me and that they will love my ideas. Whoops. What dumb mistakes! I know better now. Marketers have to sell and to sell you have to know who you are selling to and be willing to flex to their preferences.

Please buy my idea

Richard Rezek — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 18:52:52 +0000

Prepare your case
Ask for what you want
Make your case
Ask for commitment

It starts with clarifying your purpose. Also known as, “use a mirror first.” You have to know what your idea is and why it is meaningful. Then you can identify the stakeholders and predict the points of resistance.

Be creative as you define your idea and prepare your ask. If your idea creates a unifying and lofty goal that you can rally support around, that is great. If not, you will need to be able to connect your idea to existing corporate goals or strategies.

As you make your case, be ready to customize the message to the audience. What is in it for them and what is the best way (media and format) to make your appeal? Expect that leaders of a business unit are interested in anything that affects their results, but that not everyone needs to know all of the program plan milestones. Use questions carefully. Open ended to illicit information, closed to get focus or obtain approval. The art is mixing emotion, humor, logic and evidence in a way that makes everyone feel dignified and respected.

Sooner rather than later, but not too soon, assess readiness to commit to the idea. If you ask for commitment and get it, conclude the meeting by restating their commitment and then stop talking. If the stakeholders are not ready to commit, ask; “What can I do to win your commitment?” And take it from there.

Winning approval for ideas is a weakness in my game that I am working for the next few months. The inspiration for this blog comes from an on-line seminar I recently attended. I am also reading The Art of Woo, by Shell and Moussa. This book is about using strategic persuasion to sell ideas.

Am I in the right job?

Richard Rezek — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 11:48:20 +0000

Ask yourself these questions if you are wondering if you are in the right job.

Am I working with “my people”? You and your colleagues should share values and sensibilities. You should have the same intensity about your work. Simply put, you should like the people you work with.
Does my job make me smarter? I think you want to be part of an organization that offers challenges and takes you out of your comfort zone. Sometimes it is fun to be the smartest person in the room, but it is more important for your career to be growing and learning.
Are doors opening up? There is no such thing as a dead-end career. However, there are dead-end jobs. From your current job you should be able to see the next job. Consider all opportunities as good.
Is there a joy factor? There should be something at your job that makes you happy. On the far extreme, your job gives you your meaning. It does not have to be the only thing that gives you meaning, but you also do not want to be at the other extreme, where your job is demeaning. Aptitude does not equal passion. Just because you are good at something does not mean that you enjoy it.

Is it possible that in our careers we will see a shortage of qualified people and a real labor shortage? I heard from a politician this week that 2012 marks the beginning of the baby boomers turning 65. Hundreds of thousands of them reaching retirement age, next year and every subsequent year for 20 years. I am not sure how I was supposed to respond, but since I want to work for another 15 years or so, I took it personally and was encouraged.

Marketing Manager of Spare Tires

Richard Rezek — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 02:04:12 +0000

Would you buy a car if the dealership explained that a spare tire is not included? I think I would keep looking and buy somewhere else. Would you pay more for a car that includes a spare tire? Huh? At times the challenge for marketing managers is to market something that customers have come to expect, like a new car, complete with a spare tire (insert jingle here). It may also be worth considering how your promotions can change customer expectations. If you include a what was an optional feature, it can be difficult to end the promotion and make the feature optional again.

Spare tire's for everyone!

The problem I see is that it is not always obvious that you have become the marketing manager of spare tires. Ask yourself questions about value, keeping in mind that if it is valuable, customers will pay for it. Don’t risk becoming the marketing manager of spare tires.

Will a customer pay for this feature?
Are we the only ones offering this feature?
Does this feature make our overall value proposition stronger?

If you answer “no” to two or more of these, if might be worth checking to see if your energies would be better spent marketing features that really make a difference to customers.

Three kinds of marketers

Richard Rezek — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 18:27:24 +0000

A responsive marketer finds a stated need and fills it. An anticipative marketer looks ahead into what needs customers may have in the future. A creative marketer discovers and produces solutions customers did not ask for but to which they enthusiastically respond.

From Kotler e12, p 353

What kind of marketer are you? What kind of marketer do you want to be?

What is new?

Richard Rezek — Mon, 31 Jan 2011 17:49:08 +0000

What is new? “Nothing” or “not much” are possible answers. What do you think? Is there anything really new, or is it just de novo? You are not alone, I had to google de novo to learn that it is latin (that I guessed) for, ”again, but in a different way.” Hmm. Those Romans were so smart to have created two little words for saying six words. I think I spend most of my time working on things that have already been done and trying to find ways to enhance or improve it. I am a de novo marketing manager.

I worked on trademark protection this morning and had to be reminded that the patent protects the technology and ideas, and that the trademark protects the name. Trademarks and patents protect people and organizations who innovate and create new products, services, or processes. This is what got me thinking about what is new, really new. As someone who professes to be up-to-date, I am more than a little embarrassed that I cannot name five new things or new ideas that I have read about or experienced. I am starting a list:

1. Fully electric car for production – Nissan Leaf. The hybrid was new.

Ability to win – Harry Potter Movie

Richard Rezek — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 02:51:36 +0000

Marketing is cool. Many reasons, including the propensity for marketers to create both confusing and meaningful graphs. We love to tell a story with one graph. This week I learned this one on customer benefit analysis.

Ability to win – Graph

Blue bars represent the customer benefit / what is important. For this movie example I chose to graph; entertainment, community / family, connection, and price. The lines represent performance relative to the customer benefit. Harry Potter is entertainment for young and old, it is a movie to go to with your friends and family, and the connection to the characters is real. The price paid for Harry Potter is the same as the price paid for any other movie. Harry Potter has amazing and overwhelming ability to win. About 6x the gross of Megamind.