An Inside-Out Branding Guest Post by David Frankil, President of NAFCU Services Corp. (bio)

Everyone has heard the cliché — “We know that half of our marketing budget is wasted, we just don’t know which half.”  And the corollary, that marketing is just the law of large numbers – “We’re going to get a 1/2% response rate no matter what we do, so let’s just do more.”

In the venture capital world, the short-hand term for business models built on such brute force market response assumptions is “China Bicycle (CB).”  It refers to a presumably mythical entrepreneur seeking funds for a bicycle factory in China, with optimistic revenue projections based on a sketchy analysis — that “All we need to do is get just 0.01% of a billion people to buy our bicycles.”

‘CB’ is the proverbial kiss of death if a reviewer writes it on the title page of a business plan, because it says the entrepreneur is inward-focused on the business or technology, and has not thought carefully about which segments of his or her target market are most likely to respond to marketing initiatives. CB assumes that all one billion consumers are identical in terms of their desire and willingness to purchase a bicycle, whether they be young or old, rich or poor, healthy or infirm. And that there are no differences in style, construction, or performance which might be more attractive to some than to others.

An example from my inbox today: Washington-Reagan airport is most convenient for flights from my office.  An unnamed airline–on which most of my flying occurs and which has easy access to data showing my preferences – sends me a weekly e-mail with “My E-Saver Fares.”  However the flights are usually originating in cities other than mine and terminating at destinations to which I’ve never been.

How much more effective would it be for this company to tailor the e-mail with an offer that might actually get considered?  Flights out of my location and preferred airport to the destinations I’ve been to in the last 36 months.

So now the e-mail just gets deleted, because past experience has shown that there will be nothing relevant to me in that communication. More fundamentally, they’re telling me that they care more about themselves (inward-focused — the fact they have plenty of extra seats on flights between Toledo, Ohio and Buffalo, NY) as opposed to my needs.

Marketers are better served by understanding their value drivers, segmenting the needs of target markets, and then looking for the intersections of values you provide with needs they have.  A process that sounds simple but is all too often overlooked.

If you get the process right, you’ll never see CB written in the margins of your marketing plan!

See related post: David Frankil on London, Ink

Let me just say that since we are in an economic downturn/recession/bust/depression, money-saving or cash-raising ideas that before may have seemed tacky or ill-conceived now deserve another look.

That’s why I decided to try and raise money for an expensive home improvement–my new flagstone patio—by selling something I call Brick Sponsorships.

Here’s how I got the idea:  Just before breaking ground on our new flagstone patio my family and I were at a local park when something I saw immediately struck me as an innovative albeit potentially controversial way to save some coin.  The park’s developer had taken contributions from local families and businesses who in turn got, as a permanent, tangible representation of their gift: a brick engraved with their names.

These bricks, hundreds of them, formed the border around the play area and sent an overall message of community involvement and certainly gave the donors a nice warm feeling not to mention another way to lower their Adjusted Gross Incomes.

But at their essence the sponsored bricks helped the developers defray the cost of the park by a few thousand dollars.

Could this same approach be applied to private, residential projects such as my new patio? For the answer, let’s review an excerpt from a conversation with my neighbor Mac regarding the possibility of becoming a Charter Brick Sponsor for my patio:

Me: Mac, have I told you about a great new opportunity?

Mac: What’s that, Bob?

Me: Well, a limited number of our friends, neighbors and family have a special, once in a lifetime chance to see their legacies permanently and elegantly enshrined in a highly visible area while also helping beautify the neighborhood!

Mac: (Suspiciously.) Tell me more, Bob.

Me: Well, you know that Monica and I are planning a new flagstone patio out front, right?

Mac: Right.

Me: And you know how many people come by in a given month, from our friends and family, their kids, our kids’ friends, neighbors, my parents, Patti’s folks, Patti’s book club, the poker gang, the FedEx guy and too many door to door solicitors to count?

Mac: Yes!

Me: Well, you and a select number of other individuals have a unique chance to have a beautiful, high–quality, U.S.-made brick with your name and message placed around the edge of our patio!

Mac: Really!

Me: Just think of how many people will see your name! Mac, this is the most unique way I’ve ever found to get your name out there in a high profile, quality fashion without the high costs usually associated with other marketing programs.

Mac: Yeah!

Me: You know the Greene’s a block over?

Mac: That new family from Columbus?

