Tom Asacker

Alan Alda on assumptions

"Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won't come in."

There are two types of change: change within a system of beliefs; beliefs that stay the same. And change in your system of beliefs; e.g. your assumptions about the marketplace, customers, and your role.  If you want to change, you have to change twice. Yes, you must change the reality of the situation. But you must also change how you view that reality.

The business world is teeming with companies engaged in the first type of change.  They continue to erode profitability and morale by changing within their old, ineffectual system of beliefs. A system of beliefs perpetuated, by the way, by many well-intentioned people (and many not so well-intentioned).

Here's an example of some well-intentioned, yet misguided advice. Now I'm not picking on the authors nor MarketingProfs.com for their latest commentary on marketing strategy. Yes it's elementary, but that's not the problem. The problem is that it's dated. Here is their "simple but effective formula" for creating a strategy:

1. Figure out what you want to accomplish. In marketing, this is usually described as the change you want in the marketplace—in buying habits, distribution methodologies, or whatever the strategic goals dictate. To achieve this, it is often necessary to change market perceptions and attitudes. That's where advertising, marketing and public relations come in.
2. Figure out what you have to do to make what you want to accomplish happen. It's easy enough to run an ad or produce a brochure and hope something good happens as a result. But unless that ad or brochure is specifically targeted toward bringing about a desired change in the marketplace, results are a hit-or-miss proposition or, at best, only temporary.
3. Do what you have to do to make what you want to accomplish happen. Finally, it is necessary to execute the strategy, which requires resources in terms of both time and money, and there is seldom enough of either to do everything well. That's why it's important to be able to prioritize, to apply adequate resources to the most critical tasks to achieve the necessary results. Otherwise, it's easy to get caught in the trap of trying to do so many things that nothing gets down well, and there are no real results to point to, despite significant expenditures and an abundance of effort. Prioritization and the application of resources is a formula that has proven successful for countless clients over the years.

Do you see the problem? It's one of perception. To get at the essence of marketing strategy today, all you have to do is change one little word four times:

1. Figure out what they want to accomplish. In new millennium marketing, this is described as the business's purpose. A business exists and thrives today by helping customers accomplish, achieve, become, etc. To achieve this, it is often necessary to change your perceptions and attitudes.
2. Figure out what they have to do to make what they want to accomplish happen. And then figure out whether you can do it for them, in such a way - be it faster, less risky, more enjoyable, etc. - that they are willing to exchange their time, attention and money for it.
3. Do what you have to do to make what they want to accomplish happen. A never ending journey.

The choice is yours. You can either change within your system of beliefs; e.g. change logos, ad agencies, direct mail and email copy, etc. Or change your beliefs and then change within that new system of beliefs. Either way, you will change your system of beliefs. It may simply take longer, cost more, and take a toll on your sense of humor, honesty and passion.

Elliot Aronson on persuasion

"When the message conflicted with their expectations, listeners perceived the communicator as being more sincere, and they were more persuaded by his statement."

Here's an example from the September issue of CMO magazine. It was written by Taddy Hall, chief strategy officer of the Advertising Research Foundation, which describes itself this way:  "The principal mission of The ARF is to improve the practice of advertising, marketing and media research in pursuit of more effective marketing and advertising communications."

Beware the major up-front advertising blitz. If a manager recommends mass-reach advertising to generate awareness and induce "trial," be nervous. Big markets are needed to justify big bucks. Big markets are usually occupied and unavailable to new entrants. Advertising, simply isn't very good at these things, especially in the current media marketplace. Still unconvinced? Then know that advertising by a new entrant in a category delivers substantially more benefit to the established leader—so go ahead and do the competitor's job for him if you must. We're confident that your agency will oblige.

And this . . . from an ad guy?

Understand that advertising is a very expensive form of life support. Car companies, banks, cellular service providers and brewers spend advertising fortunes trying to convince consumers that meaningful difference exists where little is perceived. Advertising is a high-cost substitute for relevant differentiation. The automotive industry spends more than $40 billion a year on advertising many "me-too" products—and much of that $40 billion promotes rebates. Now's that's a broken model.

I was persuaded. How about you?

Leo Burnett on selling

"A good basic selling idea, involvement and relevancy, of course, are as important as ever, but in the advertising din of today, unless you make yourself noticed and believed, you ain't got nothin'."

That seems like a pretty good formula: involvement, relevancy, noticed and believed. Here's what Bryan Stapp, vice president of marketing at Quicken Loans, has to say in this month's issue of CMO magazine:

My radio sales rep is very excited that he got me 208 million impressions (noticed)—worth more than $1 million—as a make-good on my $200,000 radio buy. My interactive agency is submitting our company's Web campaign for an award because it got more than 150,000 brand interactions (involvement) in a two-day period. Terrific branding. But I want to know where my leads are!

Brian wants relevance and belief. He goes on to say:

Selling media reps on the idea that every dollar needs to return a profit—and that every ad needs to pay for itself—really isn't that hard. They get it. They appreciate the detailed tracking we do and our willingness to share the data with them. They know that when we find something that works, I am happy to write them big checks every month as long as they keep performing.

The problem is that it's so much easier for media reps to sell the same inventory I want to buy to a brand advertiser, who holds them to a very different standard. Who can blame them? How much easier is it to have lunch with some agency guys, run some numbers by them, pretend to negotiate, agree to split the difference and be done by 3 o'clock?

How long do you think this low-hanging, brand advertiser fruit will last for media sales reps? Years?  Read the entire article: click here.

Joseph Farah on Americans

"Americans are now certifiably insane. They are crazy. They are suffering a mass psychosis. They have lost their own ability to discern right from wrong."

This stuff kills me!

