strategy

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How Stuff Works Online.

May 24, 2010 in Digital Marketing, Digital Strategy | 0 Comments

Here’s how retail works. You build, lease or buy a store, fill it with stuff, promote it and people come and buy its wares. Or they don’t.

Here’s how TV works. You build, lease or buy a program, fill it with entertaining or informational stuff, promote it and people come. Or they don’t.

Here’s how the web works. You build, lease or buy a site, fill it with stuff, promote it and people come and buy its wares…if you happen to be selling anything. Sometimes the web is used to help people decide if they want to buy your stuff, because it’s sold elsewhere. And other times the web is about entertaining visitors encouraging them to come back so ad revenue allows the site owner to buy stuff. And sometimes still, a website is created to just simply to impart knowledge, altruism and community.

That’s the thing about the web — visitors don’t always know if they are on a site to be sold, entertained or informed. Sometimes the builders of websites don’t seem to know either. And when that happens the sites tend to provide a little bit of each. And a little bit of each often leads to a lot of none. Fruit cocktail. Tricky stuff. Focus is your friend.

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Tags: fruit cocktail, marketing, online, retail, strategy, tv, whats the idea, whatstheidea

An unlikely mind.

March 9, 2010 in Marketing | 0 Comments

Noah Brier is an exciting, off-piste marketing strategist. His post the other day suggesting some businesses would do well to have born on dating is a case in point.

Head of planning and strategy at the Barbarian Group, Mr. Brier is unique because he likes to question rules, norms and the tried and true. He looks at the blacks, whites and grays. His mind mashes up things and, I suspect, he sometimes introduces a bit of randomness to his rigor – just for flavor. In the advertising or creative business some might call this approach disruptive. I think of it as natural. Seeds grow in the oddest places…not always where the farmer plants them. They blow around, are carried by birds, find unlikely hosts for germination. If Steve Jobs is embodied by the advertising tagline “think different” Mr. Brier of similar mind and value in a strategist’s body.

Don’t get me wrong, Mr. Brier can go head-to-head with traditionalists – he just doesn’t always chose to.

His monthly likemind – something he and Piers Fawkes came up with – is an audacious idea bringing people of similar views together in coffee shops around the world. I suspect it won’t be long before he and Mr. Fawkes invent UnlikeMind. Let’s start with one here in the states on the topic of healthcare. Might work. Peace!

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Tags: barbarian group, likemind, noah brier, piers fawkes, planning, steve jobs, strategy, think different, whats the idea, whatshtheidea

Strategy-Production. What’s in the bag?

December 18, 2009 in Account Planning, Marketing | 0 Comments

paper bag

Adrian Ho made an insightful observation yesterday on his Zeus Jones blog (Does anyone else type “blob” accidently?) about the different marketing functions of strategy and production.

He wrote “There are, of course, fairly significant business-model barriers in bringing together these two different kinds of skills in a company. Production skills are often billed on an hourly basis, while strategy is typically priced based upon value. However, I think that the more difficult barriers are cultural. These two archetypes have historically been polar opposites and simply putting together people who embody one aspect with people who embody the other is a recipe for disaster.”

Mr. Ho is focused, I suspect, on digital production in his piece because he discusses social media but this strategy and production yin-yang (pronounced yong) extends to all customized creative forms. It’s the reason account planning was developed in the advertising world.

I’m working with a jewelry manufacturer who creates custom pieces. The model maker rarely sees the customer. The input for the piece is handled by a designer who gathers from the customers: pictures from magazines, drawings, descriptions and memories, all of which are put into a little bag with some notes and sent into the back room. Producer-strategist.

The companies with the ability to translate strategy into elegant, compelling production create the best work. When trying to determine good marketing partners from bad, the questions one should ask should relate to this very process, but most don’t ask about the nexus of strategy and production. They ask “Tell me about your strategic process” or “May I see your work?” Frankly, the magic happens in the hand-off. In the case of the jewelry company you need to see what’s in the bag.

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Tags: Account Planning, adrian ho, marketing, production, strategy, whatstheidea. whats the idea, zeus jones

Strategic Planning in a Soft Economy.

June 19, 2008 in Marketing | 0 Comments

When business softens, management becomes thoughtful. And when management becomes thoughtful, change is in the offing. Now is the time when the consulting business picks up and when ad agency account planners are asked to step up. Large advertisers know for the cost of a new TV commercial that can do a fairy extensive strategic market study of their product or category.

Strategy in marketing is everything; it makes the science more scientific, the art more artful and the luck luckier. According to TNS Media, U.S. ad spending grew a measly .06% the first three months of 2008 which is better than shrinking, but it’s still not good. It foretells some serious strategic planning initiatives on the part of marketers, and especially so with the Wild West Web having such an impact on marketing.

In the marketing business, now is the time for planners to shine and now is the time for planners with online chops to excel.

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Tags: Account Planning, ad spending, marketing, online marketing, strategy, tns media, whats the idea, whatstheidea

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Burger King Futures.

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Snitkered by the FTC.

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The Journalism Conundrum.

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Nordstrom’s role in Worldwide Inventory.

August 25, 2010 in Marketing

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Mobi-sodes

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strategy

How Stuff Works Online.

An unlikely mind.

Strategy-Production. What’s in the bag?

Strategic Planning in a Soft Economy.

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Recent Articles

Burger King Futures.

Under Armour. I wick. I mean, I will.

Salesmanship vs. Packaging.

Snitkered by the FTC.

The Journalism Conundrum.

Nordstrom’s role in Worldwide Inventory.

Mobi-sodes

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