Me: Right! They’re in for three bricks! One for themselves, one for their kids and one from his parents in honor of their new house!

Mac: Is that so?

Me: They’re absolutely certain that their investment in these permanent, high quality pavers will result in more rapid awareness and acceptance in the neighborhood!

Mac: Bob, this sounds…expensive.

Me: Mac, you’d be surprised how affordable a brick sponsorship can be. But first let me tell you about our sponsorship levels:

Our most affordable package is Terra Cotta, which includes your name and message on one brick, plus a full color photo of your brick that you can proudly display in your home. This picture can easily increase your reach by 30% - 50% depending on the traffic through your home and specific room placement!

Our next option is Grande Terra Cotta, which gives you three bricks for the price of two. Think of what you can do with three bricks, Mac! You can honor different family members, resell this exclusive opportunity to your parents at a price you determine, or use two or even three bricks together to display an even longer message! Of course this options comes with a photo as well, in beautiful panoramic mode!

Our highest value option–and quickly becoming our most popular, is the Founder’s Club, which gives you the unbelievably distinctive opportunity to engrave your name and message directly onto a 2 foot square piece of flagstone! You can select either a perimeter slab or one towards the center of the patio, to maximize visibility. Which options sounds best to you, Mac?

Mac: Bob, I don’t know how I’d ever choose.

Me: Well, before you choose, there’s one more thing: If you order today I can guarantee your brick will be in place by the holidays–which guarantees an extra 30% viewership by virtue of the increased Christmas, Hannukah and New Year’s foot traffic on our patio!

Mac: Wow.  I just have one question, Bob.

Me: Shoot!

Mac: Have you taken your meds yet today?

Question on LinkedIn Answers: “What should a B2B marketing department do to improve the results it’s generating?”

http://www.linkedin.com/answers?viewQuestion=&questionID=336562&asker ID=9584467&browseIdx=0&sik=&report.success=vfLh7ZiQxNtkwQoO3efsNN1zA gQ8WXmCT24lKBBmlHq_pfcN7JydQUoVP_zdv4b8

Response from Bob London:

Great question–which begs several precursors: (a) what are the goals? (b) how are “results” defined? (c) what measurement tools are in place today?

Probably safe to assume a B2B marketing department is charged with generating demand (leads) and in many cases educating/priming the market while positioning the company as a thought leader.

Here are some ways in which a B2B marketing department can improve results and not get lost in the characterization that “we’re not sure what marketing does relative to the business.”

*Philosophical/Management*

• Commit to the challenge of contributing ROI for the overall marketing budget–so that the department pays for itself at least 15 - 20 times over each year.
• Exert internal marketing leadership–take on the business’s longstanding challenges/dilemmas, whether it’s “why do we churn customers?” or “why don’t we know which marketing programs work and which don’t? or “where is our most profitable 3-year growth going to come from?”
• Improve accountability–measure everything that moves (and everything that doesn’t for that matter). Every weekly update should include a review of 30 days previous results and forward projections. Integrate all systems (CRM, marketing automation, accounting) that will provide an end to end view of the data.
• Assume a budget of zero (regardless of how uncomfortable this may feel)–then implement programs in order of priority and results. This will force you to orient the marketing budget and department around the company’s goals.
• Listen to the rest of the organization–don’t bump heads with it.

*Tactical Suggestions*

• Devote/redirect as much budget as possible towards lower cost, online lead gen and thought leadership initiatives. For each business challenge, ask the question: how can we address this via online strategies and channels vs. traditional. This will make the entire budget work harder on a dollar for dollar basis since it will be easier to track results.
• Every B2B marketer should use Google AdWords; at least do a significant test using .05% of your total annual marketing budget. Do not run a generic ad pointing to your home page; rather offer a white paper or other valuable subject matter content, and point the ad to a specific landing page dedicated to that offer.
• Optimize your site content so that it shows up in targeted searches for whatever you are marketing.
• Make sure you are using some form of prospecting/hunting to bridge the gap between lead gen programs and sales. Prospecting (i.e. outsourced or in-house telemarketing) serves as a lower cost way to qualify leads as well as gather market data on prospect hot buttons and what competitors/ substitutes/alternatives your prospects are using.
• Implement a simple but formal prospect nurture process whereby you treat every inbound inquiry as a long-term suspect and stay in touch via e-newsletters, white paper offers and webinars.
• Have an intern or staffer collect all stray business cards that have not been entered into the marketing database and enter them as part of your nurture process.
• Have an intern or staffer mine LinkedIn for prospect names using company names and job titles. Relevant contacts should be fed into an outbound teleprospecting process to qualify; interested contacts should then be added to the nurture process.
• Add a “living” FAQ section to your site and regularly publish your answers to client/customer questions. Your answers will invariably include relevant keywords that can bolster your natural/organic page rankings on Google, et al. Also, we all tend to get the same questions from multiple people, so rather than rewriting the answer each time or searching your hard drive, just send the link to your blog/site where your answer already resides.