ASAE Adopts New Name: ASAE and The Center The American Society of Association Executives and The Center for Association Leadership, which merged last year, have now merged their names into ASAE & The Center for Association Leadership. The new name, shortened to ASAE & The Center for common use, and logo were announced during the groups' annual meeting, which ended in Nashville, TN, yesterday. ASAE decided to drop its full name after conducting focus groups and interviews with members of the association community, according to ASAE spokesman Chris Vest. He said the research found that the abbreviation ASAE alone has 95-percent name recognition.

I wonder how much they paid for those incredibly deep, branding insights?

Paul Valery on our follies

"The folly of mistaking a paradox for a discovery, a metaphor for a proof, a torrent of verbiage for a spring of capital truths, and oneself for an oracle, is inborn in us."

The most pervasive and limiting metaphors in business are the ones that compare customers to territory, targets, fish and eyeballs. We talk and write about "capturing" marketshare and "retaining" customers.

I've discovered a useful metaphor that helps reorient business people around the new realities of a world awash in choice, information and advertising clutter. Here's how it goes:

Picture your brand - what people expect from you - as a magnet.  And picture your audience as iron filings. (Please bear with me.) Now, you could say that you - the magnet - cause the iron filings to move towards you, with such assets as your reputation, packaging, advertising, pricing, distribution strength, sales skill, etc.  Or . . . you could say that the iron filings value movement towards you.

What's the difference?

Scientifically, there is no difference. (Although a recent article in The Boston Globe contends that what one atom does influences what others might do, and thus atomic physics may be as helpful as psychology when it comes to understanding mass behavior). Anyway . . . there is a huge metaphorical difference!

When you believe that you cause people to move towards you, it implies certainty. And so, you continue on your merry way, pouring resources into irrelevant activities and tweaking stuff that people may not truly care about (think GM, US Air, Polaroid, etc.). But when you believe that people value movement towards you, it implies preference. And preferences are changing in the marketplace all of the time.

So forget about capturing and retaining customers. Instead, get creative about how to continuously attract them and their friends with a compelling and evolving reputation, as well as packaging, advertising, pricing, distribution options, sales skills, etc. Today brand is a verb, not a noun.

Note: With regards to "a torrent of verbiage for a spring of capital truths," I'll be attacking some branding "truths" all day tomorrow while hosting the excellent 1-800-CEO-READ blog. Please stop by and join in on the fun.

C. S. Lewis on courage

"Courage is not simply one of the virtues but the form of every virtue at the testing point."

I just got off of the phone with a kindred spirit. An entrepreneur. A misfit. A rebel. Someone who sees things differently and has little respect for the status quo.

Is it hard to be different? To imagine? To explore? To create? To be a little . . . crazy? You bet it is! So here's to him.  And to you.

And here are a few of my favorite quotes to inspire you to even further greatness.  Enjoy.

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat." - Theodore Roosevelt

"It is better to die on your feet than live on your knees." - Dolores Ibarruri

"A man who carries a cat by the tail learns something he can learn in no other way." - Mark Twain

"Give me the young man who has brains enough to make a fool of himself." - Robert Louis Stevenson

"Life is a fatal adventure. It can only have one end. So why not make it as far-ranging and free as possible?" - Alexaner Eliot

"No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit. Life is either a great adventure or nothing." - Hellen Keller

Daniel Boorstin on image

"An image is not simply a trademark, a design, a slogan or an easily remembered picture. It is a studiously crafted personality profile of an individual, institution, corporation, product or service."

While perusing August's issue of Direct Magazine, this headline jumped out at me:

Northeastern Pushes Branding: University promotes image to increase enrollment and revenue.

So, promoting an image = building a brand. Right? Wrong! A brand is an expectation. And the best way to create that expectation with prospective customers is to demonstrate it in a believable way. How? By blasting your "promise" on billboards and in newspaper ads across the country? Not. By mailing postcards to graduating seniors. Puh-lease?

Here's what I find so incredibly interesting.  The article reports that . . .

"Boston-based Northeastern was almost bankrupt in the early '90s, noted vice president of marketing and communications Brian Kenny. To turn things around, the school reviewed its admission policy to bring in a better class of students and improve the campus facilities. When the school's fortunes improved by 2001, the president decided it was time to tell the story through marketing efforts."

Hmm. So instead of continuing to fund improvements in the experience and engage students, teachers, parents and alumni in the storytelling process (90% of whom are concentrated in the Boston area), they decided to use "marketing" to tell "their" story.

That's exactly what Harley-Davidson did in the mid-80s on the heels of their turn around in quality and performance. They creatively employed the media to tell "their" story. And what happened? It was a colossal waste of time and money. It forced Harley to realize that the true challenge of any marketing (a.k.a. storytelling) effort is belief. And folks, we simply don't believe advertising or the media any longer.

So what did Harley eventually do (and what should Northeastern do)?  They got people's butts out of their chairs and set up the conditions that allowed them to passionately engage with their audience. They got people excited about the brand by creatively encouraging participation, community building and conversation. They figured out how to stimulate like-minded people to tell their own stories.

I just returned from giving a keynote speech to a large audience of marketers and media folk.  Later that same day, I listened to a panel of well-known advertising executives discuss the merits of both traditional and non-traditional advertising. They were all so darn articulate and informed that I found myself starting to nod in agreement. I sometimes do the same thing while watching late-night TV infomercials:

"Uh huh.  You know, I don't think that any of my knives can cut through a shoe."

It's a good thing that I actually considered my true knife challenge (slicing cheese), rather than going on autopilot and reaching for the phone.  And may I humbly suggest that you consider your true marketing challenge before you do something similar. Especially, if your challenge is to get your audience to believe in your brand and help others to believe.