Hope this proves helpful!

Best regards,
- Bob London

Bob London
President
London, Ink
On Target. On Site. On Demand.
www.londonink.com

Greetings, fellow corporate anthropologists.  Today we examine the origins and behavior of the dreaded one-brained, ten-legged, five-Blackberry-wearing entity known as The Corporate Entourage.

The first documented entourage occurred immediately after the appearance of the first sycophant in the year 800 B.C.  The charismatic corporate warlord, Bossus Overthetopicus, began traveling with five eager underlings everywhere he went in a specially designed chariot with third row seating.

Gradually these teams of toadies began taking on the characteristics of their leaders, such as emulating the boss’s style of dress, favorite watering hole, gait, font preference and salad bar choices—practices that continue to this very day.

Today it is commonplace for executive assistants to reserve seats at an event for “one adult and five sycophants, and please make sure we get the special entourage rate.”

Here is what you need to know about having an entourage:

• Building an Entourage  According to the trade publication, Brown-Noser Monthly, every entourage should be composed of the following personality/skill types:
• Yes Man/Woman While every entourage member must be skilled at flattery, bootlicking and general suck-uppery, it is important to have one person dedicated to this task as well as to documenting Best Practices in Brown-Nosing to help train new members.
• Bag Carrier/Heavy Lifter  One sycophant must be strong enough to literally carry the boss’s luggage while also mastering the delicate skill of removing metal objects from the boss’s pockets while he’s on the phone in the airport security line
• Sergeant-at-Arms  Another critical role is to keep other members of the retinue in line during potentially tricky or chaotic situations, such as the “which way should we pass the cookie plate” conundrum that often occurs towards the end of a business luncheon.
• Subject Matter Expert (SME)  Of course someone must know more than anyone else in the room–since we know that’s not the boss–and be able to quickly supply relevant factoids, sound bites and counter-arguments during critical meeting junctures or dramatic “Perry Mason” moments.
• Groomer (AKA “Body Man” in political circles)  This critical role keeps the boss’s person free from debris such as lint, stray eyelashes or dandruff flakes and keeps a comb and travel-size can of mousse at the ready at all times.
• Joining an Entourage  If you are an aspiring or budding brown-noser, you must know where to find opportunities.  Look for top billing lawyers, particularly litigators who by definition require support teams to carry all those heavy files.  Also well-known for having entourages are sales executives (usually VP and above—everyone else is busy actually selling).
• Entourage Succession Planning  The most insecure bosses will have a well-defined Entourage Succession Plan in case one of their sycophants gets killed, for instance, by a runaway luggage cart while racing another bootlicker to the curbside check in.  Also check job boards for Entourage Internships, even though one can only imagine the ignominy, drudgery and humiliation of being a sycophant to other sycophants.
• Faking the Entourage  Bosses in the early stages of entourage-building must be resourceful.  One story emerged during the 1990’s telecom run-up in which an EVP of Business Development kidnapped three bewildered mailroom staffers from their loading dock smoking break and tossed them into his black Ford Excursion (a favorite of entourages for its 12 passenger seating and resemblance to a Secret Service transport) rather than attending his meeting without the appearance of a full complement of parasites.  A number of firms also offer “Rent-a-Suck-Up” services similar to the “Rent-a-Mobs” hired by public affairs firms to create the appearance of widespread support or opposition to an issue.

So the next time you see what appears to be a violent game of musical chairs breaking out in an airport lounge, don’t be alarmed.  Chances are it’s just an entourage fighting over the closest seat to the boss.

Bob London is president of London, Ink LLC, a full-service marketing and communications firm and serves as a Virtual VP of Marketing for growth-stage companies that need hands-on project-based leadership in marketing strategy and planning.  What is a Virtual VP of Marketing?  Click on http://www.londonink.com/wordpress/?p=22 to find out more.